Final Fantasy
Metal Gear
Street Fighter
Tekken
Army Men
Rastan
Gran Turismo

 

   

Take me to the Question of the Week Archive Sometimes, game developers feel the need to mix things up with their established franchises. Games like Mario Party, Sonic R, and Crash Team Racing are results of this. Genuine genre-based mutations, however, are truly rare. Could you even conceive of playing a role-playing game based on the automotive technicalities of Gran Turismo? What about a rhythm/dancing game set in the high-fantasy milieu of the Forgotten Realms? We didn't think so. Frankly, those examples make very little sense. And as you'll see, most of our own ideas as to how this could unfold aren't much better.

It can be done, though. Think about a fighting game starring of all the different characters from the entire Final Fantasy series. As fighting games are primarily based on character design (a discipline upon which Square pours a mad amount of resources), the stretch wouldn't be too far. Neither would an adventure game based in the world of Perfect Dark. Quite the contrary--both of those concepts would be fairly easy to bring about.

It's just that, for some reason, most of us didn't take the proposition too seriously. While it is possible to mine an idea or two of ours, you'll definitely get the impression that an earnest exploration of the possibilities of cross-genre development was secondary to our desires. But we also bet that you'll get a kick out of the ideas we've presented. In any event, prepare yourself for a very special installment of Question of the Week. And if you have any better ideas, please shoot them our way!