Oh hey, two articles in a row! Is this really me?! In any case, welcome to another entry in “Talking Point”, a magazine-style series of casual articles! If you have any topic suggestions, do feel free to leave them below! I’d love to hear your ideas! Today we look back on Delisted Games, a topic that leaves many gamers with a fear of missing out, myself very much included.
It goes without saying that it sucks when a game is taken off stores. Even disregarding the whole preservation aspect of it, it triggers a feeling of FOMO nonetheless, sometimes it happens right when you’re planning your purchase too, which is just poor conduct on the store’s part for not highlighting when games are getting the axe. Both Forza 4 and The Crew 2 did fantastic by actually going on sale, but those were the exceptions, and not the standard.
Today we choose to highlight a few examples that you can still play today! And that are, in this author’s humble opinion, still worth playing. If you feel any delisted games are worth mentioning, by all means go ahead and leave a comment! Engagement is welcome!
1- Transformers: Cybertron Duology and Rise of the Dark Spark
As someone who’s persistently still trying to get back into the Transformers franchise, I believe a game like this would be ripe for this! The Cybertron series is a game series spearheaded by High Moon Studios. Unfortunately, also a studio that’s ripe for delists. They almost feel like relics despite not being that old, which goes to show how our perception is controlled by exposure. The harder it is to obtain a game, the easier for it to seem ancient.
The Cybertron games are a collection of fast-paced third-person shooters and action adventure games, with elements of platforming. Initially, most licensed tie-in games base themselves on some sort of continuity, but these games are unique for the fact that their first entry, War for Cybertron, wasn’t based on any pre-existing Transformers toy-line or even the Micheal Bay films. Rise of the Dark Spark did however adapt elements from those movies though, but that was developed by Edge of Reality and WayForward, not High Moon.
You can find all aforementioned games on Archive.org pretty easily, they’re pretty much abandonware. If you’re curious about decent Transformers dumb fun, you can’t go wrong with these!
2- Deadpool
This might be an odd sell, but Deadpool is one of my highest recommendations for a 7th gen action adventure title! I know this might sound like it’s just another one of those licensed 7th gen schlock, but I guarantee this is insane fun, and packed with tons of personality.
I think that if series like Arkham can be recommended to the average non-comic fan, then this can as well. Although this might be a poor example as I am a comic book fan and still don’t like the Arkham games! But before further harming my credibility, I’d like to highlight why I find these, err, this game (man, it does feel weird to refer to a singular title), to be pretty darn fun.
Usually, a lot of the more fun Superhero tie-ins go the route of a beat ‘em up. Typically resulting in a fun adventure but sometimes resulting in another generic “by the numbers” title. This one isn’t a generic final fight clone, but a generic DMC clone, which is clearly superior! But all snark aside, Deadpool got a fantastic campaign, however I will be clear that your mileage will vary based on how much you enjoy the concept of Deadpool as a character, but you’ve likely already been through this song and dance before in the movies, so I don’t think you’re seeing anything new in this discourse.
Long story short, if you adore Deadpool, you’ll adore this! Deadpool is my all-time favorite Marvel character alongside Frank Castle and Johnny Storm, so I’m going in with full bias mode here. But that’s ok, because this is clearly pandering to that. I’m being pandered to, I love it! I really like the opening section of this game. Full of all tiny little things you can interact with. It’s evident that High Moon knew who they were adapting.
I heard a critique that this game flanderized Deadpool. I understand that type of complaint but I’m inclined to disagree. Flanderization usually results of removing depth, but Deadpool was never really this complex type of character, even with all the gut-wrenching tragic stuff as well as that one story where he saves a suicidal girl, even with all that he’s still a fairly uncomplicated character and there’s beauty in that. Nuance matters. However, I do understand if you’re still turned off by this game’s non-stop stream of jokes, Deadpool fan or otherwise. There’s definitely something worth calling out in games that don’t shut up like Guardians of the Galaxy, but for my money, Deadpool still tells pretty funny jokes, and got decent parodies of gaming culture. GotG on the other hand was just a really bad Uncharted clone.
Got any delisted games worth highlighting? Please do so in the comments! If you want, you may also suggest a topic for a future “talking point” entry. Thanks for reading!
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