2012 was an awful year for video game releases.
Nearly every big-name console release this year was a sequel, usually to games I didn’t even like the first time around.
When I was compiling my list of games for this year in-review, I was surprised to find more than 20 of the 2012 releases I’d played this year were sequels, either numbered or of the “Insert Name: Generic Cliche” variety, and that isn’t even counting reboots, re-imaging, remakes and other shameless cash-grabs intended to exploit the game-playing community’s nostalgia.
This isn’t to say all of the games I played this year were like that. There were a few new games in 2012, and some of them were even fun, like the Wii U game I reviewed earlier this month, “Tank! Tank! Tank!”
Unfortunately, few games fell into that category, and most of the new games I played this year fell into two categories: Games that reminded of older, better games such as “Dishonored,” which reminded me that the “Thief” series was so much better, and games that market themselves as intelligent, artsy and therefore, superior to their less artistic brethren, but in reality are pretentious junk with no enjoyable game play, like “Journey.”
Console releases weren’t the only category underperforming this year. Handhelds also suffered from a weak release schedule.
Sony finally put the PSP out of its misery, after spending the better part of seven years ignoring it, save for the occasional subpar spin-offs of popular console series. Then they released its successor, the PSP Vita, a new and improved technological wonder that is truly a sight to see…as it collects dust on the shelf because the handful of games being released for it are all ports of console games and subpar spin-offs of popular console series. I guess Sony is just hell-bent on winning back-to-back “most potential wasted in a handheld” awards.
Nintendo is faring little better, at least creatively. They chose to direct all their energy into new installments in popular series. Games like “New Super Mario Bros. 2,” “Pokémon Black & White 2” and other sequels are only incrementally different from the ones you’ve already played.
This isn’t to say that all sequels are bad. Revisiting a classic or expanding on a popular game can be fun, but the lack of anything new or different starts to wear you down after you’ve rescued Princess Toadstool for the hundredth time or after you’ve spent 15 years catching all the Pokémon.
I remember a few years back, when this console generation was still new, people talked about how the then-new technology would allow video games to become as cinematic, emotionally compelling and visually stunning as actual movies. I would like to offer my congratulations to the video game industry; they’ve successfully managed to make practically every major release this year as vapid, shallow, dull and creatively bankrupt as any Hollywood blockbuster.
Nice job guys, maybe next year you can completely eliminate any non-sequels from getting released.
