electricmastro

Yeah, I think I should admit upfront right now that I’m not that good with wording things. lol If someone can better word this to me in such a way that I can keep games like Swordquest: Airworld, Clockwork Aquario, and American Hero on there, because they seem to fall under similar circumstances to begin with, then it would be appreciated.

It was still being developed as far back as 2001 (a source I just found claims 2000). Understanding that, nothing can really change the fact that the development history is in truth over 10 years, so that’s relevant enough to me to put on the list, despite how different the game may have turned out in 2012: “Diablo III began development at Blizzard North in 2000, and continued until the studio closed in 2005. An almost entirely new development team took over at Blizzard Irvine in 2005, and the game they created is what we know today and what the rest of this wiki covers. Few elements of the original Blizzard North version of Diablo III were retained, and no one working at Blizzard has given any details about why the original game was scrapped or which elements were retained in the new version. Even the ex-Blizzard North employees have had little to say on the matter, whether out of professional courtesy, loyalty to old friends at Blizzard, or fear of Blizzard's lawyers. There was never any announcement that Diablo III was under production until the game's debut at the WWI Paris event in June 2008. After that time, the new Diablo III team admitted that the game was under production back at Blizzard North in the early 00s, but they've never given any details about what that version of the game was like.” - https://www.diablowiki.net/Diablo_III:_Blizzard_North_version

Yep, either the info is relevant to Metroid Dread’s development history, or it isn’t. Metroid Dread had also been announcened in some magazines in 2006 I recall, with Hitoshi Sakimoto being involved throughout it all. I’m not saying Metroid Dread 2006 is the same as Metroid Dread 2021, but if it’s relevant, then that’s enough for me. lol

Development reportedly started in 2001, but got delayed because of World of Warcraft. “Development on Diablo III began in 2001 when Blizzard North was still in operation, and the game was announced on June 28, 2008, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France. The original artistic design differed from that shown at Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 demonstration, and had undergone three revisions before reaching the standards felt necessary by the team behind Diablo III.” “A trailer for the former famously has Tychus Findlay saying, "Hell. It's about time." To put this into context, after the release of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction in June 2001, Blizzard would release Warcraft-related games exclusively for the next 9 years, until the aforementioned Wings of Liberty.”

Just for fun, tried making a list of the games that were delayed for the longest, but still ended up getting released, based on the time between development starts/first announcements and official releases: Swordquest: Airworld - 39 years Clockwork Aquario - 29 years American Hero - 26 years Star Fox 2 - 24 years Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution - 22 years Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar - 20 years Chip's Challenge 2 - 18 years Metroid Dread - 16 years Black Mesa - 16 years Duke Nukem Forever - 14 years Nioh - 13 years Limbo of the Lost - 12 years Mother 3 - 12 years Return to Dark Castle - 12 years Diablo III - 11 years Prey - 11 years Skull and Bones - 11 years Kirby's Return to Dream Land - 11 years Final Fantasy XV - 10 years The Kore Gang: Outvasion from Inner Earth - 10 years Dead Island 2 - 9 years Doom 4 - 9 years The Fool and His Money - 9 years Kingdom Hearts III - 9 years The Last Guardian - 9 years Toki Remake - 9 years Too Human - 9 years Owlboy - 9 years Spore - 8 years System Shock Remake - 8 years Team Fortress 2 - 8 years Cube World - 8 years Cyberpunk 2077 - 8 years Dark Sector - 8 years Paprium - 8 years Persona 5 - 8 years Pikmin 4 - 8 years Red Dead Redemption 2 - 8 years Super Meat Boy Forever - 8 years Dreamfall Chapters - 7 years L.A. Noire - 7 years One Must Fall: Battlegrounds - 7 years Resident Evil Zero - 7 years Anthem - 7 years Cuphead - 7 years I Am Alive - 7 years Mafia II - 7 years The Talos Principle 2 - 7 years Battlecruiser 3000AD - 7 years Let me know if I missed anything.

Longest running franchises that got new games this year: Mario (1981-2024) - 43 years Donkey Kong (1981-2024) - 43 years Contra (1987-2024) - 37 years Megami Tensei (1987-2024) - 37 years Prince of Persia (1989-2024) - 35 years SaGa (1989-2024) - 35 years Alone in the Dark (1992-2024) - 32 years Mystery Dungeon (1993-2024) - 31 years Tekken (1994-2024) - 30 years

Looks like F-Zero isn't a dead franchise anymore: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/f-zero-99-switch/

And lastly, I felt to mention that Denki Blocks! might be a classic example of of a game whose cover deceptively hides a game’s difficulty. Although the cover makes it look like it’s for preschoolers, it actually might be the most difficult puzzle game on the system.

I like to call Tomb Raider: The Prophecy an “overhead Tomb Raider on SNES”.

Yeah, I was surprised in particular that Medal of Honor: Infiltrator isn’t brought up more. I think fans of games like Guerrilla War, Mercs, and Cannon Fodder would get a kick out of it.

My picks for underappreciated GBA games.

Those two haven't gotten new games since 2019, which is why I listed them that way.

Of sure, Bomberman had quite a number of interesting titles that branched off from the traditional maze formula, handhelds included:

So with Donkey Kong getting a remake this year: Space Invaders (45 years) The Oregon Trail (42 years) Mario (42 years) Donkey Kong (42 years) Pac-Man (42 years) Wizardry (42 years) Bomberman (40 years) Nobunaga's Ambition (39 years) Galaxian (39 years) Dragon Slayer (38 years) Wolfenstein (37 years) Microsoft Flight Simulator (37 years) Dragon Quest (37 years) The Legend of Zelda (37 years) BurgerTime (37 years)

I did quite like Bomberman Quest, which goes for an action RPG structure.