How Would You Revive an old Nintendo Series?

[Jotari]

31 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

You have a good point; Kid Icarus did have a plot that Kid Icarus Uprising could utilize, and the story was one of the things people enjoyed about Kid Icarus Uprising, whereas Ice Climber had a vague excuse plot about climbing mountains to retrieve eggplants. So, the only things an Ice Climber revival would have to stand on would be gameplay and their appearances in Smash Bros., and Ice Climber doesn't have much to stand on in terms of gameplay.

While I can't say for sure as I haven't looked at sales, I'd also be willing to say Kid Icarus was a lot more popular a game than Ice Climber was. It got a sequel to begin with (though an American made sequel) and Pit appeared in Captain N (which uh, was also American made...), he also had cameos in a few other gameboy games, while Ice Climber seems just have Smash Bros, which happened almost twenty years after the game's release. Kid Icarus feels like it was one good SNES game away from being a staple series of Nintendo whereas Ice Climber seems like it's just one of dozens of different 80s NES games.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jotari

[Zapp Branniglenn]

44 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I officially tempt you.

28 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoit

My! I guess I have no choice then.

Spoiler

 

I wouldn't call Punch-Out Future, released for the Nintendo Super Switch™ a revival since that's what Punch Out Wii already is, but it is ABOUT a Punch Out revival. Future is set some 30 years into the future of 20XX, better reflecting the passage of time since the original game. The WVBA is long gone. Just like real life boxing, It's been beaten out by the one two punch of Mixed Martial Arts competitions and Esports. However, a sports conglomerate that owns the WVBA needs to do something with the brand or else risk losing it forever. We're cutting between scenes of a board room of obnoxious-looking rich suits and a Google-esque 'idea lounge' of disingenuous millenials passing ideas and gimmicks around for the revival of a sport none of them have any passion for. Bizarrely, the recent Matrix Resurrections movie has exactly the tone I was thinking of for this montage - I choked on my popcorn laughing at the line "what we need is Mind Porn, man. I'm talking ideas. Ideas are the new sexy." So Punch Out's take on this scene would have a dude bro pointing to a grainy picture of Bald Bull, saying we need dumb loud macho fighters, while another points to Super Macho Man as the "sports celebrity" angle. Notably, none of them bring up the fighting spirit or underdog appeal of Little Mac, the canonical champion. The board room scenes include a serious looking woman who seems to be routinely ignored by her cohorts.

The WVBA revival ultimately chooses to go hard on the nostalgia. Big, dumb, loud fighters from across the world, no weight classes, no rules other than you have to wear boxing gloves. And how do they manage such an irresponsible, dangerous sport? Holograms. Holograms overlaying a mannequin-robot, programmed with the moves, speed, and tendencies of famous legacy fighters. The robot is rooted to the middle of the arena, providing context for the question "how come nobody moves around in Punch Out?". Hologram technology already exists in the practice mode of the Wii game, but this is much more visually advanced and reflects the old fighters in their prime. Your character is the first challenger, the son of that woman we saw in the board room. Mom is your "Doc Louis", and she's determined to see that the legacy of the WVBA isn't tarnished by corporate interests and tossed aside after a half-assed attempt like her coworkers want. What she needs is a star, and what better star than you the player her precious son who shares her love of the gone-away legends of boxing?

As you would expect, there would be returning fighters from previous games, maybe with a greater focus on Super Punch Out's cast rather than the NES cast since we saw them come back in the Wii game. As you beat on your opponent, the robot gets physical signs of wear. The holograms start to not look right after a few Knock downs. Some tells on your opponent's face get more obvious while others glitch out and send you mixed signals. Land a star punch and you might break cleanly through the mirage image, revealing a sinister Terminator-like face beneath. I mentioned that your opponent doesn't move around, but the player can, by pressing left and right. Choosing to physically move is your slowest "dodge" option, but can provide advantages, like moving into the blindspot of an eye patch wearing fighter, safely avoiding a Bull Charge - like move, or taking advantage of a physical injury you've inflicted on one side of your opponent's body. Creating chinks in your opponents armor is a core tenet of boxing, now realized in gameplay form. Dodging in place is now leaning your body back and is the only way to avoid horizontal hooks that would catch the player if they tried moving to the left or right. Ducking is also still here, but it's more of a situational "counterattack" then a dodge, Intended to give you an opening from diving beneath an opponent's high-aimed jab for an uppercut. This uppercut would create openings that normal dodging can't, but the timing is the strictest.

Punch Out NES and Wii are both games that test pattern recognition and reactionary play styles. But I would want a more proactive battle system based on Super Punch out to help differentiate the "flow" of this game compared to previous entries in the series. Perhaps blend the two in ways that no fighter feels too similar to the last. Whatever the case, the Power Meter of Super would return rather than your stamina (heart) gauge, building as you land hits, and draining dramatically as you take hits. It also falls when your punches get blocked/dodged. You get big meter if you hit your opponent when their body is flashing during the windups of certain attacks, similar to getting stars in Punch out Wii. However, if you're in an attacking animation when you get punched, you take much more damage and meter loss than normal - like counter hits in fighting games. Fill the meter up completely and time will slow after a successful dodge, allowing you to land twice as many hits than you're normally capable of on each opening. Stay in this state long enough and you also get access to the Star Punch once per round for crazy damage.

Next I want to talk about the new fighters. As the game progresses, the WVBA revival gets more popular, more butts in the seats, more chanting during your fights, more hashtags on social media. This infuriates the board room members, who begin hiring real life MMA competitors to try and end your challenge series with unsportsmanlike mean comments and shilling for Popinksi brand energy drink. These aint holograms. They're special Exhibition matches in between cups of 3-4 fighters. These fights can uniquely have opponents that do move around, prompting you to circle strafe in the opposing direction so they can't get unavoidable hits on you. Some of the board room members themselves volunteer to step into the ring, giving you the joy of beating up rich people and other jerks trying to keep your fighting spirit down. It all culminates with a fight against the cartoonishly jacked CEO, your mom's boss. You defeat him, but he denies his loss, and tries to take a cheap shot at your character in a cutscene before his fist is stopped by an outstretched green boxing glove poking out from a faded pink robe-jacket. The hood comes down, It's Little Mac, not so little anymore. He's older, desheveled, think Axel from Streets of Rage 4. He's wondering why the greatest fighter of the WVBA doesn't get a chance to reclaim his belt. Enter the final final boss against Big Mac (copyright pending). 

As for other ideas, I used to want the Mother and Son characters to be the illegitimate daughter and grandson of a deceased Doc Louis. I certainly WANT the mom to be like Doc Louis in her mannerisms. His never quit attitude, but juxtaposed against motherly comments like telling you to stand up straight. And unbridled rage at seeing her baby boy get cheap shotted out there in the ring. However, I think in today's fiction people are getting a little too tired of Dynastic Storytelling. The idea that the heroes and villains are who they are because of who their parents were. Maybe hearing about Force Diads in Star Wars has jaded me away from this sort of thing. Plus we're already reaching hard on nostalgia by including holograms of legacy fighters and Little Mac himself. 

As for the secret bonus nintendo character to replace Donkey Kong from the Wii game? K Rool was my first idea as a more direct callback, but maybe an ARMS character would be a little more creative of a fight. I do not have names for the Mother and Son characters. Son is "Sonny" in my head, while I know Mom has to be Momma _______. Sonny should absolutely be of a small stature just like Mac was, since it makes sense with the game's camera placement and reminds you that you're the underdog. I also want this universe's fake social media platform to be the context for uploading replays of matches for your friends to watch or straight to Youtube. You can watch how your friends beat a fight, and leave some bizarre comments and hashtags of your own. I don't know how to get multiplayer working well in Punch Out so I'd pass on that. Just have a long, well written campaign with a lot of fighters and Title Defense rematches of each. Maybe an RPG roguelike side mode where you challenge opponents in non-standard order with strange buffs and challenge conditions. You can boost your character's stats - Possibly through some minigames? Some Rocky style nonsense to show how your character trains between fights. Maybe even Arm Wrestling to shout out that game's shared lineage with Punch Out. Get far enough in the mode and you start unlocking skills you already have in the main campaign like the star punch or ducking uppercut.

 

 

[AnonymousSpeed]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Kid Icarus feels like it was one good SNES game away from being a staple series of Nintendo

Dang, now that's an alternate timeline I would want the chance to visit.

3 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

My! I guess I have no choice then.

It's interesting, although...not the direction I'd take. "Well written campaign" isn't something I think the arcade-style Punch-Out!! experience really meshes with, but the social media idea is actually kinda neat.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

My! I guess I have no choice then.

  Hide contents

 

I wouldn't call Punch-Out Future, released for the Nintendo Super Switch™ a revival since that's what Punch Out Wii already is, but it is ABOUT a Punch Out revival. Future is set some 30 years into the future of 20XX, better reflecting the passage of time since the original game. The WVBA is long gone. Just like real life boxing, It's been beaten out by the one two punch of Mixed Martial Arts competitions and Esports. However, a sports conglomerate that owns the WVBA needs to do something with the brand or else risk losing it forever. We're cutting between scenes of a board room of obnoxious-looking rich suits and a Google-esque 'idea lounge' of disingenuous millenials passing ideas and gimmicks around for the revival of a sport none of them have any passion for. Bizarrely, the recent Matrix Resurrections movie has exactly the tone I was thinking of for this montage - I choked on my popcorn laughing at the line "what we need is Mind Porn, man. I'm talking ideas. Ideas are the new sexy." So Punch Out's take on this scene would have a dude bro pointing to a grainy picture of Bald Bull, saying we need dumb loud macho fighters, while another points to Super Macho Man as the "sports celebrity" angle. Notably, none of them bring up the fighting spirit or underdog appeal of Little Mac, the canonical champion. The board room scenes include a serious looking woman who seems to be routinely ignored by her cohorts.

The WVBA revival ultimately chooses to go hard on the nostalgia. Big, dumb, loud fighters from across the world, no weight classes, no rules other than you have to wear boxing gloves. And how do they manage such an irresponsible, dangerous sport? Holograms. Holograms overlaying a mannequin-robot, programmed with the moves, speed, and tendencies of famous legacy fighters. The robot is rooted to the middle of the arena, providing context for the question "how come nobody moves around in Punch Out?". Hologram technology already exists in the practice mode of the Wii game, but this is much more visually advanced and reflects the old fighters in their prime. Your character is the first challenger, the son of that woman we saw in the board room. Mom is your "Doc Louis", and she's determined to see that the legacy of the WVBA isn't tarnished by corporate interests and tossed aside after a half-assed attempt like her coworkers want. What she needs is a star, and what better star than you the player her precious son who shares her love of the gone-away legends of boxing?

As you would expect, there would be returning fighters from previous games, maybe with a greater focus on Super Punch Out's cast rather than the NES cast since we saw them come back in the Wii game. As you beat on your opponent, the robot gets physical signs of wear. The holograms start to not look right after a few Knock downs. Some tells on your opponent's face get more obvious while others glitch out and send you mixed signals. Land a star punch and you might break cleanly through the mirage image, revealing a sinister Terminator-like face beneath. I mentioned that your opponent doesn't move around, but the player can, by pressing left and right. Choosing to physically move is your slowest "dodge" option, but can provide advantages, like moving into the blindspot of an eye patch wearing fighter, safely avoiding a Bull Charge - like move, or taking advantage of a physical injury you've inflicted on one side of your opponent's body. Creating chinks in your opponents armor is a core tenet of boxing, now realized in gameplay form. Dodging in place is now leaning your body back and is the only way to avoid horizontal hooks that would catch the player if they tried moving to the left or right. Ducking is also still here, but it's more of a situational "counterattack" then a dodge, Intended to give you an opening from diving beneath an opponent's high-aimed jab for an uppercut. This uppercut would create openings that normal dodging can't, but the timing is the strictest.

Punch Out NES and Wii are both games that test pattern recognition and reactionary play styles. But I would want a more proactive battle system based on Super Punch out to help differentiate the "flow" of this game compared to previous entries in the series. Perhaps blend the two in ways that no fighter feels too similar to the last. Whatever the case, the Power Meter of Super would return rather than your stamina (heart) gauge, building as you land hits, and draining dramatically as you take hits. It also falls when your punches get blocked/dodged. You get big meter if you hit your opponent when their body is flashing during the windups of certain attacks, similar to getting stars in Punch out Wii. However, if you're in an attacking animation when you get punched, you take much more damage and meter loss than normal - like counter hits in fighting games. Fill the meter up completely and time will slow after a successful dodge, allowing you to land twice as many hits than you're normally capable of on each opening. Stay in this state long enough and you also get access to the Star Punch once per round for crazy damage.

Next I want to talk about the new fighters. As the game progresses, the WVBA revival gets more popular, more butts in the seats, more chanting during your fights, more hashtags on social media. This infuriates the board room members, who begin hiring real life MMA competitors to try and end your challenge series with unsportsmanlike mean comments and shilling for Popinksi brand energy drink. These aint holograms. They're special Exhibition matches in between cups of 3-4 fighters. These fights can uniquely have opponents that do move around, prompting you to circle strafe in the opposing direction so they can't get unavoidable hits on you. Some of the board room members themselves volunteer to step into the ring, giving you the joy of beating up rich people and other jerks trying to keep your fighting spirit down. It all culminates with a fight against the cartoonishly jacked CEO, your mom's boss. You defeat him, but he denies his loss, and tries to take a cheap shot at your character in a cutscene before his fist is stopped by an outstretched green boxing glove poking out from a faded pink robe-jacket. The hood comes down, It's Little Mac, not so little anymore. He's older, desheveled, think Axel from Streets of Rage 4. He's wondering why the greatest fighter of the WVBA doesn't get a chance to reclaim his belt. Enter the final final boss against Big Mac (copyright pending). 

As for other ideas, I used to want the Mother and Son characters to be the illegitimate daughter and grandson of a deceased Doc Louis. I certainly WANT the mom to be like Doc Louis in her mannerisms. His never quit attitude, but juxtaposed against motherly comments like telling you to stand up straight. And unbridled rage at seeing her baby boy get cheap shotted out there in the ring. However, I think in today's fiction people are getting a little too tired of Dynastic Storytelling. The idea that the heroes and villains are who they are because of who their parents were. Maybe hearing about Force Diads in Star Wars has jaded me away from this sort of thing. Plus we're already reaching hard on nostalgia by including holograms of legacy fighters and Little Mac himself. 

As for the secret bonus nintendo character to replace Donkey Kong from the Wii game? K Rool was my first idea as a more direct callback, but maybe an ARMS character would be a little more creative of a fight. I do not have names for the Mother and Son characters. Son is "Sonny" in my head, while I know Mom has to be Momma _______. Sonny should absolutely be of a small stature just like Mac was, since it makes sense with the game's camera placement and reminds you that you're the underdog. I also want this universe's fake social media platform to be the context for uploading replays of matches for your friends to watch or straight to Youtube. You can watch how your friends beat a fight, and leave some bizarre comments and hashtags of your own. I don't know how to get multiplayer working well in Punch Out so I'd pass on that. Just have a long, well written campaign with a lot of fighters and Title Defense rematches of each. Maybe an RPG roguelike side mode where you challenge opponents in non-standard order with strange buffs and challenge conditions. You can boost your character's stats - Possibly through some minigames? Some Rocky style nonsense to show how your character trains between fights. Maybe even Arm Wrestling to shout out that game's shared lineage with Punch Out. Get far enough in the mode and you start unlocking skills you already have in the main campaign like the star punch or ducking uppercut.

 

 

I'm the copyright pending issue, McDonald's doesn't have copyright over Big Mac in the EU (thanks to Ireland). Which allows for fun stuff like this.

https://imgk.timesnownews.com/story/1549431278-BK.jpg