got to watching the henry stickmin franchise again, I realised how true this still holds. think about your favorite game franchises of all time; Mario, Mortal Kombat, Doom, even plot-heavy franchises like metal gear or COD started relatively simple. simple mechanics, simple stories, a simple gameloop.
This lowers the cost of development and in turn the cost to the player to try something new. If players see something they like, they'll be more likely to spend more on the sequel, and in the meantime, word of mouth advertising can get the game going.
rather than spending literal billions trying to get a new ip off the ground, studios can spend significantly less money trying new concepts and introduce more complexity as time goes on, rather than trying to hit the ground running.
This has been similar problem with Need for Speed and other racing games, where they try to shoehorn in a story where it doesn’t matter/fit. Most Wanted ‘05 did it right and Rivals did a solid job at it too, but a lot of modern racing games put in a story that doesn’t matter. I want to race fast cars and battle cops, not deal with NPCs that only talk. The best classic and modern NFS games, Hot Pursuit 2 and Hot Pursuit 2010 both have zero story, focus on tracks and driving experience, and are far better for it.
Racing games, please stop with the plots. 90% of the time it’s not going to work.
I miss Most Wanted, partially because it looks like Yakima Washington where I was living at the time.
It’s a great map. Good city, industrial, suburban and rural environments. Fun to drive around.
It was probably the best version, though the videos were terrible.