There are several old (pc) games, that would be very suitable to be transferred to the wonderful world of Wii. Here I give you my top 6 of games, and why they should come to the Wii. Reviews below.
1. Rocket Jockey (sports / action / multiplayer / party) On the website Wii Rally I have found someone who shares my love for this game: Rustopher Hashonah a.k.a Rocket Man. Since he already wrote this Wii wish, I just thought I post it here.
Rustopher Hashonah’s Wii Wish: Rocket Jockey
Whenever I see reminiscence about fun, yet somewhat dated PC games, the same group of popular gems like X-COM, Fallout, Star Control II, and Syndicate get the most attention. During these conversations, I always bring up a small lost gem, but very few have heard of it and even fewer have played it. This diamond in the rough is known as Rocket Science’s “Rocket Jockey”.
Published by SegaSoft back in 1997, Rocket Jockey lived a short life between being too powerful for some machines and yet incompatible with next generation PCs. Rocket Jockey is a game about a future sport; rocket… jockeying. As a Rocket Jockey, you straddle a rocket and ride it around a gladiatorial style arena at high speeds. Armed with a grapple on either side to steer, you can enter any of three modes of play:
1) Rocket Racing: speed around an obstacle course to be the fastest competitor (or solo for a time trial). 2) Rocket Ball: a polo-style sport involving snagging balls with the grapple and whipping them appropriately into goals before your opponents can stop you or score more. 3) Rocket War: a gladiatorial battle against other competitors which involves ramming other rockets, snagging jockeys off their mounts with the grapple, tying various items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) to other items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) for style points.
Simplistic as they sound, this was an incredible and intuitive game, pure unadulterated genius. Besides the addictive game-play (oh, the screams of a competitor jockey ripped from his rocket and swung into a pole), what also stood out with Rocket Jockey was the classy style; down-home 1950’s Americana sensibilities reminiscent of Interplay’s. Fallout series combined with snarky, nihilistic future ad designs. And the music. Oh, the music. The game was accompanied by a surf guitar soundtrack from none other than Dick Dale himself.
No game I know of has even come close to being anything like Rocket Jockey (Jet Moto?). And that’s the clincher; it would be so simple to recreate today. To not give this game a proper revival would be a crime. And that’s where the Wii comes in. The controls are a near-perfect match.The rocket is controlled by leaning; left or right and you drift in that direction. Up or down were the same, though there wasn’t much of a height radius (rockets only went, at most, ten feet from the ground, just enough to ram an opponent off his/her rocket). This basic guidance could be controlled with the WiiMote, with emphasis based on increasing the angle the WiiMote is titled. Being a PC game, speed and launching and releasing the grapples (left and right) were all keyboard based. Velocity (speed, braking) could be handled with A and B, and the Nunchuk could conform to a nice grapple. Aiming was originally nonexistent; it was based on the rocket’s angle of lean. With a slight adjustment an aim factor could be a variable handled by the analog stick. This game was way too short lived and was so good it cries to be remade for the modern day. Fan attempts have been made to bring it to Unreal Tournament and other platforms. In a recent attempt to get in touch with one of the former developers, I was informed that lawyers constantly botched earlier attempts to get this game properly licensed for a remake. With my prodding, said contact did put forth the idea of porting or re-developing Rocket Jockey to the few remaining Rocket Science alumni. So far, nothing yet has come of this. If anyone out there can do anything for this game, I implore you to try. With the additional promise of online multi-player (or at least split-screen local), an update of Rocket Jockey has the potential to be a future solid gold hit.
2. Black & White (play god)
This is one of the great games on the PC. Feels a bit lik Megelomania, but bigger and better . Wouldn't it just be great, to really hold those little people in your hand, by using the Wiimote, twisting and turning the world with your Nunchuck? Be a good or evil god, you chose.
3. Ground Control 2 (strategy) Compared to the Command & Conquer series on the PC, Ground Control totally breaks with the 'collect, build, defend, attack' strategy. By conquering and defending dropzones the game has a much more dynamic play. The point and click interface that the Wiimote provides would be great for strategy games. Still we don't see any strategy games released for the Wii. Because this one has outstanding gameplay I would surely recommend it for a tranfer to the Wii.
4. Ghostmaster (puzzle / sim) In Ghostmaster you have a team of Ghost, in a mutli-level house. Your job is to scare the people from the house, be preying on their fears. It has a nice cartoon-style that would be welcome in the Wii. It was transferred to the Xbox, although there it became a whole other game, because of the limitations of a classic controller. The point-click interface the Wii provides, could really make this game quite a hit.
5. Freedom Force (vs. the third reich) (squad strategy game) In Freedom Force, you control a group of four superheroes who also gain XP and new powers during the game. It has an isometric view, much like Syndicate (first of the squad strategy games). Here it is also the combination of engaging gameplay, real great multiplayer options and the point-click interface the Wii can provide that would make this something people. Gameplay is aimed at trying to make the team work together, some heroes are good on the frontline. While other heroes, can provide good cover from a distance. Quite rewarding gameplay. The cartoon style is great. Although for the Wii I can also imagine, to transfer the gameplay to first-person the way it has been done in the game 'City of Heroes' / 'City of Villans'. Then it would suddenly become a good multiplayer game for the Wii.
6. Sensible Soccer 2006 (sports) The Sensible Soccer series is well known for it's simplicity. And good gameplay, different pitches and seasons provide different gameplay. The cartoon style would be easily transferred to the Wii. Really like the graphics in Grand Slam Tennis, they do not try to approach reality on the Wii. Just good visual modelling and great motion capturing.
You know what, I would love a Wii-bound Sensible Soccer game: what a great call that is. Keep it quick, simplistic (Remote sideways, please) and put in plenty of silly team names and cups and I'd grab that. Perhaps a WiiWare release..?
I'm already happy with The Oregon Trail and Descent already coming to WiiWare.
Ash: Professor Oak, how's your Bulbasaur?
Prof. Oak: Oh, it only hurts when I sit.
...
Prof. Oak: It's only Chansey if Krabby won't let go. Bye, now.
Ash: I don't think I'm going to call him anymore.
I thought I was the only one who loved Rocket Jockey. So many fond memories of that game...I'd love to see an updated version, though I'm positive it will never, ever happen. Bah.
That was the first game I had that allowed you to choose your own music. Yanking jockeys off their rockets and tethering them to pylons to the tune of Won't Get Fooled Again was just gaming perfection.
For Rocket Jockey there has been lots of efforts to create a remake, although there were not enough programmers / visual designer fans to make it happen. Latest effort was by Solar Ray (http://www.solar-ray.org/) , with a real first level test and models. My latest news was that it was moved to Sourceforge. Although I thought it would be called 'Rocket Arena', I could only find 'Jet Jockey' on http://www.sourceforge.net.
Currently I'm looking at all the different websites where the Rocket Jockey fans can be found, and ask them to join the Facebook group. So that there is only one meeting place. Maybe then coordination of a remake will be better. So, if you please? I'm not the moderator of this group though.
For Rocket Jockey there has been lots of efforts to create a remake, although there were not enough programmers / visual designer fans to make it happen. Latest effort was by Solar Ray (http://www.solar-ray.org/) , with a real first level test and models. My latest news was that it was moved to Sourceforge. Although I thought it would be called 'Rocket Arena', I could only find 'Jet Jockey' on http://www.sourceforge.net.
Currently I'm looking at all the different websites where the Rocket Jockey fans can be found, and ask them to join the Facebook group. So that there is only one meeting place. Maybe then coordination of a remake will be better. So, if you please? I'm not the moderator of this group though.
I'll be glad to join the Facebook group, but the only one I can find is for a novel called Rocket Jockey. Do you have the direct link?
Ash: Professor Oak, how's your Bulbasaur?
Prof. Oak: Oh, it only hurts when I sit.
...
Prof. Oak: It's only Chansey if Krabby won't let go. Bye, now.
Ash: I don't think I'm going to call him anymore.
"Re-inventing old (pc) games for the best GAMEPLAY platform"
I dunno, I think it's a little too late to be releasing remakes on the PS2, and I don't think any of them would work on the Genesis.
Personally, I'd like to see some more PC games ported to the DS. X-Com, Command & Conquer, Zork, and tons of other games would be perfect on the system. We already got Age of Empires and Civilization, so we know it can work. It's just too bad not enough develpoers have taken to it.
^these. I came in to say Cannon Fodder but fully agree with you Pro, Sensi is the best football series ever for me. I haven't genuinely enjoyed a football game since 32-bit. FIFA 98 and 99 are the only ones I liked in that series, and I think Pro Evo 2 and ISS 98 were the last good Konami ones
DX Ball would be cool, although Arkanoid+ is good enough
Anyway, Jazz Jackrabbit instantly came to mind, but since Epic is now Microsoft's property, that will never happen. Instead, I'm gonna go with Hocus Pocus, an extremely obscure MS-DOS platformer. I loved that game when I was younger.
A Pipe Dream or Chip's Challenge variant for Wiiware would be great as well.
I would dearly love two of my favourite Star Trek games reinvented on the Wii: Star Trek Elite Force II and Klingon Academy, which is possibly the best starship simulator ever (and has awesome cut scenes with Christopher Plummer and David Warner).
Since the latter is by Interplay and we seem to be getting old Interplay games reborn on the Wii, it's possible right (no one seems to have an exclusive game license for Star Trek at this time either)?
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Topic: Wii Wish - Re-inventing old (pc) games for the best GAMEPLAY platform
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