Dear gamers, it’s a dark time in the cool updates world. I’ve scoured the internet savagely for more cool stuff. Sure the new Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer was released but what else? Everyone is still raving about the amazing God of War or trying not to spoil the new Avengers movie. It’s like no one has anything new to say about games. So instead, I’m going to play into the E3 hype. Here are 7 games I hope will get a Lucky revival, and I’m gonna refrain from repeating anything from the list I did a few weeks ago. Here we go.
1. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
The upcoming Vampyr, from developer Dontnod, marks the first time that mainstream games will be diving into the world of vampires since the early 2000s. And by the early 2000s, I mean 2003 when Legacy of Kain: Defiance, the final chapter in the Blood Omen/Soul Reaver saga was released. I specifically used the title of the second game in the saga because that’s when I was introduced. The Legacy of Kain follows the stories of vampire lord Kain and vampire lieutenant turned wraith Raziel.
The story is pretty complicated so I’ll give you a quick summary. The Saga begins with Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, in which you play as Kain as he becomes the Vampire Lord. Enter Soul Reaver 1500 years later where you play as Raziel, who was killed by Kain due to fear of being overthrown. From this point Silicon Knights, the guys who started the saga, are putting Crystal Dynamics, the guys making the saga dope, through all sorts of development hell. Eventually, the other games finally release and bring the whole story to completion.
Now that you are all caught up, the series struggled for a long time to find its ground, always receiving mixed criticism. While some outlets were shooting 7 and 8, others were going 5 and 6. I think this game series deserves a second chance. It had an amazing tragic story to tell, gameplay was crazy fun as you had to constantly shift between realms to complete puzzles, and the environment was so different than anything then or now. This is one game that definitely could benefit from either a remaster, remake, or resurgence.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 3/10 Crystal Dynamics is very focused on Tomb Raider at the moment. However, the success of Vampyr could effectively bring this series back into the light. It may be time for a vampire boom, a lot of us are kind of zombie fatigued.
2. Syphon Filter
While everyone cries about the ridiculous idea that single player games are going out the window, I’m crying over the death of stealth espionage action. So imagine my surprise when Sam Fisher popped up in Ghost Recon Wildlands and gave a nod to his longest-running direct competitor. See, originally I was writing this with the intent and begging for a new Splinter Cell game. The last one, Blacklist, was phenomenal but it arrived in that “this will probably get a next-gen upgrade real soon” window and so it was skipped by many.
So despite how excited I am that Ubisoft will most likely announce a new Splinter Cell, I’m going to aim even further. Does anyone remember Syphon Filter? Long before Sam, back in the original PlayStation days, there was someone else going toe to toe with Solid Snake. His name was Gabriel Logan. What makes the story of this series disappearing interesting is that it was a first party exclusive developed by Sony Bend. The last game in the series was released for PSP in 2007.
Syphon Filter was almost as quirky and outlandish as Metal Gear Solid. While the latter was about a nuclear warhead wielding super mech, Syphon Filter was about biological warfare. It didn’t carry as much tactical espionage action as Splinter Cell or Metal Gear but it did have its own unique gameplay tricks. There is no concrete clear reason why this series has been neglected for so long which gives me a reason to believe Sony will bring it back when the time is right.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 4/10 Sony is doing great with its current games stable but it’s shown that it’s not afraid to dive back into older franchises. The lack of stealth action games makes a great opportunity for Sony to muscle itself another exclusive. If we can’t have Snake, we want Logan.
3. Bloody Roar
We should all be fully aware of how much I love fighting games, despite not being very good at them. With that, it should come as no surprise that I would want an old fighting franchise revived. Bloody Roar was the Animorphs of video games. A fighting game that featured animal transformations for every character. In fact, the whole premise was animal transformations.
I feel awfully bad for anyone who never had a chance to experience this series. Characters were the center of what made this worth experiencing. Playable characters to choose from included Gado the Lion, Long the Tiger, and Yugo the wolf. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Things got as weird as Jenny the Bat, Alice the Rabbit, and Cronos the Penguin.
I’m a sucker for compelling stories and although I will admit I can not remember the overall plot I do recall every playable character having a history. History worth paying attention too. The actual fight mechanics felt a lot like Soul Calibur, but other than that there was nothing else like it. And there still hasn’t been either.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 1/10 Hudson Soft was actively working on Bloody Roar 5 back in 2011 but they went out of business and it was canceled. Not sure who the rights to the IP belong to at this time. With a well-saturated fighting game community and the struggle Microsoft had with Killer Instinct’s revival, I doubt this series will be coming back. At least you can still find BR4 on the PlayStation Network.
4. Primal Rage
Well, you got me started so now I can’t stop. There is another fighting game that I would love to see return and that is Primal Rage. This one is also very animal based but in a different more brutal way. Often described as “Mortal Kombat with Animals”, Primal Rage was extremely brutal. Originally only available to enjoy at arcades, the game ultimately saw itself being ported to PC, GameBoy, SNES, and the original PlayStation.
The interesting thing about Primal Rage is that despite its gory content it was rated T for Teen because, at the time, the ESRB felt it was so unrealistic that it didn’t matter. The game was shrouded in just as much controversy as Mortal Kombat back in those days. After undergoing nonstop adjustments to satisfy the crazy masses and settle the complaints Atari greenlit the development of Primal Rage 2.
Strangely though, after announcing the game and even beginning press runs, Atari canceled the game due to concerns over potential sales. They were literally on the cusp of greatness and then backed away from it. I’m not entirely sure what happened but I feel like there is way more to the story.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 6/10 You might think I’m crazy, but with Atari’s recent return to hardware development, this could be a solid launch title. Primal Rage did have a solid following and I know people who still bust out the PS2 for this so the potential is there. Plus, the number of things developers can get away with in games now make the golden shower fatalities look like child’s play. Oh, you didn’t know about the golden shower fatalities? You’re welcome.
5. Prince of Persia
Arguably my favorite game series on the list. When Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time first released on PlayStation 2, there was nothing like it. A 3D action adventure puzzle platformer with a great storyline and time-bending mechanics. Literally nothing like it at all. Then came God of War, which covered a lot of the same concepts as Prince of Persia and it made Ubisoft nervous. They reacted by going mature for the sequel, with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within being a lot more adult oriented.
It’s no secret that Prince of Persia gave birth to Assassin’s Creed, but I would still love to see its return. The last two attempts were by no means great. The first being a movie tie-in for the Disney feature-length adaptation starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The second being an odd reboot of the series with a whole new cartoon/anime art style and odd gameplay mechanics. Nothing about either of those two games felt anything like the PlayStation 2 trilogy that brought this classic to life.
Rumors of a new Prince of Persia game were floating around a few years back, but a lot of those rumors ended up being found in Assassins Creed Origins last year. I would love to see a new adventure or a retelling of the PS2 classic trilogy. Whether reliving the old tales or exploring something new with the same antagonist or a more focused adventure.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 5/10 Ubisoft has a huge stable of expired series and franchises they can always turn back to. At this time though it makes a lot of sense for them to keep POP well guarded because it was an incredible gem for PS2 and eventually PSP.
6. Dino Crisis
If you didn’t know already, Shinji Mikami is responsible for most video game related nightmares of the 90s, early 2000s, and even today. Thus it should come as no surprise that one of the franchises I would love to see revived was directed and produced by this incredible man. Dino Crisis was essentially Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park. And it was amazing.
Dino Crisis, set for some strange reason in the year 2009, has you play as Regina, a member of the Secret Operation Raid Team. The task is to find Dr. Kirk and bring him into custody because he was thought to be dead but instead is working on a secret weapon. What’s the secret weapon? Well, dinosaurs of course. Yea, so dude decided to bring back dinosaurs and use them as weapons.
The gameplay is almost exactly identical to the Resident Evil series and the series itself was doing pretty decent. It had 3 official titles and 2 spinoffs. A fourth installment was reportedly in development but that rumor was continuously denied. The last talk about it was Capcom’s official twitter responding to a request for it with “if a lot of people wish.” That was in December 2017.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 8/10 I’m shooting high with this one because Capcom has finally started to see the light. I’m thinking the recent success of the Resident Evil remakes and the return of dinosaurs to the big screen could be the push they need. Capcom knows they have a solid gem here so they are holding it tight for a rainy day.
7. Onimusha
And finally the reason I said that Prince of Persia was arguably my favorite. Onimusha was another one of Capcom’s incredible masterpieces. With four official titles and a few spin-offs I was real surprised when the franchise disappeared. The series combined supernatural elements with prolific contributors to Japanese history.
This game had it all. Third person action adventure. An amazing plot to pull you completely into it’s world. Stunning graphics and game design. One of the best combat systems of its time. And stellar puzzles to solve with collectible items scattered throughout. There are varying opinions on whether the games held great replay value but I played most of them multiple times through.
The series plot was completed and tied up nicely with Onimusha 4: Dawn of Dreams, so its not a franchise that died abruptly. A lot of Onimusha inspired Devil May Cry (which also got 4 games before the franchise was refreshed) and some elements can be found in Resident Evil 4. The last game released in the series was Onimusha Soul, a browser based game, in 2012.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 7/10 This is another Capcom title that I’m betting is tucked safely waiting to come save the day. Similar to Soul Reaver and Dino Crisis, Onimusha could be waiting to see how other similar theme games do. There hasn’t been a samurai based game in a long time but the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima could change the field.
Honorable Mention
>8. Scalebound
What happened to Scalebound? No seriously, WHAT HAPPENED IN SCALEBOUND? The only game on this list that has never actually been playable is the biggest mystery. Announced as a Microsoft exclusive from Platinum Games back at E3 2014. Gameplay was then shown at Gamescon 2015 with a late 2016 release schedule. I was really excited for this game, so much so that I was ready to buy an Xbox One for it. Then it was delayed to 2017. Finally in January 2017 it cancelled entirely.
Everything they showed for the game looked incredibly interesting. Despite some backlash that last trailer received because of it’s “Bro” feel, I know tons of people who still wanted in. We may never know what happened to this game, hopefully Microsoft figured it would be better to save it for the next console they make. You know cause the One isn’t doing great, not terrible just not great.
Chances of a Lucky Revival: 0/10 or 10/10 This ones complicated cause it could be dead for real based on the rumored damaged relationship between Microsoft and Platinum. Or it could be quietly getting turned into a launch title masterpiece for the next generation X machine. Only time will tell.
Is there any game series you want to see revived? Disagree with my choices? Leave a comment and let me know.
