I don't understand why there are no decent G.I. Joe games
By Slag 7 Comments
Of all the 1980's era classic cartoon/movie properties I've always felt GiJoe should be the easiest to make a decent game out of. And yet that that has never seemed to even come close happening for reasons I can't fathom.
Given War for Cybertron and the upcoming Fall of Cybertron , Transformers feels the "closest" to having realized the potential of the property. He-man, Voltron, Thundercats agmes are basically non-existent Ghostbusters games are typically meh ( Ghostbusters the Game being at least a halfway attempt) and Dragon Ball Z is Dragon Ball Z. The Tron franchise might be the best, if for no other reaosn than the millions of lightcycle knockoff mini games it spawned across various properties.
Aside from a forgettable side scrollers in the late 80's and the dreadful adaption of the live action "accelerator" suit joke of a movie it's been a barren wasteland for the G.I.Joe license.
GiJoe is in theory a small anti-terrorist unit going on small surgical strikes against Cobra (terrorists with world domination goals), Night Creepers (professional ninja assassins) and MARS (an international arms dealer) among others. That premise sounds straight up ripped out of any number of shooters out there today. I would think GiJoe could easily be adopted into a reasonable first person based squad shooter, especially if the early classic comic storylines (written by esteemable Larry Hama) were the source of inspiration instead of the goofy cartoon with all its' laser lights and Cobra-La and all that jazz. There were over 150 issues of the Marvel series, so coming up with an adaptable scenario shouldn't be difficult.
I would think there would also be a market for it. Ancedotally I know a lot of parents who have kids who wants to play FPS games, but won't let them due to excessive violence. I think GiJoe could possibly tame it down into a T for teen type shooter with the brand giving the game some punch to keep it being DOA at retail.
The fact that no one has even attempted anything remotely like this blows my mind, given how strong the brand still is. Even if they put out some 2 out of 5 or 3 out of 5 turd of game it would seem to me to be some easy money for Hasbro.
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