Reliving History with Microsoft - 7 Activision Blizzard Game Retrospectives

Many gamers are anxious about what Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will mean for them. Will Call of Duty become an Xbox exclusive? What does this mean for PlayStation gamers? There are a lot of uncertainties involved in this acquisition, but one thing is for sure.

There are plenty of incredible titles and franchises that Activision Blizzard hasn’t been doing much with recently. Perhaps with a fresh set of eyes, these games could become as massive as they were in the past.

1. Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero was massive during its reign in the early 2000s until it suddenly wasn’t. The fall of Guitar Hero was almost as swift as its rise to popularity, and it is difficult to put your thumb on exactly what triggered the franchise’s fall from grace.

Perhaps it was the shift in focus from guitars to other instruments like drums and microphones. These sorts of controllers were not only expensive but very hard to store. All of a sudden, instead of just needing one life-sized guitar-shaped controller, you needed a whole band set up for the one game.

Guitar Hero is still a staple in many arcades all over the world, however, showing there are still enough people interested in the franchise who would absolutely love to see a modern Guitar Hero in a list of the best couch co-op Xbox games.

2. Spyro the Dragon

It’s relatively safe to say that most gamers alive during the golden age of console gaming know Spyro the Dragon. When you think about video games in the 90s, Spyro the Dragon is one of the mascots that immediately springs to mind.

The original Spyro games received a full remaster in 2018 with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which sold incredibly well. According to a PlayStation AU tweet , it was the best-selling PS4 game in Australia during the week of its release.

Crash Bandicoot got a brand-new entry in 2020, and if there was ever a gaming duo that simultaneously took over the market, it was Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. So it’s only fair to give Spyro a new game too, right?

Spyro still has a huge amount of diehard fans who have more than enough room for a brand new Spyro title in their collection, not to mention the younger audience that a successful entry would no doubt appeal to.

3. Skylanders

If you were wondering where Spyro went back in the day, Skylanders is your answer. But Skylanders wasn’t just a Spyro clone that profited off the purple dragon’s name. It also introduced its own unique spin on things.

Skylanders used an interesting toys-to-life gimmick that made billions of dollars thanks mostly to the sales of hundreds of millions of character figures. Those are big numbers that are hard to argue with, but the series still seemed to find itself in the gaming graveyard that exists at the back of every gamer’s basement. But with the right marketing, there is potential for the series to make a serious comeback.

4. StarCraft

StarCraft is an epic collection of real-time strategy games. RTS as a whole is an underrated genre, so much so that many gamers aren’t sure what an RTS game is in the first place.

StarCraft’s story and lore are great, and since RTS games haven’t necessarily been flooding the gaming market, it would make for a refreshing change from the FPS and action games that usually fill the shelves of game stores. In saying that, however, an FPS spin-off of StarCraft would be undeniably awesome, and it was on the cards at one point.

Although one entry made it to the Nintendo 64, the series has mostly been confined to PC. That means that there is a whole new world of console gamers who are yet to experience a StarCraft title.

5. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

The name Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater alone is probably enough to convince you that a new mainline game would be amazing. The series is the unrivaled master of skateboarding games, and although there have been entries in the genre since the reign of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, none have been able to come close.

The games were known not only for their fluid and satisfying gameplay but their incredible soundtracks that featured some of the most iconic songs of their age. Remastered versions of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 were released in 2020 and were highly anticipated, so a new entry in the series would no doubt be just as, if not more, hyped than the remaster.

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6. Hexen

If the words Doom, Dark Fantasy, and Dark Souls trigger your interest, Hexen is something you should absolutely look into. It is very similar to Doom in many ways, including but not limited to the fact that it was built in a modified version of the same engine.

The term FPS has many meanings in gaming , but in the case of Hexen, it refers to the brutal type of first-person shooter where nowhere is safe and your only chance at survival is to keep moving. Doom is most well-known for establishing the genre, but Hexen took the Doom archetype to the next level, ditching the linear level design in exchange for a far more open-ended layout.

Instead of completing one level at a time, Hexen requires you to backtrack and make your way through several areas via a hub world. This added to the game’s difficulty and made it far more unforgiving than your average FPS. But for gamers that thrive on a good challenge, it also makes it that much more satisfying when you complete it.

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7. Prototype

A modern Prototype game would be amazing. It was great back in the day, but it has an unbelievable amount of potential for a new entry. If there is one modern game that Prototype could be compared to today, it would be Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Of course, it would be far darker and grittier, but one of the best parts of Miles Morales is the satisfaction of effortlessly swinging through the streets on vine-like webs.

Prototype doesn’t have webs, but Alex Mercer’s venom-like virus powers provided a very similar experience as you parkoured your way around the city. Even if Microsoft doesn’t revive the Prototype series, the games still hold up today and are well worth playing.

Hopefully, Microsoft Doesn’t Leave These Games in the Past

Activision Blizzard has seen its fair share of controversy, but it’s fair to say that many of these games played a big part in shaping the history of gaming. Moving forward instead of backwards is important, but there’s nothing wrong with indulging in a bit of nostalgia here and there, and we can’t be the only ones who want to see these games make a comeback.

Call of Duty may seem like the biggest asset Microsoft has bagged for itself out of this deal. But with the right marketing and development teams, these franchises could have the potential to give it a run for its money. You can never beat a good classic, after all.