When it comes to video games these days, any time an existing franchise gets a new instalment, or a TV/Film IP gets turned into a game, 99% of the time its extremely obvious what TYPES of games these will be. New mainline Mario game? Platformer. Call of Duty? Shooty shooty. Popular TV/Film? Shit (that’s a genre, right? There are certainly enough games to make it a genre…). However, every now and then we do get something new and unexpected. For example, who could have guessed MARIO would team up with Rabbids in an X-Com style game? And you know what? It looks AWESOME. So, for this list today, I’ve come up with a few game ideas that either make perfect sense but have never been done, or might have you scratching your head at first, but hopefully I can convince you that they’d be great!
Game of Thrones RPG
Ok, we’ll start off simple. Game of Thrones = medieval hack and slash action RPG, right? Of course not! That would be the OBVIOUS way to cash in on this hugely popular TV show! No, instead I want something more… traditional. Think Game of Thrones done in a 16 bit art style, with gameplay similar to that of the Dragon Quest and early Final Fantasy games! The world map would of course be Westeros, with the main houses acting as castles (such as House Stark being Winterfell etc), then other areas and caves to explore too. Later into the game you could unlock a boat to travel across the Narrow Sea or to Dragonstone and even the Iron Islands. Then even further into the game… DRAGONS. Fly around the entire map much faster, and letting you land almost anywhere similar to airships. The game itself could be HUGE, letting you pick which house you wish to represent at the beginning, then following the story from each house, all having different endings depending on who you chose and what actions you took. I’m sure at the very least, someone out there will make a fangame in one of the RPG Maker programs.
Marvel RPG
Another RPG, and again staying simple. Marvel has had many games over the years, from platformers to action to dungeon crawlers and fighting games. However, I think its time they took the RPG elements from the Ultimate Alliance games and put them into, well, an actual, proper RPG game! Again, I’d do this in a 16 bit style with the DQ/Old Final Fantasy gameplay, but set in the actual Marvel Universe which is much more technologically advanced for the most part. Add to that all the other locations you could travel to like Atlantis, Mephito’s Realm, Asguard, The Moon, home of The Skrull and many, many more. So many villains to tap into for fights and boss battles, plenty of heroes to choose for your team, and if they went with a new, unique story, the possibilities are practically endless!
The Simpsons RPG
I know, I know, another RPG… but hey, THE SIMPSONS in an RPG game? That’s a little odd, right? Maybe not as odd as it could have been, since my reasoning for this is based on another game… The South Park Stick of Truth! The Simpsons games in the past have usually been platformers or Crazy Taxi/GTA clones (and that great Arcade Beat Em Up). For me, a 3D Platformer featuring The Simpsons would be just fine, but after seeing just how well South Park did as an RPG, I think I’d have to see The Simsons do the same now! Graphically, the game should easily be able to match the show. South Park did it, and looking at the way Toy Story looks in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game, doing the same for The Simpsons shouldn’t be hard at all. This RPG would have 3D characters and environments rather than the 2D cutout look South Park has, so we’d get to wander around a nice virtual Springfield. Gameplay would be similar to South Park too, only with less swords and axe weapons and more “Simpsons” themed weapons. Homer for example might throw projectile Donuts at people. Bart would use his catapult. Lisa might put enemies to sleep with her Sax, and Marge could attack with her hoover in a throwback to the Simpsons Arcade game!
South Park 3D Platformer
Oh hey, speaking of South Park! For some reason, in all the years of South Park being a thing, and games being made for it… South Park has never had a 3D PLATFORMING GAME. The first South Park game back in the N64/PS1 days was one of the worst examples of a… first person shooter game? I assume that’s what it counts as. You throw snowballs at turkeys. The entire game. They then had a terrible kart racer, a quiz game and some lame Xbox Arcade games (one of which is a 2D Platformer). It wasn’t until The Stick of Truth that South Park fans finally got a good game. Anyway. Like I said, they never had a 3D Platformer. This is incredibly surprising given the fact South Park games started their life in the big 3D era of gaming when everyone and everything was making the jump into 3D and trying to copy the super successful Super Mario 64 formula. While plenty of 3D Platformers have kinda been forgotten about due to being either bad or mediocre, we did get a number of really good ones, including Toy Story 2 and Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom. So if those can do well in a 3D Platforming environment, why not South Park? While South Park the town wouldn’t be the best location for a level, there are tons of others that have appeared in the TV show that could make for great ones, such as theme parks, water parts, hell, heaven and more! Go the Super Mario Bros 2/Super Mario 3D World route with the 4 main characters (Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman) all having their own abilities, and go the Spongebob route of switching characters in levels in order to use their different abilities to proceed.
Rugrats Kart Racer
Member Rugrats? I member! Search for Reptar on PS1 is a fine example of a 3D Platformer based on a TV show. It looked good (at the time), had the music, the voices, and all the levels were based on episodes of the show. It was perfect for fans like me. After that… Rugrats games went downhill. Shitty handheld games, weird mini game games and even a Mario Party rip off. They tried going back to a 3D Platformer with Royal Ransom, but it didn’t go down well at all. Poor level design, bad controls and a crap camera. So my idea is to take the Rugrats games in a different direction; Kart Racing! All the main babies, plus the adults would make for a nice roster of drivers, then you can have themed karts for each one of them. Different stats for them all too, such as Tommy being the all rounder, Chuckie being fairly slow but excellent handling (because he’s a careful baby), Phil & Lil could have identical stats just for a laugh, Angelica might be really fast but poor handling etc etc. Tracks could be something like the Pickles’ house, that travels through the rooms, goes into the back garden, through a gap in the fence and into the DeVille house, then out the front door, and back next door to the Pickles’! Other locations such as the Toy Barn, a big Reptar themed track, the park and maybe even the GRAHAM CANYON (in joke for Rugrats fans)! Weapons would include toys that you drop for other racers to run into, a milk bottle that squirts on the ground to make a sort of oil slick, the ray gun from the episode with Aliens, a Reptar that you unleash on the track that will run around for a little while until either someone runs into him or its time runs out! Hell you could even have Spike as an unlockable “kart” for Tommy to ride on! Cookies could be spread around each track to act like coins in the Mario Kart games, giving you a speed boost when you collect 10 at a time. Tell me, as a Rugrats fan (and you all should be…), that you wouldn’t want to see this happen!
Pokemon 2D Platformer
Ummm… what? A 2D Platformer… based on POKEMON? That game where you level up Pokemon and battle them? How the hell would that make for a good 2D Platformer? Well, I’ll tell you! You play as Ash. Or… someone else. I don’t exactly know the Pokemon human characters these days. So you play as one of the main TV show human characters. You traverse 2D stages collecting… pokeballs instead of coins, and using a STARTER POKEMON as a weapon to kill evil Pokemon enemies. So for example, you pick Squirtle, so he shoots water. Charmander shoots out fire, and Bulbasaur vine whips. Easy enough. Then you’ll encounter a boss battle, against a strong Pokemon with lots of health. In fact, think of this whole thing more like Mega Man. The boss Pokemon will all be a certain type, weak to some and strong to others, so depending on which starter you picked, you will have a harder time with certain bosses than others. Once you beat the boss Pokemon, you then get to select it as a weapon during levels. So the first boss might be Pikachu. Beat him, and now you can use an electric attack. Go further and have certain sections of levels blocked off, and they can only be opened up using a specific type of attack. Will give you a reason to replay older levels when you get the right type on your team. See how awesome this could be? Come on Game Freak, gives us what we want! Well, you are; a core Pokemon game on console… but give us this too!
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