While today's games are by and large a vast improvement in terms of graphical fidelity and overall gameplay, some fall into the trappings of modern gaming, sacrificing a piece of their identity to try and stay relevant in this highly competitive market.
However, the best experiences of late have been the games that hearken back to their roots and what made them stand out above the rest. Metroid Dread is one of the best examples, as it was the first side-scrolling Metroid title in 19 years, exceeding nearly everyone's expectations. With Metroid Dread still on our minds, and Ubisoft looking to bring Assassin's Creed back to its roots with Mirage, we started looking into other series that desperately need to do the same.
6 Battlefield
For quite some time, Battlefield has been straying away from its massive team-based gameplay with ultimate scale and destructibility, focusing its attention on larger player counts and chasing the specialist hype generated by Overwatch or Black Ops 4. When Battlefield is firing on all cylinders, nothing compares to its epic encounters and gameplay.
Fortunately, the new franchise head seems to agree, and we know Vince Zampella is more than qualified to bring reign this series in and make something fun and exhilarating once more. Battlefield hasn't been the Battlefield we all know and love for years, and we hope whatever Vince and his team create will bring the series back to its roots and deliver on the large-scale battles that require teamwork and strategy to come out on the other side victorious.
5 Paper Mario
Paper Mario is an odd one to dig into, as 2020's Paper Mario: The Origami King is an excellent title in most aspects. However, even with The Origami King's significant jump in quality from the other recent installments, the series still seems to be missing that extra *something* that made the original and The Thousand-Year Door such special titles.
The writing and characters in The Origami King are superb and actually rival what fans praise in the classics. Unfortunately, that's where it basically ends. The gameplay and combat are severely underwhelming and don't come close to the nearly-perfectly implemented combat system in The Thousand-Year Door. Fortunately, we feel that Intelligent Systems are finally on the right track with this series and expect the hypothetical next installment of the series to be more in line with what we've been craving since 2004.
4 Halo
Halo Infinite was supposed to be the series' return to the FPS Throne, sporting features that have been laid to rest ever since Bungie left Microsoft after releasing Halo Reach. However, Halo Infinite couldn't be further away from the experience fans have been craving if it even wanted to try. While promised features are on the horizon, the game's current state feels empty and lacking what truly makes the series special in the first place.
Simply put, Halo has lost its social identity, and we fear it will never get it back. The days of queueing up with randoms after a close match with a button press, browsing the cool modes, maps, and images curated by the devs each week, and just working your way up the ranks and earning cool armor are long gone with no sign of it ever returning. Halo was unique in its ability to appease both the hardcore competitive crowd and the laidback social crowd. Now both are irritated and burned out.
3 Banjo-Kazooie
Yes, we are aware that there hasn't been a new installment in the Banjo-Kazooie series for 14 years. Still, with recent rumors of the series planning on making a comeback, we had to voice our concerns about the series swerving into another Nuts & Bolts situation. If this beloved franchise were ever to make its triumphant return, we want the bear and bird to return to their 3D Platforming roots.
There's a unique and special charm about Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie that has been woefully mistreated and abandoned for far too long, and we'd love to see them return in a similar way Metroid Dread did. Even with Nuts & Bolts not being a terrible game overall, it's just not what anyone wants from a Banjo-Kazooie title. Everyone desperately wants them to return to their classic 3D Platforming shenanigans once more.
2 Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy is another oddball to talk about in this context. This series has been crushing it lately with the likes of Final Fantasy 14, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and the incredibly anticipated Final Fantasy 16. However, we'd be lying if we said we didn't wonder from time to time what a modern-day turn-based JRPG would look like by today's standards.
Granted, this is less of a problem than all the others mentioned so far, and it's not like the current games from this franchise are terrible by any stretch. Still, we would absolutely love to see a new Final Fantasy title return to what made it special many years ago with a unique fantasy setting, turn-based combat, and characters with far too many belts on their clothing. Even if Yoshi-P wholeheartedly disagrees.
1 Splinter Cell
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With last year's announcement of a Splinter Cell remake being in the works, we couldn't help but wonder what would come after for the series. While we'd hope it would be something similar to the original or Chaos Theory, we're well aware of the possibility of receiving another Conviction or Blacklist.
Now, this isn't to say that Conviction or Blacklist are terrible titles. They are actually quite good titles but lack the stealth espionage you'd expect in a Splinter Cell title. Chaos Theory is often considered the pinnacle of stealth games, and we can see the arguments for that, making it a no-brainer to want a new Splinter Cell title that leans heavily on the aspects that made it shine in the first place.
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