Silicon Valley 10 & 1 8.04.10: Top Ten Video Game What Ifs

Posted by Justin Weinblatt on 08.04.2010

What if Mortal Kombat had never been released? What would things be like if Mario was never created? How would video gaming be now if the N64 had used CDs? 411's Justin Weinblatt takes a look at the top ten "What Ifs" in video games! Plus Denise Milani is your &1 Model of the Week!



Hello and welcome back to The Silicon Valley 10 & 1 by Justin Weinblatt. Last week we took a look at the top 10 Marvel vs Capcom 3 Candidates. Check out the link below.

Last week: The Silicon Valley 10 & 1. Top 10 Marvel vs Capcom Candidates (Capcom)!

Let's take a look at…



10. G-Walla: I can't even make a list of who from Marvel I'd want in the game. I just don't know that I could narrow it down. Maybe Speedball.

I still stand by that less characters is a dissapointment. I know that actual work has to go into this game as opposed to the last, but I will still call it laziness on their part if they cut down the roster.

Speedball is the one who's Penance now, right? Anyways, I think you're being a bit greedy. I believe there were 56 characters or so in Marvel vs Capcom 2, and that's a ludicrous number to expect. Lower your expectations, or prepare for disappointment.

9. Yo: i'd like vision to be in it. thatd be awesome as he can be indestructible or intangible when he phases. him and ultron. how about hank pym as well. can turn into giant man or yellowjacket/antman to fight servbot. or even quicksilver to have a speedster like flash was in mk vs dc

8. Guest: when he teamed with Captain America and the Human Torch to battle Nazis

you should point out that this is not teh Human Torch from your #9 picks.
Bah. If anyone doesn't know about the original Human Torch, then to hell with them.

7.The Great Captain Smooth: Here are some ideas: Anti-Venom, Devil Dinosaur, Gladiator(Shi'ar), Lockjaw, Pyro, Sauron, and The Spot.

6. The Ogre: What? He'd whisper and get an insta-kill no matter how much health the opponent had left? And take out the opposing tag-team partner at the same time, assuming the game has that feature...

Exactly.

5.The Battman: How can you all talk about comics when there's a girl dressed like Jessica freaking Rabbit!

4. Michael: What? No D List heroes and villians like Century or MODOK or even Paste Pot Pete? This is not like you.
Do you have me confused with someone else maybe?

3. Cactus: As long as they have Magneto in the game, I'm happy as a lark.

Other fine suggestions: Iron Fist, Dare Devil, Quicksilver, Black Panther, Nightcrawler, THE BLOB (that would be hilarious), and Blink

2. I know it's all personal preference but The Sentinel is the worst Marvel character ever.

He is human carte blanche to introduce retarded shit into a story, and a lazy writer's best friend. The Marvel Universe only needs 1 Doctor Strange, as far as that's concerned.

Don't confuse poor writing with a poor character. The Sentry can be incredibly lame when poorly written, but could also be incredibly compelling when written correctly.

1. Bola Bear: Comics and Cosplay in one column? Geeeek Central!


Well said Bola. Now, lets try something a bit different. We've been talking about comics recently, and one of the best things about comics is alternate realities. One tiny thing changes, and bamm, the whole world is different. So, this week, we're going to talk about the top ten gaming "what if" scenarios. What if something happened a little bit differently? How would the industry be different?

Top 10 Video Game What Ifs

And now...The LIST!

10. What if the Dreamcast had a built in DVD player?


Any true gamer has a spot in his (or her) heart for Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast is a sad story of expectations set too high. Sega wanted to beat the PS2, and that was a pretty steep challenge. Sadly, Sega failed. Is there anything that could have prevented the Dreamcast's untimely demise?

If there is one thing that may have helped Sega, it would have been a DVD player. Disc based media was clearly the wave of the future. DVD technology was a huge upgrade from VHS, and the format had no competition. If Sega had hit the market a year earlier than the PS2, with an affordable DVD player, could they have won the console war, or at least come close? Would Sega be alive today? Would Microsoft have had an opening to enter the console game? The world will never know.

9. What if EA didn't buy out the NFL license?


For years and years, Madden has been synonymous with video football. There had been a few minor franchises, such as NFL Gameday, but none of them could touch Madden. So, it was a huge blow when EA decided not to bring Madden to the Sega Dreamcast. To compensate, Sega co-produced the NFL 2K series. The series would be quite successful, and would live on even after the Dreamcast died. Sega struck a huge blow when they released NFL 2K5 for a mere 19.99. How did EA react to this? Did they strive to improve the quality of Madden? Nope. They threw a ton of money at the problem.

EA bought the exclusive rights to the NFL and ESPN. This essentially killed of the 2K Football series, and also hurt Sega's other 2K sports franchises (although eventually 2K games would score a nice deal with MLB). Eventually, Sega would sell off the studio responsible for 2K Sports.

EA's purchase of the NFL license was a move that left a bad taste in many gamers mouths, and helped solidify EA's reputation as the evil empire of gaming. Whether or not this deal is even legal is now under review in courts. What would have happened to Sega and EA's future if this deal hadn't gone through?

8. What if Mortal Kombat was never released?


It's hard to believe that these fatalities had mothers of the world up in arms. Mortal Kombat was not the first violent game, or even the most violent. It was, for its time, the most popular by far. Furthermore, the game was prominently featured in arcades, movie theatres, laundromats, Chuck E Cheese's and wherever else arcade cabinets were found. Mortal Kombat was the most prominent game in a congressional hearing that would lead to the formation of the ESRB.

In retrospect, one has to wonder if Mortal Kombat was good or bad for the industry. Eventually, there was going to be a mainstream violent game, but perhaps things would have been different if it had been a different game. After all, Mortal Kombat is pretty much violence for violence's sake. If violence had been introduced to gaming with a more mature title, would things have been different?

There's another aspect to this story. For a long time, Nintendo rejected any blood and gore on their consoles. In the SNES version of Mortal Kombat, all blood was replaced with sweat. The Genesis version had all the gore in tact, although gamers had to enter a special code to see it. The Genesis version was far more popular, and as a result the SNES version of MK2 was released with blood and guts. Just goes to show that money is more important than upholding your values.

7. What if The Lost Levels was released in the US?


I'm assuming you know the saga of Super Mario Bros 2. For those of you who don't, you can read all about it here along with my impressions of the lost level. To make a long story short, Nintendo of America thought The Lost Levels were too hard, and released a different game (Doki Doki Panic) with Mario sprites as Super Mario Bros 2.

I think that Nintendo made the right call in not releasing The Lost Levels. If I had found The Lost Levels under my Christmas Tree, I'd have stopped believing in Santa right then and there. The game simply wasn't made for kids, or casual gamers (and there weren't that many hardcore gamers in those days).

If the Lost Levels had been released, would it have damaged Nintendo's reputation? Would the anticipation for the next true US Mario game (Mario Bros. 3) been diminished? Or, would it just be regarded as a bizarre oddity, like Zelda 2?

6. What if Microsoft waited until the 360 was ready?


I'd like to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they didn't know how extensive the 360's problems were. However, that would be incredibly naïve of me. Somewhere, there was a meeting. Microsoft executives knew exactly how many 360s were failing, and they decided that it was worth releasing a defective console to get the jump on their competition.

While Microsoft's choice of releasing a defective item was ethically wrong, was it the right choice financially? What would have happened if Microsoft had waited a year or so, until they had their cooling problems worked out? Would the promise of Halo 3, and a lower price point keep Microsoft ahead of Sony, or would the Sony hype machine crush the 360 before it launched?

5. What if the PS3 didn't include Blu-Ray?

Speaking of Sony, they had their own launch problems. Their games line-up was poor, their E-3 debut was laughable, they hit the market a year late, and then there was the price. The price was driven up a bit by Sony's powerful cell processor, but mainly by Sony's Blu-ray technology. The laser required to read Blu-ray disks were crazy expensive. Sony's console cost $200 more than the X-Box 360, and even so, Sony still took a loss on each console sold.

It seems to me, and to many others, that the purpose of putting Blu-ray into the PS3 was simply to win the format war with HD-DVD. This certainly paid off for Sony, as Blu-ray has become the standard HD format. However, it's impossible to deny that the cost of Blu-ray hurt PS3 sales early on. If Sony had launched the PS3 at the same price as the 360 I'm not sure that Microsoft would still be in the market.

4. What if Pac-man and ET were never released for Atari?


In the early 80's Atari made a couple of huge moves in the industry. They secured the rights to make games based on the immensely popular arcade hit, Pac-man, and the blockbuster movie, ET. They produced the two games, made millions of cartridges, and waited for the cash to roll in.

Unfortunately, the games were both awful. The Atari was not capable of running Pac-man. While the game sold 7 million copies, Atari had produced 12 million cartridges. In addition, angry gamers returned many of the 7 million copies purchased. ET, a game made in a few months, would suffer a similar fate. Factoring in returned cartridges, Atari had around 4 million extra ET cartridges to dispose of. Eventually, these unsold games were dumped in a landfill in New Mexico.

Many feel that these two games played a huge role in the video game crash of the 80s. In addition to the costs of the cartridges themselves, consumer confidence in Atari, and the industry, dropped. Stocks fell as well, and soon the industry was in a tailspin. If Atari hadn't released these titles would we be playing our Atari 145,604 right now?

3. What if the N64 had used CDs?

Nintendo has a reputation as the industry's innovator, but for a long time they were slow to adapt. The Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation had embraced CDs, but Nintendo stuck with good old cartridges. While cartridges had their advantages, (namely the ability to save directly onto a game and near instant load times), the advantages of CDs (cheap cost, ease of development, large storage capacity, and therefore superior sound quality) far outweighed them.

Nintendo's devotion to cartridges was one of the largest factors in the exodus of developers. Developers left Nintendo for Sony, taking their biggest franchises with them. Huge games like Final Fantasy 7 would help cement Sony as the number one console maker. One has to wonder how the 32/64 bit wars would have turned out if Nintendo had used cartridges.

2. What if Sony and Nintendo played nice?

Why was Nintendo so slow to adopt CDs? Well there is a story behind that. In comic books, super heroes are often responsible for the creation of their arch-enemies. Such is the case with Nintendo. Nintendo had been working with CD technology since the NES days, but they weren't very good at it. So, they hired a partner. Sony had worked with Nintendo in the past, creating the sound chip for the SNES, so Nintendo made a deal to develop a CD add-on for the SNES. In addition, Sony would create a console that would play both cartridges and CDs.

It sounded like a match made in heaven, but Nintendo was unhappy with the terms of the contract, which they felt granted Sony too much control. Nintendo broke off their arrangement with Sony, and partnered with Sony's rival Phillips (which would eventually lead to laughably bad Nintendo licensed games developed for Phillips' CD-i). Sony went on with their development, despite a lawsuit filed by Nintendo. Eventually, Sony would release the Playstation, and the rest is history. If Sony had stayed with Nintendo, would the two companies have a total monopoly over the gaming industry?

1. What if Mario was never created?

Earlier in this article we discussed the downfall of Atari. After Atari fell, it seemed like the industry might never recover. Nintendo would soon release a home console into the market. Confidence in the game industry was so low that Nintendo had to promise to buy any unsold NES units. Nintendo didn't wind up buying back any consoles, thanks to a little game called Super Mario Bros.

It may be hard for you youngins to imagine, but Super Mario Bros was hyped advanced for its time. Secret warp zones, invisible blocks, secret beanstalks to the sky, and massive levels composed of 8 or more screens were unheard of at the time. Super Mario Bros was perhaps the all time biggest leap in video game technology. The only game of its time that could compare with Super Mario Bros was The Legend of Zelda, Miyamoto's other NES masterpiece.

Nintendo's hardware was good, but back in those days software sold consoles. If Mario had not been created would the Nintendo have failed? If Nintendo had failed, would the industry have failed with it? Would another game come along to revive the industry? Would you be reading this column right now?

Well, those are my top ten video game "What Ifs". Have you ever stayed up late at night wondering how a few small changes could have changed the gaming industry? Probably not, but if you have, be sure to post your "what ifs" in the comments section.


I didn't know who to put on this week's column, so I turned to chickipedia, and clicked on random chick. I got Denise Milani, and I'm sure no one will complain about that.










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