10 Game Concepts that have VANISHED

Game design is an ever-evolving medium

and sometimes things just drop off hi

folks it’s Falcon and today on game

ranks 10 game Concepts that have been

forgotten starting off with number 10

content that can be permanently missed

this is one of those Concepts I think a

lot of people are glad to see forgotten

but there is actually some value in it I

think with most games now it’s really

rare you’ll run into content that’s

permanently missable uh games will go

out of their way to make sure you get a

chance to see everything that you want

to uh like if your hometown gets blown

up in the start that the quest that you

don’t finish there usually show up

somewhere else if you miss an item in a

dungeon that you can’t come back to it

just shows up again somewhere else or

appears in a special lost items chest or

something all that stuff is good because

it sucks to miss out on things you

wanted to do and in some ways games bend

over backwards to accommodate the player

that can limit the game’s potential like

how many games now make it so you really

can’t make any big choices anymore

nothing that’s actually going to change

the entire direction of the game or lock

you out of certain interactions it’s

just not there like Persona 5 there’s

stuff you could miss like the will seeds

and whatnot but that doesn’t change the

direction of the game like there’s minor

variations like that but big stuff

doesn’t usually change in a way these

things are designed to avoid player

frustration and I get it because it does

people don’t want to make a decision

they perceive as wrong or causes them to

miss out on something but they also want

choices to matter it’s a tough position

for developers even the ones who are

really good at it like CD projekt Red

and Witcher 3 they get criticized for

this kind of thing there’s a lot of

people out there who are kind of

nostalgic for the way games were when

you could really miss out on something

major it makes a game more replayable

but yeah it also can be very frustrating

at number nine is real-time Squad

commands and action games like what

happened to this like games like Mass

Effect were so much fun you could order

your allies around command them to do

special attacks you could do this in the

middle of combat it was the perfect mix

of tactical but still exciting and it’s

kind of shocking that more games haven’t

tried to copy that or this kind of just

disappeared the only other time I can

really think of it is the Bureau XCOM

Declassified which tries to be a more

tactical version of that same kind of

gameplay but doesn’t quite pull it

together just in general it seems a lot

like Squad commands are kind of going

away from games especially ones that

they’re purely tactical like the

original Gears of War which let you

command your squad in single player

um the sequels just took it out the Band

of Brothers inspired Brothers in Arms

was an awesome combination of FPS and

tactical game little more arcadey was

the Freedom Fighters where you command a

swarm of resistance Fighters and take on

the Soviet Menace now that I think about

it there’s actually a lot of games that

use this concept it’s just that they’re

all about a generation or more out of

date like there’s a lot of potential for

a game like this in next gen and it’s a

shame there aren’t more of them out

there there was that disintegration game

but that didn’t really do that well the

closest thing I can basically think of

is the Guardians of the Galaxy game

which was fantastic a huge surprise and

also kind of quietly passed we need more

like this it works

at number eight is risky traversal

mechanics um getting around in most

games these days pretty much a breeze

Spider-Man Batman Assassin’s Creed hell

even any given Uncharted game basically

all you have to do is get around is

point yourself in the direction you want

to go and go there’s no real danger to

getting around at least not from the

environment itself that part’s almost

completely automated for you at this

point obviously platforming is still

alive in the 2D space and a few rare 3D

games but for the most part if you want

to get around in a big budget action

game you’re not really gonna have a

tough time it wasn’t always the case a

lot of action games traversal was a real

Challenge and I’m talking about games

like the original Tomb Raider games

Prince of Persia they could be real

nerve-wracking Prince of Persia reboot

on the Xbox and PS2 was one of the first

games to try to modernize that kind of

cinematic platformer but that doesn’t

mean the traversal was easy in that game

it was still a real threat in a lot of

cases and that’s even keeping in mind

the more player friendly controls that

game’s version of traversal kind of got

lost at a certain point in a lot of

modern games could actually be improved

by making their movement mechanics have

some element of danger while still

feeling fair

at number seven is insulting easy modes

so many games used to give you [ __ ] for

being uneasy or like using cheats or

basically doing anything that went

against the game designers quote-unquote

Vision they let you do it but they made

fun of you a little bit for it kind of

acted like you were being insulting to

them but it’s also kind of like No I

gave you 50 60 bucks for this I don’t

think you should be insulting me for how

I use it so it’s kind of like a back and

forth on this because honestly I think

that it’s funny when I get made fun of

for playing on easy mode in a game but

it’s also kind of weird it can come off

a little petty and mean-spirited

especially given how games have become

more accessible over time so that more

people can play them I don’t know I go

back and forth on it sometimes it really

does give the game some character like

wolfenstein’s labeled easy mode can I

play Daddy and had a picture of the main

guy in a baby Bonnet probably the most

harsh of these is the one from Ninja

Gaiden on the Xbox with the Ninja Dog

difficulty they really really rub it in

when you select that one it’s a little

overboard actually it seems I have

greatly overestimated

oh well

we have no choice but to proceed

I will support you in every way that I

can

don’t be overconfident people now see

difficulty options as a form of

accessibility like I said so adding

insulting messages to them isn’t

something consider is called for like

there’s there’s a reason this concept

has been mostly forgotten it doesn’t

seem like it has a place in modern

gaming even though it’s still funny to

me at least I don’t know like I said

it’s one I go back and forth on I’m

happy when more people are able to enjoy

a game and it doesn’t change the game

fundamentally anyway

at number six is bad guy campaigns like

most of the time game has a single

player mode there’s gonna be one

campaign it may be that Publishers

researched it and found that most people

just play as the good guys all the time

but it seems like you really just never

see games to give you multiple campaigns

especially ones where you place the bad

guys in one of them it was most commonly

seen in Old like real-time strategy

games like red alert and Starcraft but

they weren’t the only games like

Transformers War of Cybertron had

separate stories for bad guys and good

guys you could play them in any order

you wanted the first Lego Batman game

had a whole villains story too it had

remix levels where you play out the

story is Batman’s Rose Gallery instead

of as the cave Crusader it was a great

idea and something I wish more games

would try to do alternative story modes

in general are almost never packed in

with games anymore they’re almost always

DLC now and that kind of feels like a

shame

at number five building a town minigam

there’s a lot of games where you can buy

houses and decorate them but for the

most part it’s pretty simple and

cosmetic but every once in a while you

get a game that scratches the city

building itch probably the most

well-known games to do this are the Dark

Cloud games for PlayStation 2 where the

whole game is about exploring Dungeons

and rebuilding towns it’s a really

satisfying gameplay Loop because all the

resources you collect from the dungeon

aren’t just abstract stuff you actually

take it put it in the game world and

walk around and look at your handiwork

the original for this is probably act

Razer where the gameplay was split

between SimCity style Town building and

2D side-scrolling action

um Fallout 4 deserves a mention here as

well you have to keep people happy and

defended in your colonies by setting up

power and shelter ah let’s just say

older games did it better in my opinion

though not that it’s terrible but it can

be very tedious city building is a lot

of fun and it’s even better when you can

actually walk around in your cities and

that’s kind of what this concept is all

about

at number four is save limits uh it’s

easy to take saving for granted now but

a lot of older games didn’t make the

simple Act of saving such an obvious

choice instead of giving you an infinite

amount of saves and say where you wanted

games would limit your ability to save

in some way so it forces you to make

decisions like do I really need to save

my game now it’s usually done by giving

you a limited supply of items that you

can spend to save like the ink ribbons

in Resident Evil or the Kong coins and

Donkey Kong Country 2. a lot of people

really hate stuff like this because

they’re busy they might have kids

demanding job don’t have all the free

time in the world and could be

interrupted at any moment so being able

to save and quit whenever you want is

kind of how every game should do it but

I will say sometimes I do like seeing

stuff like this even if it’s kind of

scary at first one of the few recent

games that actually forces you to use an

item to save is a survival horror

throwback signalus it works in the right

way because it adds a layer of tension

to the experience that isn’t there

normally and it also doesn’t like overdo

it like Donkey Kong country too was it

was it was harsh at number three is

bizarrely complex creature raising

minigames a concept that’s kind of

intentionally out of style back in the

90s when Tamagotchi was big Pokemon and

Digimon were everywhere people were just

Monster raising crazy so for a while a

lot of big games for whatever reason

included some really complex creature

raising minigames just because probably

the most noteworthy I can think of is to

choke about raising minigame of Final

Fantasy VII and the kind of bizarre Chow

raising from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

with Chocobo racing at least it served a

purpose and fit into the world of Final

Fantasy the chocobos have been there

since forever having an actual layered

way of interacting with them and

including a kind of cool racing minigame

as well like I like going back to that

but the ciao minigame and I’m gonna say

this I’m a big Sonic fan and I know I’m

gonna go for this because I know that

the Sonic fandom is insane about Chows

but like it’s weird like who plays a

Sonic game and is like oh man this needs

a monster to raising game I want to slow

down from the fastness of this Sonic the

Hedgehog game to shove food down the

throat of this thing that I can

accidentally throw and kill erasing

whatever I put into it uh it’s whatever

creature raising minigames were out of

place often very convoluted and

unnecessary but they also could be

weirdly addictive as far as creature

raising games go they’re still around I

mean we got a Monster Rancher sequel

last year but when it comes to big

budget games they tend to stick to the

core gameplay rather than include a

bunch of alternate stuff

and number two is intentionally useless

allies like people hate the escort

Mission and I think that’s been well

established at this point but that

doesn’t necessarily mean having to deal

with a burdensome companion is always

bad now if you got a follower in a game

there’s purposely designed to stay out

of your way and not be annoying and they

mostly succeed at that but they can

potentially also make a game less

interesting most bring up Ashley from

Resident Evil 4 as a negative example

but I think having a protector actually

did make certain parts of that game more

interesting not all of the times you had

to do it but one of the best examples of

a weak but interesting followers from

Ico uh the character yorda is mostly

defenseless and it’s up to you to help

them in any other game that might seem

like a pain but in this one the bond

between the two characters is built up

through the gameplay and it really works

now for the most part I’m pretty glad

that most games have gotten away from

forcing it a babysitting useless NPC but

there are a few situations where a good

designer has made a game more

interesting and engaging with a

character who in any other context would

be a huge pain

and at number one is difficulty based

objectives only a few games ever really

attempted this concept and it’s kind of

crazy like in Goldeneye depending on the

difficulty level you got more or less

objectives to complete any given Mission

an example of the easiest difficulty

agent all you have to do in the first

mission is get to the end of the level a

normal called secret agent you have to

take out all the alarms and get to the

end and on the hardest difficulty double

O agent you have to take out the alarms

install a covert modem intercept a data

backup and then get to the end it

completely changes the level and it

rewards players for playing through the

level multiple times only a few games

ever really had this sort of thing this

golden eye Perfect Dark time Splitters

2. that’s about it a few of the EA James

Bond games had similar mechanics but

they were way more half-assed and with a

lot of games playing on harder

difficulties just makes the game Harder

by changing some damage values these

games actually made the levels more

complex and interesting I don’t know why

this concept was so minimally used and

forgotten about it’s a fun idea that

makes it really rewarding to go back and

play through these games again first run

do easy and work up to hard it’s

actually really great quick bonus for

you environmental destruction is a game

mechanic we’ve mentioned this one plenty

of times in other lists but it’s it’s a

drum that we still have to hit why are

there so few games with the kind of

Destruction Red Faction gorilla had it

feels like when next-gen consoles it

should be more possible rather than less

and Red Faction gorilla didn’t just have

it it was a major part of how the game

worked like you could complete a lot of

the missions by destroying a building

but rather it seems game worlds have

become more static rather than more

destructible there’s just so much that’s

been left on the table when it comes to

destruction in video games this mechanic

can’t Peak with a game that’s well over

10 years old it’s dumb the only game

that even comes close is the indie game

teardown which is awesome I play that

game a lot all the time even though I’m

through all the missions I go back to it

because it’s so much fun to just destroy

stuff why is there not more and that’s

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Falcon you can follow me on Twitter at

Falcon the hero and we’ll see you next

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