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So, I have been teasing for a few features now that this month will be a special one. And the wait is finally over! I know you have all been waiting eagerly in anticipation. Last year, to celebrate a year of this feature we did a ‘video game of recent years’ feature instead. That was boring as chips in comparison to this feature (yes, chips are boring, fight me!). It was almost no different from a regular feature. So, this time, to celebrate two whole years, I wanted to rock the boat.
I asked my fellow blogging masters and maestros to take two games and smush them together. I wanted them to create their very own game from imaging what would happen if the two games chosen were brutally smashed together into one bloody mess. Or if they had a baby if you want to get romantic about it. Or performed the fusion dance if you want to get nerdy about it.
I was deliberately a little vague about how they were to go about doing this. I wanted them to come up with some whacky, weird, and interesting ideas and present them however they felt they wished to. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am studying video game design at uni and are fishing for ideas. Honest!
Anyway, I have waffled for far too long now. Here are the Frankenstein creations that the team have come up with.
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Pokémon & Grounded – Lauren Skinner
Picture this: you awaken in the dirt to the feel of the ground rumbling beneath you. An earthquake? You stand, but you can’t see anything above the overgrown foliage all around. A shadow engulfs you. You dive to the side, just in time to avoid a massive hoof.
A colossal Meganium.
I’d love to smash Pokémon together with Grounded, a first-person, multiplayer survival adventure where you are one of four teenagers who has been shrunk down to the size of an ant. Instead of trying to survive in the microworld of a back garden with giant insects, now you must trawl across the closed Safari Zone to Professor Oak’s Fuchsia City laboratory to learn what happened to you and why.
In my game, you’re no larger than a Pikachu. You must create a base and craft various weapons and armour from Pokémon drops (like a spear from a Beedrill sting or a shield from a Clamperl shell) to battle different species of pocket monsters throughout the zones. In true Pokémon fashion, this isn’t to kill them, but this time it’s not to catch them either. You need to prove yourself and earn their respect, granting you access throughout the zones.
When we meet Professor Oak, we also learn that we’ve been gathering data by observing Pokémon in a whole new way—in their natural habitats, away from humans trying to catch them.
The twist: Professor Oak has been working with Bill, the legendary Pokémon researcher known for experimenting on himself. This time, Bill’s obsession with research has gone too far: he’s shrunk you down to the size of a Pokémon, and only Professor Oak can help you turn back.
I, for one, would love to relive a tiny macrocosm of Kanto in a whole new way. Battling smaller Pokémon, like Sandile or Kecleon, will be new and exciting, as they will pose a greater challenge. The boss creatures from Grounded, like giant spiders or praying mantises, will be replaced with larger-than-life favourites, like Charizard or Lugia.
So, you wanna be the master of Pokémon? Let’s level the playing field like never before in the most dangerous Pokémon adventure ever.
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Cities: Skylines & Dark Souls – Ben Titmus
The map is a tarnished, once lively cinderscape. There is a selection of locations for you to choose from – each with its own benefits and hindrances – where you will construct magnificent buildings. Imagine replacing the bright lights of the city with the dim, flickering flames of a dark age township. Instead of an expo centre, a high gothic cathedral, whose stained windows gleam during the day and blacken at night.
Cities: Skylines transformed the city building genre, just as Dark Souls reimagined action role-playing games. I imagine a blend of the two, where the city building core of Cities: Skylines is overlaid with the world of Dark Souls.
After choosing your location you must begin building a fantastical city. Gold and silver coins are still the popular currency in the ‘outside world’, where Lordran and famous locales from Dark Souls are reimagined as if the flame never faded. The Age of Fire.
Fortify your walls and strengthen your economy in case a disaster should undo your effort. You can build your fantasy city as you choose. Manipulate the landscape before laying your first cobble: manoeuvre rivers, flatten hills or push-up mountains to provide the perfect foundations for your flourishing realm.
Lay cobbled streets, build houses for lowly humans and incredible castles for the fortunate. Through hard work, your economy will evolve, allowing you to build even greater buildings, and access powerful Lords and characters from the Dark Souls world who will help you prevent the flame from dying.
To keep the flames burning you must hit certain criteria, otherwise the Age of Fire will come to a permanent end and darkness will enshroud the land. You can survive the night, but what toll will it take on your people, and will they ever be whole again? Will they ever see the fire, or must they be content with cinders and dying embers?
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WWE & Rogue Legacy – Jay Davies
When considering what two games or gaming styles I'd love to smash together I immediately jumped to two of my favourites: the WWE series of games, and Rogue Legacy 1&2.
Roguelites differ from roguelikes as they usually have some level of progression that is kept each time the player meets their demise, while a true Roguelike kicks you back to the start in the same state as you were when you started playing.
Rogue Legacy's take on this has you traversing a randomly generated castle and its surrounding areas, full of haunted suits of armour and the like. Each time you die, the game gives you the option to come back as one of 3 randomly generated heirs to the family line, who have different classes, abilities, and traits. These traits can be a positive, for example some are fleet footed and don't trigger spike traps, or negative such as not being able to see enemies or everything being upside down.
So how do I see this smashing up with a WWE game?
Well for a start the weapons could be switched out. Instead of a sword you have a kendo stick, instead of a battle hammer you have a sledgehammer, rather than an axe you have a steel chair. Similarly, the player characters could all be wrestlers too, with certain abilities and traits more likely to pop up for certain Superstars. Kane has the ability to throw fire, Rey Mysterio has a double jump, Andre the Giant is bigger and therefore harder to knock back. You get the idea.
WWE isn't opposed to a quirky storyline or two, so it would be easy to explain away why they were venturing into a castle or a spooky building. Perhaps The Undertaker has captured the WWE Championship and they have to infiltrate his haunted mansion to get it back. This also means the range of enemies could stay largely the same, being a product of the environment rather than wrestling related. Bosses could be WWE legends that are unlocked and added to the 'pool' once defeated.
The 'legacy' mechanic that is implemented when you die could bring up a selection of 'linked' wrestlers too. Perhaps former/current tag partners, family members (Such as Rikishi and his sons The Usos) or even biggest rivals.
It would have that replayability factor wrestling fans yearn for and would even lend itself to micro-transactions to unlock new attires and weapons etc if the publishers felt they needed to milk a bit more money out of it.
The WWE 2K games are great, but there's no variety in wrestling games these days. It's been far too long since we've had a quirky, weird, WWE platforming game and I think this could be the perfect recipe for one.
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It Takes Two & Dragon Age – Sophie Jones
Sometimes we always wonder what if two games collided. Thanks to Dan’s bright idea we can now indulge in this fantasy. I love a good RPG action-adventure game but now again I crave a couch cooperative experience. When I was growing up the PS2 had brilliant couch cooperative games like Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance and The Champions of Norrath. But in this modern era these games are few and far between. For my mash up I want to blend one of the best cooperative games with one of my favourite worlds.
It Takes Two, was one of the best couch cooperative games I've played in a while. Each level was fun, creative, and engaging. Players take control of a mum and dad duo who are going through a divorce. Through some magical shenanigans they get trapped in their daughter’s dolls and must go through a series of levels. Each character has abilities, and each area has its own power which makes the gameplay dynamic and entertaining. The story is both heart-warming and hilarious and its ups and downs keep you invested.
But which game do I want to blend? For me it's got to be Dragon Age. What better way to explore Thedas then with a friend. I would keep the world of Dragon Age and inject It Takes Two’s creativity and cooperative elements. Each character would feel like they have equal stakes in the game, take on quests together and share banter. This would improve Dragon Age’s gameplay by making it fun and let me explore Thedas with a companion. It would be like revisiting those PS2 adventures in my new favourite world.
So that would be my mash up! I want to be able to sit on the couch with a mate and explore Thedas in the best way possible.
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Call Of Duty & Fifa – Rob Wright
Who would have ever thought it was possible, but the two mighty publishing companies of Activision and EA Sports have come together to bring you the ultimate mainstream multiplayer gaming experience – Call of FIFA!
In CoF, you get to control one of the players in a football match – in first person! Will you choose to be a striker, speedily moving up and down the pitch, controlling the ball deftly and hammering it into the back of the net to the uproar of the crowd (samples taken from actual matches, complete with authentic questionable chants and anthems)? Or perhaps you’d prefer to be in defence, tanking those nippy little strikers and stopping your opponent’s score multiplier in their tracks? Or perhaps you’d prefer to take a more external role as a sniper, removing players from the field before they become a danger to your victory [at time of printing, the sniper role has been removed as this was considered a bit to controversial, but this may become available in certain play modes as DLC].
Players can choose either campaign, multiplayer or zombie mode: campaign will see players develop throughout the season in an immersive storyline that will introduce to characters whose heartfelt stories will stay with you forever – “I was a striker like you once, ‘til I took a nasty stub to the metatarsal”; multiplayer will allow you to play for teams from all around the world, from the streets of Brazil and play parks of Britain (including authentic dog poo hazards) to the stadiums of Barca, Old Trafford and even Wembley; Zombies is football with… zombies – before you kick, make sure you’ve still got a leg to kick with!
So, if you’re a fan of football or FPS, there’s something in Call of FIFA for you – can you hear the FIFA call? Wo-oh, wo-oh!
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Elden Ring & Monster Prom – Dan Hilton
My own mash-up combines two of my most played games ever. Elden Ring is a grand, open world, incredibly fantastical, blah blah blah. It was the biggest game of the generation and won Game of the Year, you don’t need me to tell you what it is. You already know! Monster Prom has also seen a lot of success. If you are unaware of the game, it is a dating simulator that sees you on the prowl for a date to prom. All characters are monsters (or several thousand-year-old deities) and is a very interesting multiplayer party game.
My idea for this smash up would see the characters in Elden Ring drawn in the cartoony style of Monster Prom. It would also see you on your quest to become the Elden Lord. But instead of battling your way to the top spot, you will need to talk to and romance your chosen sweetheart in an attempt to ascend to the throne with a queen or king at your side. The game will be a series of interactions with the characters, that will see you sitting on the throne, and asking one of the characters to join your side at the end. Each of the stats in Elden Ring will come in handy as each potential partner will have a preference towards what you choose to increase.
Imagine a cartoon styled Ranni popping up to talk to you with Melina with some sort of trivial issue that only you can suggest a solution for. Selecting the option that requires a higher intelligence will see Ranni gaining more interest in you, whilst the option that requires more faith will see the same for Melina. You can visit the Raya Lucaria Academy to increase intellegence, Church of Vows to increase faith, Redmane Castle for strength, Volcano Manor for dexterity, Crumbling Farum Azula for arcane etc. Alexander can prefer strength, Fia would prefer vigor, etc.
At the end of ten rounds of choosing a location to visit, increasing one of your stats and having a random interaction with two of the characters, it will be time to take the crown. When you ascend the throne it will be time to choose your king or queen, and then they will get to choose to be at your side based on the interactions you have had with them, and your final stats. They will either join you or leave you to rule alone.
Credit Roll
And there you go folks. A series of make-believe games that we think would be damn good ideas for video games. None of these will (likely) ever be a thing, but we that is the beauty of the imagination! Last year we did a look back on our favourite games in the near past, this year we are celebrating games we would love to see in the future. I hope you enjoyed reading our ideas as much as we enjoyed thinking of them! Now I need to start thinking about what to do for three years. For now though, enjoy the present. Happy gaming!
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