How would you reboot an existing franchise into a new genre?

[Mad Max RW]

A reboot can be awesome if developers would stop insulting gamers' intelligence by continuously simplifying everything.

I'd like to see more reboots of games that failed or a franchise that ended on a bad note. Master of Orion needs another shot. Freelancer, Doom, Unreal Tournament, Sim City, can all be great again if they go back to what works.

 

[Wastewander]

Besides, just like the above-mentioned movie, out-of-genre reboots don't usually do very well.

Regardless of their QUALITY they actually often do very well or at least well enough to justify their creation in the eyes of the investors.

How about when Prince of Persia went from a slow paced "avoid the traps" style exploration/platforming game to an action based 3rd person 3D platformer?

Mario 64?

Fallout 3?

Ninja Gaiden?

Metroid Prime?

Castlevania SOTN?

Duke Nukem 3D

Some of these titles had fairly logical leaps, some where fairly huge changes. But regardless of if it was a good idea or not, they all sold extremely well. Shadowrun didn't exactly do terrible, didn't sell like crazy either.

Just because it is a bad idea doesn't mean it wont sell.

Either way this was more of a "for fun/challenge" mental game. But obviously no one here is interested in hypothetical fun or mental stimulation.

Some of those aren't necessarily reboots.

Mario 64 was just what a 3D Mario would be like with less of a focus on platforming. I don't even think of a timeline when it comes to the main Nintendo franchises.

Fallout 3 was not a reboot. The fact that the core game design is drastically different doesn't mean it's starting over.

Castlevania SotN, otherwise known as Metroidvania, is hardly a reboot. It just took what it was previously known for and expanded upon it. Even if that expansion made it into a Metroidesque game in terms of design.

I'd say this hardly counts as a fun game/mental stimulation because no one sane would do it in the first place.

 

[Hassknecht]

Yeah, but those wouldn't be reboots in another genre.
Maybe that fits more in the "Sequels that should be made" thread
A managerial simulation reboot of Unreal Tournament would be so awkward that it would be cool again.
Unreal Tournament Manager.
I fap'd.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

A reboot can be awesome if developers would stop insulting gamers' intelligence by continuously simplifying everything.

I'd like to see more reboots of games that failed or a franchise that ended on a bad note. Master of Orion needs another shot. Freelancer, Doom, Unreal Tournament, Sim City, can all be great again if they go back to what works.

Hmm, Master of Orion as a combination of universe grid turn based strategy, and an optional real time space combat segment like games such as Sword of the Stars, Sins of a Solar Empire, Homeworld like.
I kind of like that idea.

Doom and Unreal Tournament are not really dead, I am sure they come back.

And yes regarding Sim City, what has happened to non violent strategy gaming, and I don't mean those social games.
I still want Sim Mars dammit, colonizing Mars, analyzing alien fossils and artifacts, and eventually terraforming the planet into a duplicate of Earth.

Unreal Tournament Manager

Why not?
The player being the head of the whole tournament organization, having to make sure new arenas, traps and home player/monsters/robots etc are contracted, and attracting competing teams so you can get television and sponsoring contracts.

 

[TorontoReign]

Doom is coming back with a BRAND new engine. I read it somewhere recently, but can't remember where....

 

[Eternal]

And yes regarding Sim City, what has happened to non violent strategy gaming, and I don't mean those social games.
I still want Sim Mars dammit, colonizing Mars, analyzing alien fossils and artifacts, and eventually terraforming the planet into a duplicate of Earth.

First I've heard of Sim Mars. Was that back when the Sim games were still made by Maxis? Back when Will Wright wasn't insane? (I swear he has been drinking the same water as Molyneux.) Cause I miss those days.

Simcity 1 on SNES was a blast. And I put hundreds of hours into Sim City 2000 on PC as a kid (I only ever managed to make 1 really working city that I think made it to argolopolis levels)

 

[UniversalWolf]

Re: How would you reboot an existing franchise into a new ge

I think I'd reboot Fallout: New Vegas as an isometric turn-based RPG.

I'd reboot every FPS/RPG hybrid there is into a hard core iso turn-based PnP RGP emulator. Every single one. So many that people who like FPS/RPG hybrids couldn't find one to spend their money on outside of indy developers.

I'd start with The Elder Scrolls.