Today I found out that Next Level Games, the studio behind Luigi’s Mansion 2, spent time working on an early prototype of a Metroid game for the 3DS. That game was shelved in favour of the afore-mentioned Luigi’s Mansion 2 (my favourite game of 2013) but it’s got me wondering about what could have been.
And that’s got me thinking about pairing up some great developers with some of my favourite series — just a hypothetical. I mean, Next Level Games working on a 3DS version of Metroid would be great and all, but how cool would it be if…
— From Software made a new Zelda game
— Or Retro Studios was given the keys to create the Sonic game to end all Sonic games
— How about Naughty Dog working on the Star Wars franchise?
— Harmonix creating a brand new Rez
— RedLynx working on Mario Kart
Anyway, you get the idea. Just for fun, I thought it might be a good laugh to fantasy book some of our favourite game series with some of our favourite developers?
Like, who could reinvent Mario? Or take Halo in weird new directions? Could anyone besides Valve make Half-Life 3?
Drop your ideas into the comments below.
Comments
62 responses to “Pair A Developer With Your Favourite Franchise”
Valve – metroid or deus ex
If they start now we might get the game by 2020.
Conversely I want Eidos Montreal to do HalfLife 3
NO! They will make pre order DLC And every second game in the series will suck!
Imagine Samus’ range of helm/visor/suit skins
Sorry, we can’t have this game without rules.
Why? Because the answer is always the same.
Platinum Games + X (X stands for any franchise)
Kamiya + Star Fox!
“Do you eat shit”?
Relpy fail.
DON’T GET TOO COCKY, STAR FOX
I love Kamiya’s twitter. He willingly replies to all questions and just spends 99% of the time not giving a shit about anything.
Platinum Games + All of Clover’s old IPs, considering Platinum is made up of Clover Studios employees.
Are you suuuure? Do you remember the horrible vehicle sections in Bayonetta? I don’t want to play their Mario Kart. The handling would be awful 🙁
Quantic Dream and Gabriel Knight on the one condition that Jane Jensen gets to the write the thing.
Not Telltale?
Definitely not Telltale. Telltale are good at what they do but I want the polish and production values of Quantic Dream. 😀 Matthew McConaughy GK. XD
Gearbox’s Farming Simulator 2016.
I think I’d really like to see Retro do an F-Zero game.
They’re extinct now, but I think the idea of Psygnosis, of Wipeout fame, would make an amazing F-Zero.
But then I gotta get all fanboy and shrug them off as pretenders 😛
Gotta be Bethesda and Pokemon.
Wow. Yes.
Came here to post that same thing.
Bethesda + WH40K
Netherrealm + The Sims
Bethesda + Tony Hawk Skateboarding.
Sure. it’d be buggy. But stop and think about this: What if Skyrim was a complete urban environment…and you had a skateboard…
FUS RO 1080!
Haaaahahahah nice.
Isn’t that called Skate 3? It even has the bugs!
I’d like to see Hideo Kojima make a Dune game with the Fox engine.
You have my attention…
Valve + Half Life 3. Just give us the freaking game already.
DICE doing a Warhammer 40,000 battlefield game.
2nd preference would be a Wolfenstein game developed by From Software, think about it 😛
DICE games seem too fast for WH40k. You’d also need some very solid melee combat so I don’t know if they could handle it. From Software‘s effort would be utterly glorious, though.
I’d buy a WH40K from DICE or From Software. They’d be completely different, but equally glorious.
Personally, I’d love to see From Software’s take on a new Eternal Darkness.
Naughty Dog.
Perfect Dark. Or James Bond. Or gorram Alpha Protocol. Just give me a Naughty Dog spy game, OK?
Naughty Dog’s James Bond would be a-friggin-mazing.
That would be incredible. I’d prefer Alpha Protocol so they don’t need to rely on James Bond‘s cheesy lore.
…I also would love to see their take on Star Wars, since 1313 is dead and cremated.
1313 looked like a game I could have easily forgiven myself for thinking Naughty Dog had made.
I’ve really struggled with this. A lot of my favourite franchises are a specific developer doing what they do best, so it’s hard to imagine handing the reins over.
At a stretch, maybe it’d be nice to see a Breath of Fire revival from Bamco’s Tales studio.
Yeah, most of my dream projects are either the team that did it before doing something again possibly with a twist or refinement, or taking an existing franchise and going in a new direction that isn’t really linked to a specific studio. I mean you could say the idea of a Syndicate game that plays similar to a (very dark) Battalion Wars (GameCube) is pairing Kuju Entertainment with Bullfrog’s franchise, but in that equation Battalion Wars is more of a source of inspiration or tech demo than a game made by a crew that would truly work magic with a five perspective strategy game.
Obsidian and KOTOR 3!
Oh yeah, and WayForward doing a 2D Metroid.
Not a franchise but a game:
Doublefine + WarCraft Adventures.
Come on Blizzard, we all know you have all those unfinished/cancelled games in your vaults. Just give Doublefine the game and let them polish and finish it!
I realize they already kind of did this with Mass Effect, but my dream would be for Bioware to do a Star Trek game.
Anyone and FEZ II.
Miyamoto and Chrono Trigger would be cool
Miyamoto and Call of Duty.
I would really want to see what he’d do with the stale formula.
Platinum Games and Zelda (sorry guy above)
Platinum Games could make a pretty decent street fighter
I wouldn’t mind seeing Yacht Club or Capy Games have a go at Castlevania and if it were possible, I’d love to see an airtight games collaboration with Telltale or double Fine
The closest thing I can think of to a Platinum Games fighter would be Arksys‘ Blazblue or Guilty Gear franchises. Technical, but fast and beautiful. Check ’em out!
Hideo Kojima and Half-Life
I’d love to see almost anyone do a new F-Zero or 1080
Insomniac Games and Banjo Kazooie would probably result in the best game ever made.
And considering how the studio now has solid relations with Microsoft, this could actually be possible!
Yes please!!!
Kojima and or platinum doing metroid, because I keep on think about the possible situations in brawl when the codec was tapped via the visor. Plus who wouldn’t like to see what it would be like to see the hidden depths of this infamous bounty hunter
Hmm. Volition and Blast Corps. They’ve got a good eye for features. They know how to make something funny and functional. Septic Avenger in Saints Row 2 would have been a one note joke and a Firetruck reskin in GTA, but they took it seriously on a mechanical level and as a result it was a fun series of side missions. They’re also good at judging portion sizes. They tend to offer more variety in the side missions and less repeats.
I think that would all work really well with a simple game like Blast Corps.
I also think RedLynx could make a good Blast Corps, but I don’t trust them to not make it super difficult towards the end. =P
Fucking Blast Corps! I want all over that.
Final Fantasy + Level 5 (and Studio Ghibli!!!)
Square Enix could make a hell of a Pokémon game. Think the guys who took Final Fantasy and turned it into Bravely Default.
Bit of a weird one, but I’d love to see the art that comes out of DontNod (of Remember Me infamy) taking Deus Ex Human Revolution‘s artistic cyberpunk, or Bioshock‘s fallen grandeur?
Other quick thoughts include:
– Bungie‘s Mass Effect… or their Half Life?
– Obsidian‘s Final Fantasy… or their Pokémon.
– Bethesda‘s Borderlands… or their Sir, You Are Being Hunted? Maybe that’s more suited to Arkane, who made Dishonored.
– Ubisoft‘s Deus Ex… or better, their Thief.
– Telltale‘s Metal Gear… or their Star Wars?
– Cyberconnect2‘s Bleach… no… their Smash Brothers!!
How could I forget?! I NEED to see Platinum Games take on RWBY!
Bioware and Fire Emblem.
Love to see Del Toro attached to a Silent Hill project….
Rockstar and Little Big Planet