Ghost's Arcade: Top 10 Games or Ideas that Need to Happen

Ghost here, thanks for joining.

It's no real surprise that gamers can act like little children at times in both positive and negative ways.  While we can be child-like in our anticipation and hype over something seemingly insignificant, we can also act like spoiled brats by throwing tantrums because something didn't turn out the way we wanted.  We can pout when that game we were hoping for doesn't get announced (coughPokemonZMother3cough), or we're just being flat greedy and wanting more and more.  I... don't intend to address this whatsoever.  In fact, I'm here to be one of those greedy little kids who's just wanting more from his games.

It doesn't matter what you happen to be a fan of, once you decide that you are a fan of something in particular you always want to see something more or something different.  There's always going to be something that comes to mind which you haven't seen yet but want to see.  Perhaps you would like to see an all-star basketball game with a roster of your own liking.  Perhaps you would like your favorite author to write a book in a different genre to see their spin on it.  Maybe you just want a second season of Firefly, dang it!  Or maybe like today's topic there are just some games or gaming ideas that you just want to see happen no matter how much you know they probably won't.

So, yes, that is today's topic.  This is my own personal

Top 10 Games Or Ideas That Need To Happen

This is my own personal list of stuff that I particularly want to see based on my own gaming interests.  If it's not something that I generally play or are interested in then it won't be making it to the actual list of 10.  I will try to NOT double dip in a franchise or idea as much as possible.  That being said, there will be 2 pokemon entries.  The reason for this is due to my love of the pokemon franchise, and because my attempt to consolidate ideas left me one short.  A secondary pokemon idea was all that came to me that was worth putting on the list.

Before we get started, let's have some Honorable Mentions

A more unique Call of Duty Title - While I don't actually play Call of Duty something to breathe new life into the stagnation would be very welcome.  Though I have no ideas what that breath of fresh air would be, something very unique might actually get me to play the game.

Silent Hills or a spiritual successor to Silent Hill - Again I don't play this franchise, but I'm more interested in it than other game franchises I don't play.  I know many people were outraged at the Silent Hills cancellation so it would be nice to get something out there for those fans

Kingdom Hearts Styled Game for Nintendo Franchises - I love Kingdom Hearts and I would absolutely so bananas if a series came along doing the same thing with Nintendo worlds as Kingdom Hearts does with Disney Worlds.  It didn't make the list however because it was just a little too similar to something else I have on the list.

Pokemon Online MMO - Everyone's been asking for this for years.  It would be great to have an online Pokemon MMO with full 3D graphics and models but that would be such a strain on the Nintendo servers and consoles that I'm not sure if it's feasible.

Half Life 3 - Just because I want those stupid memes to stop

Now that I have those out of the way, let's dive right in to the list shall we?

10. More unique types and specific inspirations of Pokemon

I'm going to start with this one as it was not only my last-minute addition but it is also the one most likely to happen in one form or another.  This is mostly due to the fact that fan pokemon games exist which have "fakemon" of these types or styles, but also Pokemon Sun and Moon are coming out later this year and may provide us with some of these awesome ideas.  There are tons of pokemon; no one can deny this.  We have everything from an entire ocean full of generic fish, to various land animals, to ice cream cones, walking desserts, mimes, and a god.  However despite all of their efforts there are still several animals, items, and mythical creatures that simply haven't been touched in the six generations of the game series.  One could say that they just haven't gotten to them yet, but many of these are fairly commonplace and I'm surprised they haven't been done yet.  Things like koalas, dolphins, geese, moose, tombstones, peppers, minotaur, and pegasus aren't exactly that ...farfetch'd.

Ba DUM Tiss!

To top it off, while there are certainly many unique type combinations, as of the writing of this blog there are somewhere around 40 completely untouched type combinations.  That's not to mention the various type combos that have only been represented by one pokemon or  a single mega evolution.  Yet there are hundreds of normal/flying types, and mono types all throughout the series.  I appreciate any...er..well most pokemon for what they are but I feel Nintendo should think of these unused type combinations and be a little more inventive.

It took me only about 20 minutes to compile a list of pokemon that cover one or both of the categories listed above from various sprites that either I have created or modified in my boredom or that I have found online.  Just take a look at them.

I see no reason that all of these couldn't be pokemon and I'm quite frankly surprised that many of them aren't already.

9.  More alternate costumes in Smash Bros

One of my fondest memories about Super Smash Bros Brawl was when the online community got together and hacked practically everything about it.  Out of this behavior, Project M was born.  However of more significance to me was the ability to change what a character looked like for their alternate colors.  With only a few exceptions, most characters by default just had various color pallet swaps as their other skin choices.  However, with a hacked Wii system you could make the alternate costumes be anything you wanted whether it was a character from their series, or something from real life.  By the time I was done scouring the internet I had alternate costumes for every single one of the Brawl Fighter's alternate colors.  Many of these things would have been excellent alternate costumes to have come with that character already; these included things such as Dry Bowser for Bowser, Funky Kong for Donkey Kong, Fierce Deity Link for Link, and Mr. L for Luigi.  Others were just utterly ridiculous like Billy Mays for Ganondorf, Buzz Lightyear for Olimar, and Ronald McDonald for Captain Falcon.  It was fantastic.

Enter the 3DS and WiiU versions of Smash Bros and we find out that more characters actually do have alternate costumes, many of them with their own separate name in the announcement such as Alph and the other Koopa Kids.  With all of these alternate people as costumes one would have thought that everyone would get an alternate costume or at least there would have been a DLC to add an extra costume for everyone.  That didn't happen and it's a shame.  They are really missing some great opportunities to add flavor to the roster by giving alternate costumes or alternate people to everyone in smash.  Just think of how awesome having Shiny Charizard, Hyrule Warriors Zelda, or blue pajamas Toon Link would be if it were in the actual game!  Maybe we will get that in the next installment. 

8. Remake the Jedi Knight series

I don't know about you all, but some of the first games I ever got into as a child were part of the Star Wars franchise.  While I did own the original trilogy on gameboy, their extreme level of difficulty didn't really allow me to enjoy them that much.  Then, somewhere around 1996, my friend Matt introduced me to Dark Forces on the PC.   It was GLORIOUS.  It had all of the action packed Star Wars goodness I was hoping for and more!  Between the blaster battles, facing off against Jabba the Hutt's minions, fighting Boba Fett, and taking down the Dark Trooper project, I was having a blast!  Then Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight came out showing that the main character, Kyle Katarn could utilize the force and introduced battles against seven different Sith.  There was an expansion pack called Mysteries of the Sith that accompanied Jedi Knight as well as a Gamecube exclusive title Jedi Outcast that finished out Kyle's journey to being a Jedi.

These games were wonderful but even back then I knew the graphics were pretty terrible... far worse than what these brilliant games deserve.  With technology quickly pulling away and the ability to play these old PC games becoming more and more difficult to do, we should have some sort of remake or remastering of these games.  This would allow those of us who truly loved them to see them the way they should be, and allow a whole new generation just getting in to Star Wars thanks to Episode VII, a chance to experience the adventures of this awesome Jedi!

7. Fallout Game/DLC in a different part of the world

Fallout is a series that I have grown to adore over the last few years and still go back to play Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas every now and then.  While I still don't have Fallout 4 because I can't afford a PS4 at the moment, I'm looking forward to that game and the DLC that it will offer once I can.  One of the coolest parts about Fallout is getting to see real-life landmarks and the series' spin on what they would look like/become in a post-apocalyptic world.  We have seen many locations in these games such as the cities of Washington DC, Boston, and Las Vegas, as well as the deserts of the Nevada, a virtual reality simulation of Alaska, the irradiated swamps of Maryland, and even the inside of an alien mothership.  However, I just want a tiny bit more variety.

With the exception of the Mothership Zeta, all of the Fallout games (as far as I know) take place in the United States.  While I love the United States and identify more with the landmarks there as it is my home, I would love to see how the rest of the world has dealt with the apocalypse.  How have the pyramids in Egypt held up?  What has become of the Taj Mahal?  How would people have survived the irradiated oceans surrounding the Philippines?  I would love to have a full game or even just a DLC expansion that explored one of these other locations around the world just to see what it's like somewhere other than the United States just for once.  It would be nice to have a change of scenery to be something we haven't seen yet in a Fallout game.

6. Pokemon Snap 2

Here's something that should have happened eons ago.  Pokemon Snap was a one-off game for the N64 about taking photographs of Pokemon.  While that does sound silly, the ways in which you had to coax certain pokemon to appear, evolve, or pose made the game quite enjoyable.  I've never personally heard anyone speak poorly of this game and the fact that they have never given it a sequel is astounding.  The premise pretty much writes itself with the advances in technology and all of the new pokemon to have been released. With the 3DS and WiiU screen controller both utilizing gyroscopic controls it's a no-brainer to have this game make a return.  They've already brought over Fatal Frame for use of the WiiU screen for this exact same purpose.

Well...maybe not the EXACT same purpose

The developers of the original game have made comments about fans' desire for a second game and have noted the 3DS and WiiU's gyroscopic controls would make for effective gameplay.  However, they have also stated they shouldn't make another game unless they bring something new to the table with it.  It legitimately took me 2 minutes to come up with something new.  Rather than have the photographer on a moving cart have him freely walking around various locations in the pokemon world.  He will have to find places where the pokemon live, hide, and play while trying to remain undetected just like a real wildlife photographer, so he can get some natural shots.  If he is seen or detected by the pokemon, some may actually be friendly towards him and might put on a show or lead him somewhere neat.  Other times they may attack allowing you for some cool action shots (though if you get attacked too much your day will end sooner), or sometimes they will just run away.  The better pictures you take then you get to go to new locations and get different lenses for your camera to zoom in farther as to avoid detection etc.  Something like that would be fairly easy to make and honestly pretty fun provided you can interact with your surroundings and toss food etc like in the original.

5. Star Fox/Metroid Crossover

Despite any verbiage that Nintendo will say otherwise, the Star Fox and Metroid series have been getting the shaft in recent years in a bad way.   Star Fox has always had a bad trend of re-making the same game as Star Fox 64 was a remake of Star Fox... which was later re-released for the 3DS... and now is basically being re-released again under the name Star Fox Zero.  This is Metroid's 30th anniversary and we get absolutely nothing except the potential for a 4 player 3DS game that nobody wanted.  Yes I know Nintendo has said Star Fox Zero has a different story and they have said Metroid Prime Federation Force is an integral part in the franchise but I'm not totally buying either story quite yet.   Star Fox Zero simply looks like an updated Star Fox 64 at this point, and the 3/3/16 Nintendo Direct screamed of "We put too much money into this Metroid title to pull out now so let's try to convince you it's not as bad as you know it is." ... sorry got off on a rabbit trail there.

What we need is something brand new and awesome for both of the series and I think this right here would be the key.  The story almost writes itself.  Both Star Fox and Metroid are set in space with multiple planets and space stations dealing with alien menaces.  It would pull the best from both worlds.  Obviously it would pull the puzzles and various artifacts from Metroid, but it would also pull galaxy travel and vehicle battles from Star Fox.  It would incorporate the best parts of ground combat from both series.  Due to the differences in both franchises the story wouldn't have to be THAT original to still be awesome.  It could just simply be that somehow the space pirates, metroids, aparoids, Team Star Wolf, Ridley, Kraid, Andross and all other unspeakable atrocities have started havoc across the galaxy but the job is too big for just one hero so both Samus and Team Star Fox team up to save the galaxy.  With a premise so great and simple why hasn't this been done yet?

4. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories WITHOUT the card-based battling system

Kingdom Hearts is one of my favorite series of games.  I've always enjoyed Disney movies and the fact that I can run around exploring these different worlds, interacting with the characters, and beating up the villains is just wonderful.  It's unfortunate that every single title in the series no matter on what format they are released continues or adds to the story line in some way.  It's unfortunate partially because you have to own multiple systems or wait till they are re-released for a system you own...but it's mostly unfortunate because the second game in the series, Chain of Memories, is mostly unplayable and is a giant stain on the reputation of the series.  They have since re-released it twice to make some enhancements but they've never actually gotten rid of the core problem with the game, the card-based battling system.

Seriously, why do I have 3 versions of this wretched game?

I don't intend on typing all day about how horrendous the card-based battling system is.  In short, it's unresponsive, clunky, confusing, and is just outright terrible.  Unless you are playing a physical card game there is NO reason for the word "card" to ever appear during a fighting sequence, and yes I AM looking at you, Paper Mario.  The other games in this franchise have a simple albeit fairly "button-mashy" fighting style that is easy and intuitive, but this game takes that all away and replaces it with a handful of cards that function about as well as a dead battery in a toy robot that's been run over by a semi.  The battling system makes this game so insanely difficult that I've never even been able to get to the second part of the game because I've not been able to beat the final boss of the first story in the last 12 years on any system that it's come out on.   Square, let's just re-release this game one last time.  Keep the cards to open doors and open worlds, but let's re-do the fighting mechanic to be the classic Kingdom Hearts fighting style that everyone loves and is actually functional.

3. English Releases or Remakes of Mother 3 and Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

You knew this was coming...or at least you knew Mother 3 was coming.  If there's one thing I dislike about being a gamer it's the fact that most games I enjoy playing come from Japan and as such Japan often gets games months in advance of the United States.  At the same time I can't necessarily complain because I would assume it would be easier to distribute in your home country than internationally.  That being said, it's still a massive annoyance when Japan gets to play a game for six months before you can even see a pre-order box at the store.  What's worse is when Japan gets a game and we don't get it at all...ever.  Now this normally wouldn't be a big deal because why would I care about Assassination Classroom, Giftopia, Last Window, or Dynamic Blade when I have no frame of reference on any of those titles.  I have no connection to these games so not getting them isn't bothering me in any way.  In the case of Mother 3 and Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade however....

Yeaaaaaaaaah.....

Roy and Lucas have both appeared in Super Smash Bros in the United States of their own accord.  They also were so popular that they were included as downloadable content in the latest 3DS and WiiU versions of the games.  The problem is compounded when you realize that the other Mother games and several Fire Emblem games have been released to us.  There is not only a precedent for these games selling in the States but also a clear demand for these characters.  We want to see what happens in Lucas and Roy's games.  Why not give us a remake of these games or at the BARE minimum translate them for us and provide them as eshop purchases?  Sure we have fan translations we can fall back on if we wish but I'd willingly hand Nintendo money for an official copy of either game in English.

2. An Amiibo adventure game

I love amiibo more than I honestly should.  There's just something charming and wonderful about having figurines of characters from some of my favorite Nintendo franchises.  They are something that I can cherish long after I get too old to play games with any level of competence.  The fact that they can actually function with the 3DS and WiiU make it even better.  What sort of things can they do?  Well the Splatoon amiibo give extra challenges and rewards by using them with Splatoon.  Shovel Knight adds a truck load of content and goodies when you scan him in his games.  The Smash Bros ones can act as a more powerful and learning opponent in Smash but...honestly there's not a whole lot that's been done with them.  I don't even keep them near my game systems because the benefit of using the majority of them just isn't there yet.  Recently, however, Nintendo has upped the ante a bit by having the Fire Emblem amiibo give you playable characters in Fire Emblem Fates and allowing practically all the amiibo to give you a costume in Super Mario Maker, but we're still missing a truly core amiibo centered game that can utilize them in a great and fun way.  Something that will make you want to have your amiibo around to play the game.

NO NO!  You keep that Mario Party bullcrap FAR away from me and those wonderful Animal Crossing characters!

...seriously?  Is this a joke?

What we need is for Nintendo to just go ahead and bite the bullet.  They got the idea of amiibo from Skylanders and what we honestly need to do with our amiibo is have a game like Skylanders just Nintendo themed.  We need a nice action adventure game set across multiple Nintendo worlds (or 3rd party worlds if any of the 3rd party characters with amiibo wish to participate) to fight and solve puzzles just like in Skylanders.  Something where you aren't required to have a certain amiibo to progress.  You just pick your favorite characters and utilize them in the game; each having their own fighting style and special skills.  It would be an easy way to include all of the amiibo that they are planning on producing and could very well be a window into that particular franchise.  Say there's a Kid Icarus world and someone who has the Mario series amiibo has never played or even heard of Kid Icarus.  Thanks to the amiibo adventure game they would get a taste for the greek hilarity and could be more likely to buy additional amiibo and games because of it.  It's a simple way to make something great and promote Nintendo's own products in the meantime.  Why are they wasting their time with pitiful drivel when they could be making this?

1. A Marvel VS DC Fighting Game

How has this not happened yet?  With the entire world sucked into the idea of super heroes for the last few years why hasn't this happened?  I realize that having two competing companies work together on a project is generally not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish.  However, unless I am grossly misinformed, the beef between DC comics and Marvel comics is not as heated as it once was.  Sure there's competition but it's not an all out war or anything.  We already have DC characters in Mortal Kombat.  We've seen a DC only fighting game in Injustice: Gods Among Us, and there have been several Marvel VS Capcom games but no DC VS Marvel games.  Despite the fact that fans over the whole world have been asking for this game it keeps not happening!  Who wouldn't want to see a match of Iron Man VS Cyborg, Hulk VS Superman, or Captain America VS Green Lanturn? 

I seriously do question why this hasn't been done yet.  Are both companies afraid that it wouldn't be profitable?  There is no way in Hades that this game wouldn't sell millions of copies.  It would sell so many copies that would practically print money for everyone involved.  Are they concerned that their characters wouldn't be well represented?  Well they don't seem to mind sharing the screen fighting against Mortal Kombat and Capcom's line of goons so there's no harm in the characters being misrepresented.  Are they against collaborations with their competitors?  Clearly not because they created a set of comic books that were specifically created around this premise right here.  There is absolutely no reason for this not to exist and I hope that one day soon while the super hero boom is still alive and well we will get to play something so marvelous.

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There you have it.  That was my top ten list of games and gaming ideas that need to happen.  It is my genuine hope that I get to see all of these ideas come to fruition.  I hope to one day play these games and be exceedingly happy that such greatness was finally made available to us.  Sadly, if I know the gaming industry as well as I think I do then the majority, if not all of these, will never even be considered.  In the end, these companies have their own ideas about what they think will sell and do well, and they are going to follow those ideas.  It often doesn't matter what the consumers want.  The tragedy of that mentality is that generally it still works.  The consuming public may want one thing but will still purchase something that's not what they want so they can at least experience some game in the franchise they love.  So while I remain hopeful for these ideas, I won't be holding my breath.

What sort of games or gaming ideas do you think should be implemented?  Let me know in the comments below.

This is Ghost, fading into the darkness.

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If you want to see my other Video Game discussions and reviews, click here!