Gaming The System: Kicking and screaming: Bringing back old IPs

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: MEGAGAMES.COM
Dungeon Keeper: Evil comes at a cost of 99 cents per click.

Nothing hurts the soul more than seeing things you hold dear and nostalgic being ripped apart in the name of modernization. It's a depressing bookend to my earlier orphaned game franchises bit, but hey, what can you do, right?

These game franchises are probably the most infamous examples of a complete lack of devotion to fans and the worship of the almighty dollar. While their previous iterations still exist for us to enjoy, there is nothing to look forward to for the future of these game intellectual properties.

Thief (2014)
The original Thief games still have an active (and highly vocal) fanbase to this day, despite the game's age. Even the franchise's weakest entry, Thief 3, boasted the incredibly awesome steampunk Victorian looks, open-ended stealth action gameplay, and thieving protagonist Garrett's wicked sense of humour.

And all that was tossed out the window for Thief, the franchise reboot. Melting down Garrett's personality to that of an angry, angsty wooden board of a video game character was only the first grievance the new reboot has wrought. Under the guise of gameplay ease, the mechanics and stealth have been boiled down to “walk away from the guard's direct line of sight to proceed.” Truly sad. At least the original Thief will still provide you hours of entertainment, both from the official story and fan levels.

Turok (2008)
Despite having a low-key PC release as well, the Turok games were the Nintendo 64's killer app. The novel 3D graphics and controls, absolutely cruel and devastating weapons and, of course, frickin' dinosaur hunting made the original Turok trilogy a video game juggernaut. It was also one of the first big game franchises to star an aboriginal protagonist. After fizzling away from some mediocre PS2 spin-off games, the franchise was brought back in the form of 2008's Turok, and in namesake only. Besides the player character being named Turok, virtually nothing from the original games gets carried over, opting out the Native American mystique for a bland, generic “space marines on a monster planet” direction.

If playing the N64 versions of the older games isn't quite possible, the PC release is relatively easy to find, and is even small enough to fit on a flashdrive, for some portable time-killing.

Dungeon Keeper (2013)
Words cannot express how miserable the fans of the Dungeon Keeper franchise are right now. The two PC-based RTS titles, Dungeon Keeper, and Dungeon Keeper 2 were quirky in letting the player be the bad guy, but still had solid gameplay. Of course, running in with EA Games' current trend of milking their customers for every single cent they carry, the new Dungeon Keeper Mobile title is a microtransaction-ridden mess. It has faced such vehement opposition from average customers and die-hard fans that EA attempted to buck the app market rating system by offering players in-game rewards in exchange for five-star ratings. Sneaky and abhorrent practices on part of EA Games, and an awesome franchise left with a legacy of nickel and- diming its players... now that's true evil.

RollerCoaster Tycoon (cancelled)
The beloved starchild of '90s PC time management games, RollerCoaster Tycoon was also set to have its own mobile-based sequel, also completely riddled with microtransactions. Thankfully, with publisher Atari's bankruptcy (they haven't caught a break since the '90s for good reason), the game was mercifully snuffed.

Even if you can't find your original cereal-box copy of RollerCoaster Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and its expansion packs are easily available on Steam. While the sim elements of the game are toned down in exchange for those fancy 3D graphics, it's still better than nothing (and still a lot of fun).
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