A success...if it had been on another system...

[look at it sideways]

A conversation in another thread made me think of this topic - basically, I said I thought the original Chibi Robo would have been a decent mainstream success had it come out on the Wii or even DS in this country. Had that happened, I think we'd likely have a popular and fairly mainstream franchise on our hands. The game had the theme and warmth it needed to be a success - on the right system.

So my question is simple. What games that didn't have the sales joy they perhaps deserved do you think would have had that if they'd appeared on other consoles?

Gonna set down a ground rule - an identifiable version of the game would have to be workable on the console you're choosing - for example, no "Vagrant Story on the Nes", because that would obviously be impossible. It would have to be something that could feasibly have happened, and worked.

[crusto]

I think the Legendary Axe games on the PCE would have been a roaring success on the MD or Snes. Cracking games, especially Legendary Axe 2. Probably would have been 3 or 4.

[SomeScrub]

Anything on the PCE would have done better on the Genesis or SNES.

Burning rangers would probably be a thing had that game been a ps1 or n64 but again so would most saturn games. Virtua fighter would probably be ten times bigger had it debuted and stayed a playstation brand the way tekken did. I think the fact that virtua fighter is far more irrelevant than tekken currently kind of shows that. Like think if virtua fighter 3 had been a launch game for the ps2 the way tekken tag was. People would have eaten that censored up! And then people would have cared about virtua fighter four and five in America too.

[pratty]

That DK racing game on the Wii (Barrel Blast?) ahould have been on the Gamecube as originally planned to use make use of the Bongo controllers, (or at least have supported the Bongos on the Wii version).

Speaking of the Wii and Gamecube, P.N.03 might have faired better on the Wii with pointer aiming and online leaderboards, probably would have still be a fairly niche title though.

[paranoid marvin]

I think the Dreamcast woud have been a much more successful console if FIFA had been available for it.

Similarily , how many people switched from Nintendo to Sony because of FFVII?

[Sir Hilary Bray]

Imagine if the Gamecube would of had the Grand Theft Auto games.

[thevulture]

Alien: Resurrection Playstation, always thought it would have been far better suited to Dreamcast.Technically seemed to squueze every last drop out of the aging hardware and would have benifited from extra 'grunt' of the DC.

Also, wretched to play with PS pad, now DC keyboard and mouse set up....

[ToxieDogg]

I don't agree at all really.

Example of a superb game:- Okami. In my opinion, it's better than a couple of the recent Zelda games, got high socres across the board and was fairly widely available on PS2....on which it didn't sell very well.

Game then ported to Wii, the biggest selling format of the last few years....with motion controls that apparently make the drawing easier and more accessible and it still doesn't sell.

Then Okamiden (a superb mini sequel) appears on the DS. The drawing bits work excellently with the stylus and it's a sizeable game (I spent around 25 hours with it) And still doesn't sell.


The format doesn't seem to make any difference.

[Antiriad2097]

Alien: Resurrection Playstation, always thought it would have been far better suited to Dreamcast.Technically seemed to squueze every last drop out of the aging hardware and would have benifited from extra 'grunt' of the DC.

Also, wretched to play with PS pad, now DC keyboard and mouse set up....

It works with the PS1 mouse.

[look at it sideways]

I don't agree at all really.

Example of a superb game:- Okami. In my opinion, it's better than a couple of the recent Zelda games, got high socres across the board and was fairly widely available on PS2....on which it didn't sell very well.

Game then ported to Wii, the biggest selling format of the last few years....with motion controls that apparently make the drawing easier and more accessible and it still doesn't sell.

Then Okamiden (a superb mini sequel) appears on the DS. The drawing bits work excellently with the stylus and it's a sizeable game (I spent around 25 hours with it) And still doesn't sell.


The format doesn't seem to make any difference.

Thing is though, Okami is a very "niche" game - you look at it and think who it appeals to...from a mainstream perspective, I'm not sure. My example - Chibi Robo - has a ready set family base who I think would enjoy it.

I mean, you may be right - it's all speculation in this case, but your example is one game I'd consider to be niche.

[shiftytigger]

I dont think Vagrant Story on the Nes would have been 'impossible'

- isometric view instead of roaming 3d
- sprite graphics like equinox / solstice
- cut scenes for fighting

all things that have been seen before. Ok combat would have to be pared down but it would be close to recogniseable.

[ShadowNeku]

The developers of Madworld said that they thought they would have been better off releasing it on the Xbox 360. I can only agree with them.

[Flint]

I think Okamiden did sell well but they just didn't produce many copies, Amazon seem to be expecting a reprint.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Capcom-Okamiden ... B00405T4VW

Anyway I'll say Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath would have sold much better on the PS2 as it had an inbuilt audience, admittedly the disapointing Munch's oddysee proably didn't help.

[thevulture]

Alien: Resurrection Playstation, always thought it would have been far better suited to Dreamcast.Technically seemed to squueze every last drop out of the aging hardware and would have benifited from extra 'grunt' of the DC.

Also, wretched to play with PS pad, now DC keyboard and mouse set up....

It works with the PS1 mouse.

Indeed, i'd go as far as to say:I only found it playable with PS Mouse.

[ToxieDogg]

The developers of Madworld said that they thought they would have been better off releasing it on the Xbox 360. I can only agree with them.

But would they? Thing is, yeah it probably would have sold a little more but would it have been a huge success? On the Wii, it wasn't competing against the likes of Gears Of War etc. But on the 360, it would've had achievements and possibly some kind of online multiplayer....whatever people say about achievements/trophies, they are popular with a lot of gamers and do help to sell certain titles.

We will never know really.

As for Chibi Robo, I think it's a great game and one I thoroughly enjoyed playing through start to finish despite a couple of minor niggles, but I also still think it's a niche title. As I've said elsewhere, it reminds me a lot of Toy Commander (which is actually my favourite game on the DC) and Toy Commander wasn't a massive seller on Dreamcast despite being a launch title. I did at one point speculate that a Wii port of Toy Commander may have sold better but in hindsight, I'm not so sure. Pikmin didn't really fare any better when it was ported to the Wii, although that could've been as much to do with the lousy, unappealing 'New Play Control!' boxart as much as anything else.