If you’ve ever seen a half decent movie, you’ll know the idea of immortality meaning you will live to see everyone you’ve ever loved pass away. That might be a strange way to start off an article about games I want to see reborn in the modern era, but I promise it’s definitely got nothing to do with binge-watching Invincible season one and two recently.
No, instead, I’m feeling my age. You question your mortality when you get on a bit. Frequent visits to the doctors for check-ups don’t help (thankfully they don’t need to use their finger nowadays) and so you either get miserable because you’re old, or you think back to your younger days and better times. Though in fairness, better times aren’t hard to think about, and you don’t need to have a fucked back to know that. The unthinkable can, and has happened: Oasis are back, and I never thought that’d happen in my lifetime.
I love games, that bit is probably obvious. But I’m getting on a bit, and was thinking about some game franchises that deserve to come back. This is that list. Please enjoy, get angry about the missing ones, and feel as bad as I do that they haven’t seen a new entry in the series they’re from for far too long.
Punch-Out!!
The Wii version of this series was fantastic. Whenever Punch-Out!! (those exclamation marks are important, by the way) comes to my mind, I get all excited. In so many ways the series was a precursor for what we now call the rhythm game series, and problematic stereotypes might make the old games seem dodgy, but that doesn’t mean a new one couldn’t be great.
In some ways, ARMS was perhaps the natural successor to the series. But even ARMS has vanished (and required effort and movement, neither of which I’m a great fan of), and after updates, it never seemed to darken Nintendo’s doors again, despite countless other titles getting sequels all over the place. Quite why this series doesn’t get any love from the company, I’ll never know, because it’s fantastic, fun, and silly, and who doesn’t like that? It’s a game series I’d love to see reborn on Switch 2, so fingers crossed.
Games that need to come back: Sly Cooper
How in the name of Kratos’ unquestioningly hairy ball-sack has Sony not rebooted Sly Cooper for the modern era? Despite having a boom in stealth games, both first and third-person, and the (still) popularly of the War and Peace novel that is the Metal Gear Solid series, poor Sly, Bentley, Murray, and Carmelita Fox haven’t had a look in.
Can you imagine how good a PS5 Pro Sly Cooper title could look? You’re doing it now, aren’t you? The last title in the series was Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on PlayStation 3, back in 2013. There have been 11 mainline Five Nights at Freddy’s games, and a full series of Hello Neighbor titles in that time, and I want you to have a damn good think about that next time you spend an evening guffawing at YouTubers.
DJ Hero
Now look, I respect that this article is about games that need a new entry, but even I know this is more than just a fantastical thought. Activision put out two DJ Hero titles back during the pomp of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band explosion. Did you play one? Because if you did, you won’t have thought about DJ Hero for years, and now you’re doing a Roy Kent expletive in slow motion.
Music games haven’t gone away. Titles like Rift of the Necrodancer, or even recent indie-weirdness that is Everhood 2 use ideas present back then to great effect. In fact, companies are even making new guitars for people who still enjoy the games that use them. On top of that, Microsoft owns Activision now, so maybe if enough people ask? Tony Hawk and Spyro came back, but let’s face it, DJ Hero is forever resigned to being landfill, which is devastating, as it was sensational. Then again, nobody played Fuser, either, which makes me feel physically sick inside.
Timesplitters and F-Zero
Come on lads, it’s been long enough now.
Seriously. What are you even doing?
Games that need to come back: Psi Ops
A bit of a strange one, perhaps, but Psi Ops is a game I remember even now as a tremendously clever experience. For those unaware, you were an agent who had mind-powers that could levitate and throw things around. Long before games like Crackdown enabled wanton madness on a larger scale, Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (what a name!) allow you to ragdoll brutes around, or throw explosive barrels at people.
It was a great time, and oddly Second Sight also came out around the same time. You can put people into two categories in life: those who liked Psi Ops, and those who were wrong. That said, I’d take either now, because they’re both games that need to come back. Even a remaster would do, right?
Soul Reaver / Legacy of Kain
Finally in 2024, we all got the Christmas present we deserved. That’s right, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered came out, and made us all utterly miserable that nobody will make a new game set in the wonderful world of Kain and Raziel. Vampires have been hot shit for years now, but we can’t get a new game? It’s enough to make a man turn to the drugs. Goodness. With a universal that is still mined for things that aren’t games, like comics, it really does seem inevitable that we’ll get something new, right?
