Best (and Worst) Gaming Comebacks
Jan 9, 2008
As Rambo prepares to return to the big screen after a twenty-year absence, we look back over video games series and companies that have tried to pull off similar comebacks. Which games vanished for years, only to return out of nowhere? Which companies tried to cash in on fondly remembered franchises and failed? And which much-loved character could be set for a ten-year-overdue comeback of his own?
Metroid
Eight long years separated the releases of 1994's SNES smash Super Metroid and the 2002 Gamecube masterpiece Metroid Prime. Not only did the series skip the N64 entirely, it lost its original designer, the celebrated Gunpei Yokoi, who resigned from Nintendo in 1996 shortly before his tragic death in a car wreck. Instead, Nintendo kicked this particular morph ball to Austin-based Retro Studios, which turned it into that most American of genres: a first-person shooter. Spectacular success followed, as Retro carved itself a unique niche in an all-too-well-trodden theme with the help of atmospheric levels, superb music and classic weapons and abilities from Metroids past. Neither critics nor consumers failed to recognize its quality, making it both one of the highest-rated and biggest-selling games on the Gamecube.
Marathon
Believe it or not, once upon a time there were games on the Mac. One of them was Marathon, a trilogy of spectacularly good first-person shooters from now-celebrated developer Bungie set in a compelling sci-fi world. They starred Durandal, a rogue artificial intelligence who manipulated the player as he made his way through an intricate storyline packed with imaginative alien races. The Marathon games also earned well-deserved praise for their multiplayer modes, which were far more fleshed out than comparable shooters of the age.
Sound familiar? In 2001, Bungie had a new baby, and they named it Halo. OK, Halo isn't exactly a Marathon comeback, and the official word from Bungie is that the two series share no more than a developer. But many of the gameplay concepts developed in the Marathon games persist in the Halo universe, and in-jokes and references are everywhere. What's that? You want to play Marathon now? You're in luck. Not only is Marathon 2 available on Xbox Live (under the name Marathon: Durandal), all three Marathon games can be downloaded for PC from Bungie's web site, for the grand total of...nothing.
Sid Meier's Pirates
Pirates! designer Sid Meier is set to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at this year's Game Developers Conference, and it's long overdue. His classic Pirates! mixes open-ended navigation, ship-to-ship combat, swordplay and messing around with Governors' daughters, and backs it all up with a suitably swashbuckling tale. Released in 2004, the remake brought this nautical adventure to a whole new generation of hardware -- including the PSP, for an on-the-go experience addictive enough to while away even the longest sea voyage.
Doom
Perhaps the most famous of the early first-person shooters, the Doom series seemed to vanish into the ether somewhere around 1996. For some years, you could play Doom on your cellphone, your digital camera and even your 3DO - but no new version of what many hold to be one of the most important games of all time was even mentioned.
All that changed, of course, with the coming of Doom 3. Although a decade had passed since the original game made the hairs on the back of our necks stand up, Doom 3's state-of-the-art graphics and movie-quality storytelling terrified us all over again. A successful PC release was followed up with a well-regarded Xbox port, and this notoriously dark game joined its predecessors in the halls of first-person shooter fame.
Bioshock
Way back in 1994, now-defunct studio Looking Glass Technologies released an odd little first-person role-playing game called System Shock. With an innovative 3D engine, a detailed storyline and a realistic world, it caused quite a stir - and the sequel, helmed by the now legendary Ken Levine, made even more of an impact. System Shock 2, originally released in 1999, is still enjoyed by many enthusiasts, thanks to fan-made modifications that enhance the graphics and tweak the gameplay to meet modern expectations.
Although last year's Bioshock isn't a follow-up to System Shock in a literal sense, the similarities in plot development, gameplay and development staffers speak for themselves. It was a hot contender for our Best Game of 2007 award, and if you're one of the few who has yet to immerse themselves in its suboceanic world, you're missing out.
Nintendo
Let's face it: The Gamecube didn't exactly perform well. Hamstrung by poor third-party support, strong competition from the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and essentially no online capabilities, it crossed last generation's finish line in third place. Who'd have put money on Nintendo's chances once Sony and Microsoft rolled out their next-generation hardware? And who would have honestly thought that a machine with a dopey name like "Wii" would still have been sold out more than a year after its release?
Not only did Nintendo bounce back, it defied its critics with a system that caught the public imagination - and shows no signs of letting it go. The Wii's been topping charts for the last year, and we still have the heavyweight tag-team of Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl to come in 2008. This might just be the most drastic comeback of all.
>> From success to failure: Read about our favorite failed comeback attempts.
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Not all returns are welcomed. Check out what happens when a comeback attempt falls flat.
Sega
Back in 1997, Sega was on the ropes. A disastrous showing from its Saturn console, out-priced and out-performed by its rivals, left many skeptics wondering if this once-proud giant would ever be a significant force in video games again. Until, that was, the Dreamcast came along. Hitting streets just two years later and equipped with innovative hardware that put it at the top of its class, surely this compact powerhouse would restore the company's fortunes?
Well, no. In fact, despite a strong launch, the Dreamcast quickly floundered. Much has been written on the reasons for its demise, but the weakness of Sega's brand, poor marketing, its inability to play DVDs (a big deal at the time, believe it or not) and no support from EA Sports' powerful franchises all played their parts. Though the Dreamcast is still remembered with fondness by many enthusiasts, Sega's days as a top-tier player disappeared with it.
Phantasy Star
Starting life as a Final Fantasy-like series of console role-playing games, the Phantasy Star trilogy entertained countless Sega fans throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Its fortunes sank along with Sega's, only to emerge reborn in 2001 as the first massively-multiplayer game ever seen on a console platform.
Much about Phantasy Star Online was novel, from the button-mashing, action-heavy combat system to the innovative communication system that enabled -- encouraged, even -- players from Europe and Asia to cooperate. The series is still alive, with Phantasy Star Universe launching back in November, but like its publisher it's clinging to relevance by the merest thread.
Rampage
Gracing the arcades a full two decades ago, Rampage's monster movie-inspired formula was an instant success. Smashing buildings never gets old, especially when you can bring a couple of friends along: George, Lizzie and Ralph, the game's monster stars, became...well, monster stars. Like most hit arcade games of the era, it appeared on all kinds of home entertainment systems - but sank without trace, Godzilla-like, shortly afterwards.
Any 'Zilla fan knows that you can't keep a good monster down, though, and Midway hauled out Rampage's remains to be bathed in the life-giving lightning of the Wii's 2006 launch -- but let's just say that its return was not a welcome one. Even among what was a patchy launch line-up, Rampage: Total Destruction still stood out like a rotting corpse at a beauty pageant. If you're looking to find out whether Rampage's city-crushing formula has stood the test of time, you can find the original version on the PlayStation 3's online store, but please, please, give Total Destruction an even wider berth than you'd give its stars.
Battlezone
Atari's 1980 tank sim Battlezone was one of the first 3D games to see the light of day -- or, at least, the half-light of a corner of your local arcade. With its distinctive, periscope-equipped cabinet, the game proved so realistic it attracted the attention of the U.S. Army, who reportedly considered using the game as a training tool for real-life tankers.
By the time the Battlezone name was revisited, though, those tankers would have been thinking more about honorable discharges than boot camp. Eighteen years passed before Activision brought out its revamped Battlezone, a 3D, first-person game that mashed up Command & Conquer-like strategic elements with tank combat that paid homage to the arcade original, and a mighty fine game it was, too. Battlezone spawned a sequel, but the series -- which introduced many concepts we'd later see revisited in EA's highly celebrated Battlefield games -- died there.
Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem, his "time to kick ass and chew bubble-gum" attitude, beloved strippers, and half-pig mutant police officers have fallen on hard times. The star of two early 90s side-scrolling platformers and a near-legendary 1995 FPS has been out of work for ages; the latest in his series, Duke Nukem Forever, was first announced in 1997 and, staggeringly, still isn't finished.
After being a running joke for many years, it had reached the point where Duke Nukem Forever became just too easy to poke fun at. We'd written it off. Then developer 3D Realms released a new teaser trailer for the game just before Christmas, and, of course, made it fair game all over again. Can it really live up to ten years' worth of expectations? Will posterity file it as a successful comeback after all? Will it ever even come out? Time will tell, but we're guessing (and we're not going out on a limb here) "no," "no," and a resounding "no."