Yeah, but Altered Beast?

Pictured: hubris. 

Do you know what word I cannot stand? Franchise. Not like a Tim Hortons or the right to vote, but in the sense of content or IP's. Which are other gross, corporate words that I can't stand, but that's a whole other thing. Anyway, I mention this because of the news that Sega's bringing back some old and mostly forgotten ugh...IP's, including Altered Beast. Ok, some explanation is in order. Sega, those of you who enjoy a rich social life full of outdoor activities might recall, is the video game company that was a rival to and at times bigger than Nintendo for a few years before suffering a spectacular and an almost comical collapse into irrelevance.

But for people like me--that is, grown ass adults who still care about video games--they're also a developer who, despite no longer selling a console of their own, hasn't actually gone away and one that still publishes games. Some of which are pretty good. 

And others in which Sonic the Hedgehog turns
into a werewolf because ideas are hard.

Pictured: leveraging IP's.
Not pictured: shame.

Last week, the company published a slideshow entitled Fiscal Year Ended March 2021 Results Presentation which, needless to say, is tedious and the very death of joy. But amidst the financial nonsense was a page called Utilization of IP Assets which describes the active and inactive IP's the company holds and laying out a plan to money off of them via remasters, remakes, and reboots. Which, ok, sequels, spin-offs, reboots, that's how the video game industry works. And movies. And television.

But what caught everyones attention was the mention of the specific "dormant IP's" they'd like to exploit. Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, and other series that fans--and no one else--have been asking for more of for ages. And also Altered Beast. And that's super, but now that I'm like, a cynical adult, I find myself asking why that is. Like, why do we care about video game series, not why are they even talking about Altered Beast in 2021, but while we're here, why are they talking about Altered Beast in 2021? 

I mean, bear baiting used to be popular, but 
it doesn't mean they should bring it back.

They're just doing they're job, which for
some reason involves standing on rooftops

And what even is a video game series? Movie series are usually narrative continuations or share characters, but that's not always true or necessary with games. Final Fantasy's sequels rarely carry over the world, characters, or story. The Final Fantasy-ness is contained in the themes and gameplay. Assassin's Creed jumps all over the place in terms of setting, but they all have a common theme of revenge, parkour, and murdering innocent guards.

I mean...

So what are we there for when we get in to a game based on the title? More of the same gameplay from the pervious installment? Take Crazy Taxi for example. It was a good game. In it, you drive a taxi. Crazily. But that's it. There's no real story to speak of, so any new sequels or remakes are either going to be just more Crazy Taxi, or something else entirely that just shares the same name. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. Super Mario Bros. 3 was just more Mario, and Mario 2 was a totally different game from 1 or 3, but was arguable the best one (let's argue). So what then makes a game series a series? Like, at some point it seems like the only requirement is the addition of sequential number (Roman or Arabic) or a subtitle. Usually involving either the word "origins" or "the rise of."

I guess where I'm going with all this, is that it seems like kind of a leap to assume that because something like Shinobi or Panzer Dragoon was a successful...ugh...IP in the past, that it can be again. But then this is a Fiscal Year Results whatever and I don't know anything about leveraging franchises. What I do know is that nobody wants more Altered Beast.

I feel like there's a "don't wise fwom your gwave" joke in
here somewhere, but I'm better than that (no I'm not).