Video Game Franchises That Deserve A Revival For Christmas
There’s a ton of things you can wish to get as a Christmas gift, but the best gift for gamers is a video game, especially from a franchise they cherish. Unfortunately when it comes to some franchises they can be terribly mismanaged which could ultimately lead to a franchise’s hiatus, leaving fans heartbroken.
However, every once in a while a company will see the potential of a dormant franchise with a cult following and will typically make a remaster of an old game or a sequel and add new features. In this article I will go over some video game franchises that deserve a revival for longtime fans. The only requirement to make the list is the latest mainline game within the abandoned franchises has to be at least half a decade old.
Plants vs Zombies
The original Plants vs Zombies was a smash hit developed by Popcap when it was released back in 2009 and would receive a sequel 4 years later in 2013 with Plants vs Zombies 2. These tower defense games center around you building up defenses using plants to defend yourself against the zombie horde led by Dr Zomboss.
In 2014 Popcap decided to take the series in an entirely new direction into the third person shooter genre with the release of the spinoff game “Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare”. The game included 4 classes for both Plants and Zombies that filled specific roles. There are also variants to the original classes that have an extra gimmick. Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare also featured new maps, game modes, customizations, boss fight and plenty more. It was a massive success which would result in the critically acclaimed successor being released 2 years later.
Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 expanded upon its predecessor with more classes, maps, customizations, a backyard battleground to explore, new bosses, more variants and much more. The game received critical acclaim and still has a healthy following to this day. 2016 also introduced another spinoff for the Plants vs Zombies brass with the release of Plants vs Zombies Heroes.
This mobile card game brought back the lane system from the original 2 installments but both the Plant and Zombie players can choose between a roster of heroes and build a deck around them.
2019 was expected to be a huge year with speculations of a Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 3 and people were hyped up. Unfortunately what we got instead was not Garden Warfare 3. Instead we got Plants vs Zombies Battle for Neighborville, which was the franchise’s first blunder.
The game was extremely buggy at launch and made many baffling decisions that turned many longtime Garden Warfare fans away. A ton of aspects that made Garden Warfare 1 and 2 excellent games were removed and replaced with inferior features that could make the game frustrating to play. Popcap had plans to slowly put in new content over time but the damage was done.
After 11 months of underwhelming sales, Plants vs Zombies Battle for Neighborville ceased operations and would not be getting any more updates and there hasn’t been a game since.
It would be a Christmas wish come true if Popcap could rebound and begin development on a Garden Warfare 3 or a new Plants vs Zombies game altogether.
Rumbleverse
In the landscape of multiplayer Battle Royale games, Rumbleverse set itself apart from the competition by incorporating fighting game mechanics instead of traditional gun play. The game also had a heavy emphasis around breaking crates, which are scattered around the map in hopes of finding abilities, stat buffs, healing items and melee weapons to give them an edge in combat while the ring around the city continually closes in on you.
Unfortunately the game only lasted a mere six months and was shut down in 2022 due to the free to play live service model of the game not making as much revenue as Iron Galaxy was hoping for. There is some hope though, as Iron Galaxy has been searching for a publisher to resell the game, hopefully dropping the live service model altogether.
Rumbleverse definitely could use some more time to bake in the oven, but the upside for the game is extremely high for a unique and fun experience.
Rayman
Technically Rayman has had recent games but he’s been relegated to a crossover with the Rabbids franchise and not his standalone game. The latest 2 mainline series, Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends, centered around relatively fast 2d platforming which require precise timing to progress forward while having a few power ups thrown into the mix.
It’s baffling we haven’t had a new Rayman game since 2013 with Rayman Legends. The fan demand is definitely there and further expanding upon the already fun gameplay and replay ability would be an amazing experience for veterans and rookies alike. Hopefully a revival is in the cards for this fun franchise for Christmas, whether it’s published by Ubisoft or another publisher.
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