*DISCLAIMER* The following is purely an opinion piece. I do
not claim to know what the real plans are that any video game companies
mentioned in this article have planned for their franchises.
Welcome to Custom Picks, a series of speculation articles
about different games for companies to release. Nintendo, Sega, Capcom,
Ubisoft, Square-Enix; if they have games everyone is waiting for, those games
are up for discussion.
With Nintendo’s NX a little under a year away, everyone is
speculating about what they are going to do next. Everyone has ideas about what
their next console should be capable of and everyone says they need to have
more third-party games, more first-party games, revivals of old franchises, and
new IPs. But when it comes to exactly what games should be on there, fewer
people are willing to say exactly what.
So, the first few articles in Custom Picks will be about
Nintendo and what possible games they could release to get gamers excited about
the NX, and maybe revive some old or obscure franchises along the way.
Although Nintendo has found success with the Super Smash Brothers series,
several gamers overlook the sub-genre of platform fighters and are instead asking
for a more traditional 2D fighting game, along the lines of Street Fighter or
Tekken. While platform fighters allow characters to travel around a stage and use its platform layouts or sometimes stage effects to their advantage, in traditional fighters, both characters are on a flat plane, so there is nothing to factor into a strategy except the player's character and the opponent's character. Ideas for a 2D fighter from Nintendo have included reviving games like
Joy Mech Fight or Urban Champion, acquiring the Bloody Roar franchise from
Konami, teaming up with Capcom for a new game, and several other different
ideas.
So, what first-party or third-party titles could fit this
category?
First Party Titles – Pokken Tournament: NX Edition & Urban
Champion
One of the most recent big releases for the Wii U has been
something a lot of people have actually been asking for, a Pokemon fighting
game. Developed by Namco Bandai, the developers of the Tekken and Soul Calibur series
and co-developers of Super Smash Bros. 4, Pokken Tournament assembles a roster
of about 15 Pokemon for a game that combines 2D and 3D fighting mechanics. The
game was a good seller and did reasonably with critics, so hopefully, this becomes a
continuing series for Nintendo. While it may be too soon to be talking about a
sequel, with a new Nintendo console on the horizon, maybe an updated re-release
is in order. After tweaking the balance in the roster, ramping up the difficulty a bit, and
adding a few new characters with a bit more variety, they should have a good game to bring to the NX.
As far as games not currently in Nintendo’s rotation
however, this genre would be a good place to see a revival of the NES game
Urban Champion. In the original version of this game, two people would be
boxing each other to push their opponent off the side of the block and into the
next one. If you hit your opponent off the end of two city blocks, they fall
down a manhole and you win the match. While this may not work with the idea of
most fighting games today, a new Urban Champion game could work on a similar
system to set it apart from other games. Since it’s been established that
Nintendo likes to focus on new styles of gameplay, they may not be satisfied
just making a Street Fighter clone with a new cast of characters.
Whether they decide to make it in the style of Street
Fighter, the classic Urban Champion, or some new gameplay style we haven’t seen
before, this game would probably make the most sense for a new traditional
fighting game from Nintendo. With the game focusing on a cast of martial artist
characters set in an urban environment, the actual gameplay could focus on
running out the opponent’s health bar, like in traditional fighting games, or, like the Virtua Fighter series or the N64 game Fighters Destiny, it could feature different ways to end a match, like knockouts or ring outs, or even special conditions like stunning the opponent followed by a throw or hitting them with a special knockout move. They could go in any direction with this, but this would be one of the best old-school properties they could do it with.
Third Party Titles – Darkstalkers 4 & Nintendo vs.
Capcom
With several fighting game IPs to their name and Street
Fighter being the biggest among them, Capcom would seem like the best developer
to approach to give Nintendo a traditional fighting game. They could come up
with any number of ideas like a spin-off of Street Fighter or bringing back one
of its older, more obscure series. The most notable of those series is
Darkstalkers. This fighting game franchise with horror monster inspired
characters is one of Capcom’s most beloved franchises, but aside from
characters like Morrigan, Demitri, and Felicia appearing in crossover titles,
it hasn’t seen an actual release in a very long time. There were talks about a
Darkstalkers 4 possibly being made for systems like the 360 and PS3, but those
plans were shelved when the Darkstalkers 3 remake they made didn’t sell the
millions of downloads Capcom was hoping for.
If they are a bit more willing to take a chance Capcom could
release Darkstalkers 4 as being available on Nintendo’s upcoming system, just
to turn a few heads. They already made the latest Street Fighter a PlayStation
exclusive; who’s to say they won’t give Nintendo and Microsoft the same
treatment with their own exclusive fighting series and making it a revival of
one of Capcom’s old fighters will give it a lot of attention. If the idea of
Darkstalkers 4 being Nintendo exclusive doesn’t sit well with you, it could
even be a multiplatform release, just as long as they make clear that it’s also
available on the NX.
But if a partnership between Nintendo and Capcom is up for
discussion, maybe a better option would be to take this idea all the way and
bring out the game that both Nintendo and Capcom fans have been dreaming about
for years. That game is Nintendo vs. Capcom. Both Nintendo and Capcom have a
large number of IPs to make all-star character rosters from, ranging from
mega-hit series to obscure niche titles, and both know to utilize characters from both
mainstream and obscure games to hype up gamers for planned crossover titles.
Just look at the pre-release hype for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Smash Bros. 4
for proof.
Just what characters each side would pick is a topic for
another article, but with this title as an NX exclusive, and it has to be since
literally half the content in this would be Nintendo’s, fans of both companies,
and fighting games in general, would have a big reason to pay attention to Nintendo’s
new console.
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What did you think of these Custom Picks? What traditional
2D fighting game do you want to see added to Nintendo’s lineup? Make your voice
heard in the comments below and thanks for coming.
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