10 Great Games Series That Changed Developer For The Better

Johnny Minkley:

Who says only the original team knows how to handle its own creation? Not this lot.

Talk about a tough act to follow. Having created not simply one of the world's most popular shooters, but the defining game series of the Xbox era, Bungie bowed out from Halo after 2010's Reach, leaving 343 Industries to take on the Chief in this autumn's Halo 4.

If 343 is bricking it about living up to expectations, it's hardly alone. Brit studio Ninja Theory has already felt the wrath of screaming fanboys before any of them has even played its reboot of Devil May Cry, due early next year.

Meanwhile, after turning in the mediocre Resistance: Burning Skies on Vita already this year, what hope for Nihilistic Software to match Treyarch as it turns its hand to Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified later in 2012?

Gaming history is littered with the failures of famous franchises that switch developer. But some, against the odds, not only turn out to be good, but actually better than the beloved originals.

[TheMasterShake]

1) retro studios version of DKC doesn't even hold a candle to Rare's three DKC games, everything about those games are timeless.

2) skylanders is trash, it could never live up to the potential of what spyro was on the PlayStation.

3) you could never say that Metroid is better off with Retro, that whole fanbase is split. half like the castlvania esqu games & others like the FPS direction. same thing goes for Max Payne that whole fanbase is split also

screw you and this list

[3-4-5]

The best part is the soundtracks. DKC 1 & 2 have some of the best music ever created by man.

It's so calm and soothing and adventurous at the same time. I've never even played the games but I love the soundtracks. I'm missing out though.

[Snookies12]

Ahhh dude! You should totally go back and play them then! Still loads of fun even to this day. Also side note, love the SAO avatar.

[Carl_Shocker]

Have to disagree with some of these

Max Payne 3 was a good game but it wasn't as good as the last two games. Rockstar didn't include much which made a Max Payne game...Max Payne. There was no noire, a typical story, no Mona, no graphic cutscenes and the setting was off putting. Sorry but Rockstar just didn't live up to the past Max Payne games. People need to take off those "Everything Rockstar makes is golden" glasses and look at the game as a sequel to Max Payne...yes it's a good game but does it live up to past Max Payne games Remedy made....nope, not even close.

Skylands....what the hell, it's a stupid game which cons money out of parents where there kid will want more toys which cost at least £6 each...and what for, to unlock a bonus level on the disc. It's worse then Capcom and their disc locked content. To be honest it's not even a Spyro game, it just has the name slapped on there to sell more units.

[LOGICWINS]

"Max Payne 3 was a good game but it wasn't as good as the last two games"

Disagree completely. Max Payne 3 bought the franchise to a level that Remedy never would have. The new game mechanics(Last Man Standing/ability to melee) made the game more fun, the controls were tighter, it had WAAAAY more action than the previous to entries, more variety(different locations in NJ, Brazil, Panama AND different enemy types that ACTUALLY reacted you in a unique way), MUCH better visuals, MUCH more human voice work(especially Max), better animations, deeper story than previous entries etc.

Max Payne 3 is the best story based shooter this generation, my opinion. It changed for the better.

[Carl_Shocker]

"The new game mechanics(Last Man Standing/ability to melee) made the game more fun, the controls were tighter"

"MUCH better visuals"

"better animations"

Well of course it's going to have all that, Max Payne 2 was a last gen game, I'm pretty sure if Remedy made a Max Payne game this gen they would of had all those improvments. I mean of course it's going to have better animations, visuals...it's a next gen game.

"more variety(different locations in NJ, Brazil, Panama "

Which totaly didn't fit Max Payne in any way, those flashback levels to New York were the best thing about the game.

"it had WAAAAY more action "

Max Payne wasn't about action, it was about a gripping Noire story with deep characters and gameplay. It wasn't a game with huge explosions and big guns like MP3 turned into, MP3 was basicaly Die Hard the Video Game. If you felt Max Payne needed more action then I don't think you would of enjoyed the first two. Max Payne was a hero, but he wasn't an action hero, he was just a regualr cop, with nothing left to loose who managed to survive all odds by luck

"deeper story than previous entries"

No it didn't...it was a typical conspiracy story with an easy to guess plot. You knew what was coming and you basicaly could figure out what was going to happen at the end half way through the game.

It was a good game but it just wasn't Max Payne, it's like Rockstar were making a new IP, found out they got the Max Payne rights or were going to make a sequel to it themselfs and then decided to turn the new IP into Max Payne.

[LOGICWINS]

Well I guess were going to agree to disagree. After playing every Max Payne game at least half a dozen times, MP3 is still the best out of the three for me...and nothing anyone says will change that.

I guess I'm simply more open minded than other MP fans and I'm willing to accept change when that change is done right.

I'll accept that you believe that MP3 isn't the best "Max Payne" game(you can make an argument for this), but as a VIDEOGAME in general, its CLEARLY superior to the previous two entries.

If Max Payne is the "Die Hard' of videogames, then Max Payne 3 is the "Live Free or Die Hard" of videogames. More action, better special effects etc.

[Carl_Shocker]

Oh where open minded, we just don't accept change where it dosen't live up to what the franchise is about...in this case Max Payne 3 being an all out generic third person action game instead of being a gritty, dark, love-noire story based game with cool graphic cutscenes and a tense atmosphere.

As I've said if Remedy did it then it would also be superior...it's next gen of course it would be superior.

[HonestDragon]

I agree with your disagree. I found that Max Payne 3 was very hard to play through. I didn't like the story at all. I found it to be very out of place and forced. This is considering that Max Payne 2 had a great conclusion for all of the characters we saw.

Max Payne 3's story? More like Max Payne 3: Special Victims Unit directed by Michael Bay. Sure the first couple of Max Payne's had action and explosions, but at least they were contained rather than the action fest of MP3.

The gameplay can be equally as atrocious. I don't know how your experience was, but for me it was horrible. And I'm good at third person shooters and beat Max Payne 2 on the hardest difficulty to get the alternate ending. I didn't like the limit on weapons, the cutscene to gameplay transitions were unwelcome (you don't even start the gameplay with the two handed weapon if you want it), painkillers were a pain to try to find (especially if Max keeps narrating to himself about how he's wasting time), the Bronco family are a bunch of helpless idiots, and for some reason they put Max back into the frame of mind of the first and second games.

Fans of the series might be split on Max Payne 3, but my personal opinion on it is that it's an overrated shooter that has game mechanic issues that many reviewers neglect to mention and an unwanted addition of a poor story.

[Xperia_ion]

Sooooo much fail, cant compute. My head is spinning, I'm foaming from the mouth, someone slap me. I just got a fail seizure from this article.

[NeXXXuS]

I had that feel too bro.

[majiebeast]

I disagree with half the list.

Skylanders cant hold a candle to the classics its a cash cow gimmick.
DKC returns is not better then country 1,2 or 3 largely due to using the wiimote which was just annoying.
Metroid prime is not better then super metroid, which is probably the best snes game ever made. Prime is amazing but just not super metroid amazing.
Max payne 3 better then 2 yeah... just no.

[Cpt Jack House]

Skylanders... excuse me?

[RyuX19]

Just no to this whole list.

[Sidewinder-]

I actually played Skylanders at my cousin's.

It was awful...

[kcuthbertson]

I totally understand the bashing on Skylanders from a teen/adult gamer perspective, but you guys have to think...

There are tons of younger kids who play with action figures AND video games, and they eat this crap up all day long. Skylanders probably isn't that good of a game (don't know, never played it), but from a marketing and business standpoint, it's borderline genius.

[Cpt Jack House]

I think the main point is that Spyro is involved, I'm pretty sure Spyro isn't the reason Skylanders is popular and most likely could've been made without him, and if it was it probably wouldn't receive as much hate, if any at all.
Completely agree about it's stance market-wise though.

[kcuthbertson]

That's true...I never thought of it that way. Because in that regard, they pretty much destroyed what Spyro was in its hayday.

[BlackPrince 42]

Yeah no, Insomniac's Spyros are the best just as Naughty Dog's Crashs were the best.

(Though from what I've seen Sanzaru is doing an excellent job with Sly 4, but that's because it is a passion project for that studio, not something the corporate suits told them to do to squeeze money out of an established IP.)

[chazjamie]

when i was a kid, i always thought spyro was a poor man's crash. so i never liked it. I had no idea it had such a loyal fan base.

[BlackPrince 42]

I've never thought of one being better than the other. Gameplay wise they feel nothing alike, and their level design couldn't be more different.

[narrat0r]

The worst list in recent memory.

[Reverent]

That's really saying a lot too, considering how many sh*tty lists are posted on this site every day.

[Der_Kommandant]

That list belongs to the toilet

[Tokyo_reject]

Um...Max Payne was not changed for the better.....ALL Max Paynes are, and will always be amazing. Same with....ALL these games...how are they changed for the "Better" when the old games are still great...and in some cases SO much better then the games you listed......Fail, Delete this so i dont have to look at it anymore please...

[prototypeknuckles]

1-skylanders are you serious thats ctrap, hell its not even a spyro game hes just there
2-metroid is opinionated but i agree
3-DmC are you fucking serious they got dante acting like an ass clown and vergil being a little punk bitch, and a game that runs at 30fps, has weapon cool downs, and his devil trigger looks weak.
ill give you tomb raider, need for speed, and especially prince of persia i like the originals but ubisofts sands of time and 08 game were the best in the series, and still stayed true to the roots of the original.

[baraka007]

I hear fable the journey is awesome too ")

[Lord_Sloth]

I saw your chosen image and decided it best not to read this article.

[DragonKnight]

DmC is NOT one of those series that changed developer for the better. It's inclusion on this list is purely for hits.

[Gamer-Z]

This list sucks, guy has no idea what hes talking about.

[Fullmetalevolust]

Let's outdo each other with irrelevant top ten lists (although this one had some promises) and the winner is...

[potedude]

I agree with Hot Pursuit. That game has so much win it is insane.

Not so sure about the rest...

[MizTv]

i will love retro till the day i die! metroit prime is in my top 7 games of all time!