Yeah, they figured out a way to use the audio processor to do some extra crunching to help with graphical effects. It’s plausible that Sega didn’t help them since they were using the audio processor in a way that was not intended.
That's wild, but I love hearing about devs back in the day taking such unorthodox methods to squeeze more out of the hardware. It's a magic to being creative with the constraints of esoteric console hardware that's mostly lost these days.
As a side effect so many games of those eras have a very specific identity that you can
feel is defined by the console the game was originally made for. That's been lost a ton with modern game development, sadly.
I've been praying SEGA do something like this for a while... might even have the receipts in a forum post somewhere. Hope it works out.
Konami made this play in the WiiWare era with M2 making BANGER entries for Contra, Gradius and Castlevania. Didn't work out.
Treasure brough back IP during the GBA era with Advance Gunstar and Guardian Heroes. Didnt' work out.
Capcom kinda is? Ghosts N' Goblins Resurrection might be the best old-school action of the generation. Didn't work out.
Now that the PS1 era is becoming the indie retro du jour, I wouldn't be surprised if Sony tried to capitalize on it 5-10 years from now, but if they can't make it into TV/movie IP they might not bother.
SNK is making metal Slug Tactics and is looking at this strategy already with other IP.
Microsoft... Maybe bring back Brute Force? lol
Nintendo lent out Zelda for Cadence of Hyrule and does their "99s" and Virtual Console. Rumors of for 'Cadence' style loans have been going around.
Bandai and Square AFAIK have not had real attempt at an retro IP revival (save FFVII forever, Pac-Man World, Championship, mobile) so that could be very interesting.
With Sony, I just hope they bring back any of their legacy IP from the PS1/PS2 eras in general. But specifically Parappa/UmJammer, Tomba (well, Whoopy Camp own that IP but if Sony would help co-fund a Tomba 3 that'd be awesome), Arc the Lad, Locoroco etc. Modestly small-budget ($20 million - $30 million if even that) mid-AA games with some production values similar to a Stray or Kena.
I mean think of it this way: if Jim Ryan were approving PC ports on a simple email that were under $30 million, that money could've gone towards a 1P AA game that'd of sold more copies and generated a lot more revenue on PlayStation than the PC port of whatever game would eventually have gone over on that email approval. It's just one of the reasons I've always been suspect of that PC strategy but, I digress..
You bring up failed attempts by Konami, Treasure etc. but I think it's VERY important to remember that nostalgia back then was nowhere near the level it is today. Back in the mid and late '00s people weren't too nostalgic over SNES/Genesis or PS1/N64 games. Even NES nostalgia was subdued compared to what it'd become a decade later. The companies that tried bringing back classic IP in the examples you mention were more victims of being a good idea at the wrong time. Also at least last I remember, GnG Resurrection did pretty well considering its budget, tho I think it was a Switch exclusive for the longest time which might've suppressed some of its potential sales cap elsewhere.
I'm very excited for City of the Wolves, and as for Microsoft, they do have some older IP like, dunno...Minesweeper?
They actually should've done a Crimson Skies-themed expansion for Flight Sim IMO, with missions and a story campaign. Should've done similar for the Top Gun crossover too; just adding a plane inspired by it felt like they were phoning it in. Bandai-Namco might not have too many classic IP that could be easily brought back, but I say this as someone not familiar with their stuff pre'90s outside of things like Dig-Dug.
Square hasn't done too much with IP like Parasite Even and Einhander, and I think a lot would love a Xenogears remake that actually fleshed out the content on the 2nd disc that was scaled back due to time & budget constraints.
Heard about all of this. I am myself a huge Shining Force fan, and I am quite sad at what Camelot has been relegated to with Mario sports spin-offs.
I sincerely hope SEGA and Camelot can find a way to make this a reality, because Camelot have always been very competent developers.
The Mario Tennis, Golf and Soccer games are really fun tho. But yes, Camelot are very skilled developers; someone else ITT said that SEGA and Camelot amended the issues between them so Camelot coming back to Shining Force would probably come down to if SEGA were interested in reviving the classic style of the IP.
Which, hopefully, they are. Either for that, Dragon Force or Phantasy Star. A Phantasy Star in the style of a SF3 SRPG would be pretty interesting.
Konami needs to bring back Goemon/Mystical Ninja.
For whatever reason the mecha fights in these games always kicked my ass, even when it seemed I was doing well and winning at first.
People said for years that Outrun would never return because SEGA doesn't have the license with Ferrari or whatever. Personally, I couldn't care less if they had Ferrari licensed cars or just knock-offs. I just want a new Outrun with Outrun 2 drift mechanics.
Playing Outrun 2 or Outrun Coast to Coast on a modern PC is a pain.
The Ferrari license thing isn't the main reason people like the Outrun games, anyway. Yes, it adds a lot to the charm, but it's the driving physics and style of Outrun why people like those games.
Outrunners proves it; I don't know how that game did in arcades, but if it didn't do too hot, that's probably only because it was still sprite-based when polygon racers like Virtual Racing and Ridge Racer were starting to dominate arcades.
Are they gonna do any big things with these or just small little stuff. Shinobi would be great as a Mark of the ninja type game. But they can also turn this into a ninja gaiden type of game. That would be good since team ninja abandoned that formula.
Dunno; I assume some could be larger-scale (I think Jet Set Radio & Crazy Taxi may be that way), others smaller scale. But I don't expect the larger-scale stuff to be modern AAA-levels in budget. Likely more mid-AA budgets for those (which I'd peg around $30 - $40 million), or maybe high-AA budgets ( < $55 million).
I read about it here.
SENIOR NETWORK PROGRMMER On Hyenas EXPERIENCES MATTER. 53 CURRENT JOB OPENINGS. On a New Project. Feels bad man, hope all those impacted by another Japanese company throwing global staff under the bus. At some point, if they haven't done so already, any prospective hires will have to factor...
www.installbaseforum.com
SENIOR NETWORK PROGRMMER On Hyenas EXPERIENCES MATTER. 53 CURRENT JOB OPENINGS. On a New Project. Feels bad man, hope all those impacted by another Japanese company throwing global staff under the bus. At some point, if they haven't done so already, any prospective hires will have to factor...
www.installbaseforum.com
Hmm...well I guess Crazy Taxi will be more GaaS after all tho, again, that doesn't mean it won't have robust single-player content. And online MP components make perfect sense for that type of game.
If that info holds up over from IB, Jet Set Radio is the more curious of the two for me. No telling how exactly it'll pan out but I figure they are building something that is easily scalable to mobile platforms as well as console. Not an inherently bad idea. The question is will the gameplay depth be there, or is it going to be more like a Subway Surfers with Jet Set Radio skin painted over top? Which, well, would feel like a complete cash-in and ruin the hype.
Considering who they have leading the project tho, I have faith the gameplay will be rather in-depth and in line with the console JSR/JSRF games with modern control features taken into account, and have solid/robust story & single-player content. There are some great console-like games on mobile that don't devolve into gatcha and MTX hellscapes; the new JSR should take from those examples and build upon them.