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It’s a Shame Old Favorites Need Kickstarters to Come Back

Character combat Bloodstained

It’s a Shame Old Favorites Need Kickstarters to Come Back

Did you hear the latest Kickstarter news? Basically, Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night continued a trend of spiritual successor projects rocking things out of the park and hitting all their fundraising goals within a 24 hour period. It’s great news for us, since it means we’ll get a game that’s a love letter to the 2D Castlevanias of yore. Yet, it’s also more than a little tragic, as it’s another example of people crying out for a specific kind of game, publishers ignoring said pleas, and creators having to resort to crowdfunding to make dreams come true.

Keiji Inafune’s Mighty No. 9 is the among first games to prove this to be an unfortunate truth. Capcom, for whatever reason, decided to start ignoring Mega Man . The series was neglected, a promising 3DS installment of Mega Man Legends canned, and it seemed the run-and-gun stylings of the Blue Bomber were gone for good. That is, until Inafune went to Kickstarter . The game raised $3,845,170 from 67,226 backers and is coming to the 3DS, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC thanks to fan demand. People wanted Mega Man and Capcom wouldn’t let that happen, so we’re getting Beck instead.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is another example of a publisher ignoring a creator. Most of the recent Castlevania iterations have been 3D games that focus more on action and gore than exploration and RPG elements. Igarashi went to Kickstarter with a game that would take things back to the early days of the genre he helped invent. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will be more like the classic Castlevania s, and people responded by helping it meet its $500,000 goal within 24 hours. As of noon on May 12, the PS4, Xbox One, and PC game was closing in on $1.5 million.

Even Yooka-Laylee can act as an example. We don’t often see colorful platformers with cartoonish characters in charming worlds anymore (from companies other than Nintendo, anyway). It took a group of former Rare employees heading to Kickstarter with Yooka-Laylee , a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie , to prove these kinds of games have wide-spread appeal and are still in demand. The project had until June 16 to raise $270,041, but has already cleared $2,380,000 as of noon on May 12, thus assuring PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, and PC releases.

The irony behind all of these situations is each one is a success story. These spiritual successors were all funded. In every case, they surpassed every set goal. The companies from whence they came could have enjoyed this sort of success and acclaim, had they listened to the developers and taken a chance, but instead can only watch as the people fund the games they want.

It’s a Shame Old Favorites Need Kickstarters to Come Back

It’s sad, because it shows that publishers aren’t willing to listen and see what sorts of games are still desireable in today’s gaming climate. People want to play games like Mega Man, Banjo Kazooie , and the more traditional Castlevania s, and it seems that companies aren’t willing to see that despite one successful Kickstarter after another.

At least the creators know what people want and we win in the end. All of these projects are definitely, 100% going to happen now. People will get to enjoy revivals, with developers having the control they need to get things right. Too bad such measures had to be resorted to for them all to exist.

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