What game companies do you miss?

[Barry the Nomad]

I miss the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, also known as MECC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MECC

Anybody play Number Munchers? That game was the BOMB. Troggles and Munchers. Damn... memories...

Holy shit, you can play it online! 1:1 with the original Mac version. http://www.virtualap...nchersdisk.html

MECC also made Odell Lake and the famous Oregon Trail. Memories...

Edited March 19, 2012 by Barry the Nomad

[Katzii]

I miss:

- Sierra (and their brilliant adventure games; I must have bought the King's Quest series several times over by now)

- Psygnosis (absolutely adore Lemmings - it was a huge part of my childhood)

- Bullfrog (absolutely love Theme Park and Hospital - I was so glad to see the former getting a pretty damn solid DS port)

- Rareware (a lot of great memories growing up with their games)

- Taito (when they were their own company and not stuck under the craptacular evil umbrella that is Square Enix)

- Lucasarts (when they were more focused on their magnificent adventure games, and not cancelling them to make YET MORE STAR WARS GAMES)

[Scott]

Sega Technical Institude (Sonic 2, 3, &K (co-developed/created with Sonic Team), Sonic Spinball, Kid Chameleon, Comix Zone, ill-fated Sonic X-treme)

You missed out "The Ooze"...

you NEVER miss out "The Ooze" Damnit that game is good!

[Conando]

Squaresoft. They were super with their games. They didn't try to be a money caring company. They took time and thought into their stuff. Square Enix.....Not so much.

Well, the Enix side still gives a fuck. Anyway, I'd have to say RareWare as well. Despite some stumbles near the end of their life as a credible developer, I'll always remember them for the Golden Years. I'm very sad to see what they have become.

[MykonosFan]

Now I know! It was Freddi Fish and the Case of the Stolen Conch Shell.

Thank you novelty for finally solving that for me! THANK YOU!

I think that's the one I had as well! Did it involve a peanut butter jelly sandwich with his grandma or something? I distinctly remember that, since I always thought eating a sandwich that was underwater in the ocean would probably suck...

[Arle985]

I also miss RareWare. During the SNES and N64 eras, they've made really awesome games. Sadly, ever since Microsoft bought the company, they started to make really mediocre titles that weren't near as good as their SNES/N64 titles. After Banjo Kazooie: Nut's 'n Bolts, they're now reduced to a company that only makes sports games. :/

And I'm surprised no one on here mentioned Argonaut Games. They've made the Croc games and since they're gone, there's no chance for a Croc 3.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Arle985

[Axl.EXE]

I miss Attention To Detail. Rollcage: Stage II was my childhood on a disk.

And on the subject of Humongous Entertainment, I distinctly remember being only mediocre at Backyard Baseball for PC. I mostly loaded my team with the RL players, then prayed for an easy hit (Or, if God smiled upon me, Aluminum Power) every time Randy Johnson stepped up to the plate.

Yeah, that was pretty much the only way you could get a decent hit off of Big Unit in that game. The fact that Aluminum Power was hilariously broken probably had something to do with it.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Axl

[lounge]

Sonic Team USA: I remember enjoying these guy's games like Heroes, Riders, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Secret Rings despite their

Riders and Secret Rings were made in Japan.

[Mick]

Midway. Seriously.......................... nobody mentioned them?! They were an absolutely important game company. I find it really sad that they dissolved 2-3 years ago. I would love to see 'em back. They made a lot of great arcade games like Mortal Kombat, Smash T.V. and NBA Jam. They were one of the best.

[Tailikku]

I miss old Rare. I mean eversince Microsoft bought them from Nintendo, the only thing that they've been doing is a bunch of shit games. And worst of all, Microsoft fucked up Banjo-Threeie.

[BlueTidalGamer]

Clover Studio. I love the Viewtiful Joe games. It's such a highly underrated series. I want Viewtiful Joe 3 so bad but it's a shame it's not gonna happen

Edited April 2, 2012 by BlueTidalGamer21

[Milo]

Bump.

 

I miss Eurocom. Though they are mostly known for tie-in shovelware games, they did the Cruis'n World N64 port (a game that holds a lot of nostalgic value to me) and the 2010/2011 GoldenEye 007 (Reloaded) remake of Rare's classic videogame adaptation for the N64 videogame adaptation of the GoldenEye film, which while not as good as Rare's adaptation and was essentially a in name only remake on top of that it was still among the better Bond games of the series. 007 Nightfire was also a good game too, though I don't see people talking about it as much as GoldenEye and From Russia With Love.

[Mr Loopone]

Since playing games for quite a while, I have seen video game companies come and go including some big names. These are ones that I miss quite a bit or a lot:

 

Infogrames (later became Atari then gone): Infogrames was a bit of my childhood playing the Looney Tunes games such as Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, Bugs and Taz Time Busters and Looney Tunes: Space Race, renting V-Rally 2 plus later on getting and enjoying Racing Evoluzione (by Milestone who are still around), Test Drive Unlimited (by Melbourne House), Taz Wanted. Plus their Asterix games from what I played seemed to be decent with good music. They were also important since they brought out quite a fair bit of Sega games over during the time when Sega just became a 3rd party developer and without them only a few would have been released in Europe including the first Sonic games on Nintendo systems. What also makes this upsetting is that when they gone and sold the distribution side to Bandai Namco is that the licences that they had barely got games when they gone with only a few Looney Tunes games (one being Duck Amuck by WayForward) and Asterix (some mobile game that Ubisoft brought out) were released. The original boss of Infogrames now works at Danone, a yogurt company so at least there is some satisfaction even though it is just eating a tub of Activia or drinking Actimel.

 

Midway: They weren't the best publisher or developer but I miss them. Midway (or Bally/Williams [1988-2000s]) were an American arcade company (possibly one of the few big ones?), they made many achievements in the days such as the first company to use ROMs preserving games for future generations (apart from a simulation of Pong, Gun Fight is the oldest arcade game that can be played on MAME), made Pac-Man huge even though Namco made the game and brought out many games that I enjoyed such as Spy Hunter (all versions; arcade, PS2/GC/Xbox and the one that I mention later), Rampage, Mortal Kombat II, San Francisco Rush and 2049, Cruis'n USA and what little I've played of World, Hydro Thunder, Arctic Thunder, Tapper, Gauntlet Dark Legacy (Xbox) plus bringing out some Atari Games [WB Atari] (Marble Madness, Hard Drivin, Gauntlet, RoadBlasters, Super Sprint) and Leland (Super Off-Road) in their compliations.

 

They were also pinball makers under the other two names and ever since they went, pinball became a niche with only Stern making them until recently. Warner Bros. took it over by buying much of their library (concidentally some that they had before during the Atari Games part), giving Mortal Kombat a new lease of life, managed to get a compliation of their older games and made a remake of Spy Hunter on the Vita however much of their library is forgotten. No Cruis'n, no San Francisco Rush, no Hydro Thunder (due to Microsoft having that IP), no Rampage and who knows what else.

 

Criterion: A recent one on the list since most if not all the staff went and at this point it is a new company that happens to use the original name (like Atari). While I haven't experienced their earlier games, it is the Burnout series that I'm going to miss from them. Even their last few games such as Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Need for Speed: Most Wanted were pretty good to me. They made games that were mainly racing games that were fun to play especially Burnout 3 onwards but also they were technically capable from making their RenderWare engine to be used in plenty of PS2/GC/Xbox era games (including a few Sonic games) to making sure that their games used the potential of the consoles, even the Vita and the Wii U where developers didn't often take full advantage (for the Vita, squeezing as much and making it as similar to the other consoles as possible, for the Wii U using the PC textures and different lighting techniques making it more than just a quicky port to the console).

 

Sega AM2, Smilebit, Amusement Vision, WOW Entertainment/Overworks, Hitmaker/Rosso (basically anyone from Sega of Japan between 1985-present that aren't Sonic Team*, Sega of China, Sega Sports Japan or the Yakuza Team who are still around): I miss Sega most of all, sure that they are still around but these studios are the reason why I consider Sega one of my favourite publishers and developers [AM2 being top but the others are pretty close]. Listing all their games that I've really enjoyed to the point of being my favourite is really long but they pretty much shaped my childhood (along with Namco, Nintendo and Sony) and the reason why I enjoy playing games.

 

It is also upsetting that apart from any future M2 ports of their games or if Sumo Digital return to make them a racing game, the last new game from them published and developed that I got was the Castle of Illusion remake done by their Austrailian studio who also concidentally closed down. (Sonic Lost World and the Mario & Sonic game were done by Nintendo in Europe)

 

* - The current Sonic Team, at least one formed since NiGHTS even if much of the staff have already gone.

 

There are a few more, just have to remember them.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Bizarre Creations. They made my favorite game of all time, Fur Fighters. They did Metropolis Street Racer and Project Gotham Racing as well, along with Blur and The Club. They ALSO did Geometry Wars too. Bizarre closed a few years ago, sadly.

 

Muffin Games (current owners of Fur Fighters) had better do something with my favorite game now that they've made that iOS port...

[Dantemustdie00]

Capcom

 

And I mean the old Capcom that busted out a variety of games. same said for the old Rare and Squaresoft

[Gabz Girl]

Rare for a start. Even when they joined forces with Microsoft their games were pretty good and I enjoyed playing them, like Kameo and Viva Piñata. After the terrible disappointment that was Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts though they suddenly started making those awful Kinect sports games. Apparently their latest game sold poorly and they had a lot of lay offs. Not surprised at all.

 

Another company I miss is Pandemic Studios. These guys created the brilliant Star Wars Battlefront games, and before being unceremoniously shut down by EA they made another solid yet underrated game called The Saboteur. Overshadowed by Assassins Creed 2 which came out around the same time, The Saboteur is a very good sandbox title with a great story and characters making it Pandemic's swansong so to speak.

[Shade Vortex]

How in the world has this entire thread gone without mentioning Hudson? I'm not talking about the Hudson that made the shitty-ass Wii shovelware or the terrible Bomberman: Act Zero, but the amazing bastards who made the old Mario Parties, and the ones who made Bomberman 64, Bomberman Hero and Bomberman 64: The Second Attack. Hell, the people who made Bomberman Generation and Jetters were pretty alright, too.

 

Of course, now, they're just a mobile social game/app group for Konami. Not a suitable end at all, for my childhood hero Bomberman.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Shade Vortex

[JayRaR]

I'd like to see Akklaim back just so they could make a sequel to RC Revenge Pro. I loved that game. :[

I also saw a playthrough of Vexx and I thought it looked interesting fun. If only they were around today to make HD quality games...

 

There's also Westwood Studios, if only to bring back the awesomeness of Tiberian Sun and Red Alert. Those new Red Alert and Tiberian whatever sequels are nice, but they don't quite capture that Westwood magic.

[Milo]

Since Neversoft officially closed it's doors yesterday, due to them being absorbed into COD developer Infinity Ward thanks Activision, I feel obligated to give them a mention.

 

These were the guys who did the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games. Though that series slid into mediocrity and then went down the toilet with the gimmicky waggle skateboard crap Rise and Shred introduced, the original four games (THPS 1, 2/2X, 3, and 4) are classics, and the sequel Underground titles (THUG and THUG 2) are also viewed as great games. I've personally only played the third THPS game (and tried a bit of the second game), but it's still one of my favorite games ever.

 

They were also responsible for the PS1/N64/Dreamcast Spider-Man game from 2000 (which is considered one of the better Spider-Man games along with Treyarch's first two videogame adaptations of the Ramai Spider-Man films), the Western-themed GTA-esque GUN (described by it's fans as the best Western game before Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption), and took over the Guitar Hero games after Harmonix left, which objectively while not as excellent as the first two titles, were (save for a few entries) good games nonetheless.

 

To accordingly close this post, here is an image of Neversoft studio employees burning a model of their famous "impaled eyeball" logo to commemorate their closure. RIP.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Dead ones; Hudson.

 

Existing but a shell of their former self: Rare. (especially miss them being with Nintendo)

 

Hudson would've been such a big help to the 3DS and even Wii U's library. They had an epic slate for 3DS (Bomberman, Kororinpa, even Omega Five!), even with 3rd-parties being scarce on Wii U (especially Japanese ones), Hudson would've been there, guaranteed.

 

They're mostly at ND Cube under Nintendo, wonderful... if they did a damn thing that wasn't a party game. I mean they have 7 people from Bomberman 64 there, DO SOMETHING!!!

[Autosaver]

Seriously, the lack of a Bomberman game is ridiculous.

[Conando]

I miss SEGA. Wait, what? What do you mean SEGA still exists? Ok, I know I'm being a dick, but I miss the SEGA that used to release all those titles like Jet Set Radio, Chu Chu Rocket, Samba De Amigo, and later on the like of Yakuza.