Company and Franchises Mismatch

[BreakABone]

This is a discussion I've had with several people before, and it usually centers around Metroid.

Metroid has all the elements to be a great franchise and a very notable one. We've seen with the success of Halo, Mass Effect and Star Wars, fans love sci-fi action.

But somehow Metroid has never really taken off. The games do well enough to continue to be made (though seems may take a break after Other M), but have never achieved real critical and/or mass market appeal.

I think that if the franchise was under MS' reign though, they would find a way to make it successful.

This isn't a Metroid bashing thread though. Its a thread for a discussion on franchises/games, you think should/would have done better if they were handled by a different company, and why.

[Bube]

IMO, the reason it's not as popular as it should be is because the games aren't as fast paced as the market wants them to be.

As we all know, the Metroid games involve a lot of back-tracking and thinking - two things that really don't match our understanding of modern shooters.

I am of course talking about the recent Metroid games (haven't played M though). It seems that the 2D Metroid games were very popular in their time and are still loved by a lot of people.

So, to be honest, Microsoft may have made it more successful, but we would've been playing a game made for the mass market. I loved the Prime series because they were fresh, offered me a different way of playing shooters and made me think. MS wouldn't have given me that.

But to answer your question, I have no idea. Never thought about the subject, and can't think of anything right now.

[KillerGremlin]

Metroid Prime was a lot of fun but half the fun was the immersion and the world. The graphics were THE BEST at the time the game came out, and the transformation from 2D to 3D was flawless. The game isn't really a First Person Shooter though: the mechanics are way off.

I wish Sega would stop making shitty Sonic games. Even the recent 2D-based ones have screwed up mechanics and physics. It would be cool to see another company make a Sonic game.

Nintendo hasn't actually done anything original with a Zelda title since Majora's Mask. I'd like to see the gameplay go different places.

I think the biggest loser are all the horrible EA James Bond games. Rare did a good job with Goldeneye, but even Goldeneye lagged behind PC shooters. As far as I am concerned, Halo is the first shooter to actually pace PC games, and it didn't have online multiplayer...

I would love to see a James Bond game developed for PC that actually has good single player and multiplayer. The World is Not Enough had some good gameplay modes, but was crippled with 4-player and N64 bullshit.