If you were a gamer in the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) days up to the Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 era then you probably recognized the name, Acclaim. Sure, as time went on, they had an occasional hit game that was good but for many, me included, Acclaim stood for licensed games that often fell short of being decent. It did not help that in 1990 Acclaim purchased their number one competitor for licensed properties, LJN further rubbing salt in the eyes of many gamers, me included. Well, be careful not to get whiplash looking but Acclaim is rising from the grave under new management.
Light on Information
The “new” Acclaim is very light on information being available. They are clearly trying to ride on the hype of what heritage the original Acclaim could muster. This is apparent when you check out the PlayAcclaim Facebook Page. So many of their questions to fans are tailored to rile up memories of a time that many long for.
I do not mean to come off as dismissive of what they are trying to do, it is just I am dumbfounded as to why Acclaim? Maybe I am being too harsh on their history but for me, mostly trusting them on the NES, I just have far more horrible experiences than good to go by.
For every Double Dragon II: The Revenge there are 20+ Total Recall, Simpsons games (which were not fun till the PS2/Xbox era) and do we want to discuss their PlayStation and Nintendo 64 wrestling games?
Nostalgia is Key
Considering most of Acclaims library was licensed or original properties were, obviously, sold off long ago, I am at least interested in seeing what they are planning here. Their Facebook page mentions industry veterans with over 50+ years experience among them.
I only recognize one name from their management team, Jeff Jarrett. Yeah, that Jeff Jarrett. “The Chosen One” to WCW fans, the walking light up billboard if you preferred WWF in the mid 90s (he was the first co-champion with Chyna so there is that), or maybe you recognize his name from TNA wrestling as “The King of the Mountain”, or that failed business venture, Global Force Wrestling.
Jarrett gets around, good or bad, he is an active individual.
September 10th on YouTube is a day they are promoting on Facebook so maybe then we will have a better idea of what this new Acclaim will bring to the table.
Mortal Kombat games were definitely big ones for me, from them same as Double Dragon 2.
Plenty of others throughout the time in the 90s that I spent, playing many games.
I guess I more just enjoyed having fun on games myself and tried to not get too disappointed as often as others might of.
Let's see what they bring to the table this time!
Mortal Kombat 1 on SNES was a decent fighting game but it really showed the flaws of the base game when the blood was taken out. What sucks is it came out in interviews with former employees of both Acclaim and Nintendo stating Acclaim went above and beyond what Nintendo was asking to be changed - which makes me wonder what really could have been with MK1 on SNES. Also I wonder what was the reasoning? Was Acclaim, or someone in it, doing this out os spite?
I do sincerely hope the new Acclaim is able to do better and have a better track record so to speak. I know not all games are going to be absolutely amazing but I do hope they are able to fulfill their dreams with this venture.
Yeah it is likely some things inside the company,that contributed to things being changed so much.
I honestly didn't notice the changes on SNES MK compared to the arcade machine.. but I was only like 8 - 10 and I was loving the games played in my life.
But now I notice much more, it is possible a lot more games will not be so enjoyable, for the new Acclaim goals and releases but who knows.
I was born in 1976 so I grew up with gaming, I was the prime age/audience for Mortal Kombat and while I played the SNES Mortal Kombat that weekend for the time I rented it, I never bought it or went back. The sweat was just too much - adjusted fatalities and such made it feel like an alternate entry in the series.
I was always a bigger fan of Street Fighter II though so Mortal Kombat without the blood or familiar fatalities was already at the bottom of a steep hill with me.
Mortal Kombat II was a pre-paid purchase for me. I enjoyed it, partly because my mom was a HUGE fan of Jax and his fatalities but she was too sick to play. I recorded all his fatalities I could perform on a VHS tape so she could watch them whenever she wanted to. Fighting cancer left her in weird states of consciousness so anything we could do to help her we did.
I know a lot of people enjoy many of Acclaims 32-bit and later releases but by then, I had already moved on from the company. I never played Shadowman for instance, I was never a sports fan so I never touched those by any company outside Sega and their World Series Baseball on Saturn (Home Run Derby was my mode).
For what the original Acclaim did, they deserve kudos for changing gaming like they did. I just hope the new Acclaim is able to thrive and some gamers have fond memories of their titles too and someday, gamers are discussing their portfolio like we are here, reminiscing and enjoying memories of past times.
I wish you a happy return and that all your expectations may be met this time.
#hive #posh
Thank you.
Welcome
@triverse Best regards, my friend. Thanks for sharing this news. You know, I didn't know they were coming back. At the time, I was able to try some of the games they released. And I really enjoyed them. But I didn't play many.
I find it curious that a studio that had closed is coming back.
What do you think they'll surprise us with?
Best regards, have a great day.
A few companies have closed doors years ago and made comebacks under new management - ColecoVision, Kodak, Polaroid, and many more are on that list. Some have pretty good success while others are still a mystery as to what they are doing.
I hope this new Acclaim is able to make some waves beyond social media.
I am not like many on Facebook thinking they will come out with a new Mortal Kombat game, or a new Simpsons game, both licensed properties.
I do think they will come out of the gate with some smaller titles to ease into gaming. I am not familiar with all the people in the company, just Jeff Jarrett, who is not known for his gaming development skills. Probably will be some puzzle games, maybe some mobile titles, things like that.
What I would think they will be doing is going for indie developers, taking on an old school Electronic Arts vibe of licensing indie games for broader release and onto new platforms. It would make sense for a startup with decent capital to start here. You get ready made games that may need manuals, box art, etc created, have set costs for publishing, and a myriad of distribution methods available today.
Considering so many indie games are developed using engines that are cross platform supportive such as Unity or Unreal Engine, it would be easy to work on ports to modern consoles with minimal investment, or downtime that a wholly original title would require.
If I was them, I would go that route.
You're right, my friend. I share your opinion. I think they'll start quietly and maybe release a mobile game. Or maybe they'll release a remake of their previous games, but that's just speculation. Only time will tell, and we'll see how successful they become.
Greetings, and thank you for sharing your insightful opinion with the community.
Looking back through the list of games that were published by Acclaim, there was definitely a lot of crap. Having said that, rarely did a year go by that they didn't have a couple of great games as well. There's definitely a lot of nostalgia to market: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Acclaim_Entertainment_games
I agree, they did have some good games, just my experience with them was fairly bad. While I loved their wrestling releases on the Super Nintendo, if you didn't have a rapid fire controller available you were in for a world of hurt playing those. I wanted to enjoy the Simpsons games on NES and SNES but the controls just rubbed me the wrong way. The list goes on for me. I absolutely cherished playing Double Dragon II, probably my first experience with Acclaim games so my expectations were set high fairly early.
The problem is, so many of their titles were licensed. Not likely the new iteration of Acclaim will be attempting to get into WWE games again. Same for other sports.
The titles that were more original were sold off in bankruptcy so the new company will not have access to any of those titles either.
I do sincerely hope that they are able to do something unique and interesting with their opportunity though. I never want to see a game publisher fail because I love gaming as a whole. While some games may not fit my interest, I understand there are others that it may be their Double Dragon II, their Super Mario Bros, etc. That is the beauty of gaming.
Based on their promotions and attitude so far, I do not see them aiming for the retro market.
I just hope the new Acclaim can build off the nostalgia base they are garnering.