Before Halo, before Grand Theft Auto and before The Sims, there had already been number of fantastic, inventive video game franchises that have shaped the gaming landscape as we know it. Some have long been forgotten by the masses, reduced to the occasional moment of fuzzy, nostalgic recall. And some deserve better. In the current trend of retro-revivals; TGR feel some of these franchises deserve resurrection, whether it’s a long-overdue current-gen update, or just that elusive next instalment to finally be released. If you’re one of the many salivating over Final Fantasy XIII, Guitar Hero V and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, spare a thought for those forgotten franchises that weren’t as lucky.

Killer Instinct

Rare’s arcade beat-em-up wowed audiences with its graphics. Its arcade success led to successful ports to the SNES and Game Boy. The high difficulty in pulling off increasingly complex combos (including the Ultra-combo) and its outlandish combatants helped Killer Instinct become a cult hit. Playable characters included the cyborg ’Fulgore’, a skeleton called ’Spinal’, icy alien ’Glacius’ and of course, the velociraptor ’Riptor’. Following the recent rebirth of Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie franchise with Nuts and Bolts, the British developer producing Killer Instinct 3 is still a possibility. It would, however, have to pull out all the stops to compete with the likes of Street Fighter IV, and that might mean a total change of direction for the series.

X-COM (UFO: Enemy Unknown)

Considering the hardware limitations of the time, X-COM did well to cram and balance so many ideas; turn-based strategy, squad tactics, character levelling and resource management to name a few of its features. UFO conspiracies and alien paranoia are classic gaming themes that, in the right hands, could be truly atmospheric on modern hardware. Having more expansive levels to explore and a multiplayer option in a next-gen remake would make our day.

Maniac Mansion

Maniac Mansion and its sequel Day of Tentacle remain two of gaming’s most loved and quirky adventure games. Multiple playable characters, different possible endings, mind-bending time travel and a great sense of humour contributed to its sizable popularity. After the recent releases of new chapters in two classic LucasArts IPs in the form of the Sam and Max and Monkey Island series, we at TGR suspect (and by suspect we mean really hope - Ed) a Maniac Mansion or Day of the Tentacle remake is on the cards - and it will be met with open arms.

Dungeon Keeper

The tagline says it all: “Evil is good”. Dungeon Keeper was gem of a strategy game. For once it was the player’s turn to build, then take control of a dungeon and all of its nasties, killing and torturing the hereos in this game, the world’s first dungeon sim. Nice little touches like being able to slap units around and get down into the dungeon action using a first person perspective showed us that the Bullfrog team were challenging the conventions of the strategy genre. Dungeon Keeper 3 was in production but sadly never made it to release. We’d like to see what horrendous new ideas could come to light in a future instalment.

Duke Nukem

Say what you will about the Duke, the star of gaming’s most comical shooter franchise, but Nukem fans are still loyal to this day. Duke Nukem 3D pitched you against aliens, mutants and pig-cops, and also had you visit strip clubs and pornography shops in an orgy of adolescent silliness. The franchise looked set to continue with the development of Duke Nukem Forever by 3D Realms - officially announced back in the late 90s. Despite several releases of screenshots and promotional materials repeated release delays and a lack of budget led to its cancellation this year, making Forever one of, if not the most notorious example of vaporware ever. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end...