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Fun Club What is the gaming equivalent of James Cameron's Avatar?

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James Cameron's Avatar is usually known for two things: its white savior narrative, and an interesting case of how something can be super popular yet unremarkable. This thread was made to discuss the latter, about how far can a piece of media go without leaving any sort of influence and/or mindshare.

Just to clarify some stuff:
  • This thread isn't about the best-selling games. It's about games where their popularity is very disproportionate to their impact on the industry and the general public.
  • Bad influence is still influence. Harpoony games like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush have been discussed ad nauseam
  • Don't post anything that isn't at least 5 years old.

My pick for the Avatar of the game industry is not a particular title, but rather a fallen media empire: the Angry Birds franchise.

Coming right when the mobile game scene was booming, Angry Birds stood among other "crush the castle" games because of its colorful characters. The game is still a very good case about how characters can make a game more appealing, similar to what Dragon Quest did with RPGs in the 80s, or what Puyo Puyo did with Tetris. Another thing that Angry Birds had was that its game design allowed for different approaches to accomplish the goal, unlike many other puzzle games where the solutions are limited and rigid.

Around 2012, when Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars released, the franchise was becoming a global phenomenon, something like the Pokémon of the 2010s. At that time Rovio, the studio behind the franchise, wanted to become like Disney (I'm not joking they actually said that) and funded expansion beyond games and merch. The franchise continued to grow until its peak around 2014-2015, and in that time you could argue that Angry Birds was the face of video games.

As everyone knows when the movie was released in 2016 there was a fatigue around the franchise, and then the second movie in 2019 saw a significant decline in popularity...

Today nobody cares about Angry Birds. Nobody remembers a single level of the hundreds that were made. The games aren't considered particularly good, unlike some of its contemporaries like Plants vs Zombies. The franchise didn't leave any offspring or spiritual successor, as the 'handcrafted' puzzle genre is completely dead on mobile.

And despite all this I would love to say that Angry Birds was an under-appreciated martyr that died fighting the microtransaction trend, but you couldn't even say that about the franchise since Rovio was pretty quick in embracing predatory monetization. At least Pioneers of the harpoon, like GTAV, Clash of Clans and Overwatch could say that they trojan horse'd whaling techniques into the industry, but Angry Birds didn't set any trend, good or bad.

What are other titans that didn't left a mark?
 
How about Flappy Bird? I mean, it’s not exactly a ‘Titan’ but it was all over the place for a few months.
 
Yzz said:
James Cameron's Avatar is usually known for two things: its white savior narrative, and an interesting case of how something can be super popular yet unremarkable. This thread was made to discuss the latter, about how far can a piece of media go without leaving any sort of influence and/or mindshare.
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To this day, Avatar is still the best 3D movie I've ever seen. Every 3D movie felt as if it was a regular movie with a small handful of scenes optimized for 3D (i.e. added negative and positive spaces) to justify the extra cost. 3D filming was literally made for Avatar and the 3D bioluminescent forest and reptilian-like mammals were brought to life with the 3D filming technology.
 
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I was gonna say Wii Sports games, but even though the Wii hype fell off a cliff after a few years it is still remembered very fondly.

So I'll say Kinect.

Sold 35 million units. Was a massive hit.

Literally forgotten a year or two later, just like Avatar.
 
Schlubotipelto said:
I was gonna say Wii Sports games, but even though the Wii hype fell off a cliff after a few years it is still remembered very fondly.

So I'll say Kinect.

Sold 35 million units. Was a massive hit.

Literally forgotten a year or two later, just like Avatar.
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Solid pick for this. I dimly remember the launch of the XB1 where it was even worse than being forgotten, it had gone from a massive hit to an albatross around the neck of xbox, with fears of it monitoring people, being a spycam etc.
 
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MineCraft is kinda similar in that it's (at one point) the best selling game of all-time and Notch had a long line of planned follow up games that never actually came to fruition, but it's also the opposite in that everyone remembers everything about it.

Otherwise it's probably Flappy Bird or Kinect Adventures.
 
If it wasn't for the nemesis system I would say Shadow of Mordor - feels like it was very popular at the time because there wasn't much else available on the PS4 / XB1 but there was really nothing otherwise notable about it and the only way it gets a mention now is for that.
 
As much as I love them, what about Guitar Hero / Rock Band? They did have a bunch of titles for a few years, but crashed hard when everyone threw out their plastic instruments and didn’t really survive the Wii/360/PS3.

Rock Band 4 on the PS4/X1 didn’t really catch on, and they bailed pretty hard. now harmonix is basically Fortnite’s music department. I guess there are some VR titles that owe a lot to those games, but I can’t think of much else.
 
Less entire game industry, and more specifically "monster collector genre," but Yokai Watch. Technically this got a sequel on the Switch within the past five years, but its underperformance only marks how ephemeral Yokai Watch was as a franchise. Like, it's hard to believe this was once heralded as the Pokemon killer, and it's just a ghost of a franchise now (yes, pun intended). I feel random features in Pokemon, like rotom dex, really is the longterm impact of the Yokai Watch franchise.
 
The description omits another defining trait of that film: usurping the title of one of the greatest TV shows ever made like BOTW now no longer means Red Letter Media's timeless and groundbreaking web show Best of the Worst.
 
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Stephen 776 said:
Less entire game industry, and more specifically "monster collector genre," but Yokai Watch. Technically this got a sequel on the Switch within the past five years, but its underperformance only marks how ephemeral Yokai Watch was as a franchise. Like, it's hard to believe this was once heralded as the Pokemon killer, and it's just a ghost of a franchise now (yes, pun intended). I feel random features in Pokemon, like rotom dex, really is the longterm impact of the Yokai Watch franchise.
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Another good pick for this topic! Level 5 management of its various IP has been really weird over the years, they’ve had a few hits blow up quickly then fade away.
 
Stupid Sexy Flanders said:
As much as I love them, what about Guitar Hero / Rock Band? They did have a bunch of titles for a few years, but crashed hard when everyone threw out their plastic instruments and didn’t really survive the Wii/360/PS3.

Rock Band 4 on the PS4/X1 didn’t really catch on, and they bailed pretty hard. now harmonix is basically Fortnite’s music department. I guess there are some VR titles that owe a lot to those games, but I can’t think of much else.
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I disagree. While I admit I wasn't huge fan of Guitar Hero (never played Rock Band), both GH and RB introduced a whole generation of kids into rock/metal. I'm going to a The Killers concert this month, and if it wasn't for my cousin practicing "When you were young" all the goddamn time, I probably wouldn't had bought the ticket.

I've met more than one person that started playing guitar because of the games. I won't be surprised if GH/RB ends up being to guitar players what Captain Tsubasa was to football players.

Aside from that, people formed good memories around the game. Slow Ride is one of the most iconic first video game levels, the 1-1/Green Hill Zone of rhythm games. People still meme about Through the Fire and Flames in expert, which is also a very iconic level. The games also had soul, like in III you have a guitar duel against Satan himself.

Awesomegames23 said:
To this day, Avatar is still the best 3D movie I've ever seen. Every 3D movie felt as if it was a regular movie with a small handful of scenes optimized for 3D (i.e. added negative and positive spaces) to justify the extra cost. 3D filming was literally made for Avatar and the 3D bioluminescent forest and reptilian-like mammals were brought to life with the 3D filming technology.
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Yeah, sorry for dismissing the hard work that went into the film visuals, they still look great. Perhaps I should've said "In shitpost circles, Avatar is known for.."
 
Yzz said:
I disagree. While I admit I wasn't huge fan of Guitar Hero (never played Rock Band), both GH and RB introduced a whole generation of kids into rock/metal. I'm going to a The Killers concert this month, and if it wasn't for my cousin practicing "When you were young" all the goddamn time, I probably wouldn't had bought the ticket.

I've met more than one person that started playing guitar because of the games. I won't be surprised if GH/RB ends up being to guitar players what Captain Tsubasa was to football players.

Aside from that, people formed good memories around the game. Slow Ride is one of the most iconic first video game levels, the 1-1/Green Hill Zone of rhythm games. People still meme about Through the Fire and Flames in expert, which is also a very iconic level. The games also had soul, like in III you have a guitar duel against Satan himself.
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Yeah I talked myself out of it as I was posting. Even though we don’t have plastic instruments anymore, the games definitely left their mark.
 
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For my experience (and this might differ for others), literally everyone I know who was interested in Death Stranding stopped talking about/making content for it like a month after launch.

EDIT: Just realized OP said older games only, so I'm gonna change my answer to Beyond Two Souls
 
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GamerJM said:
MineCraft is kinda similar in that it's (at one point) the best selling game of all-time and Notch had a long line of planned follow up games that never actually came to fruition, but it's also the opposite in that everyone remembers everything about it.

Otherwise it's probably Flappy Bird or Kinect Adventures.
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Minecraft is by far the best selling game ever made, being nearly 70 million copies ahead of the next best selling game, has hundreds of millions of players every month, and has an entire cottage industry of streamers, personalities, and fanfic spinoffs that more popular in and of themselves than most other game franchises are total. It's the furthest thing from being over possible.

To answer the OP, other than the Kinect I think the answer is GTAIV, GTAV has just completely eclipsed that game in ever possible measure, and it doesn't seem to have the nostalgia factor the PS2 era games have going for them, ending up sort of an orphan entry
 
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Garlic said:
Minecraft is by far the best selling game ever made, being nearly 70 million copies ahead of the next best selling game, has hundreds of millions of players every month, and has an entire cottage industry of streamers, personalities, and fanfic spinoffs that more popular in and of themselves than most other game franchises are total. It's the furthest thing from being over possible.
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I think they were referring that Minecraft became #1 in its industry and then the original creator didn't do anything else, just like Avatar and Cameron.
That's ultimately a good thing because Notch is antisemitic and an awful person in general, and the gaming industry is better without him.
 
Yzz said:
I think they were referring that Minecraft became #1 in its industry and then the original creator didn't do anything else, just like Avatar and Cameron.
That's ultimately a good thing because Notch is antisemitic and an awful person in general, and the gaming industry is better without him.
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Yes this is what I was getting at. And yes it's also true that it's good that Notch left the industry.
 
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TheMindOfThomas said:
PUBG
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Kind of controversial but I agree. While it definitely isn't something that isn't selling and nothing like that, it stopped the world when it released to the point it was shoehorned into GOTY candidates without leaving beta stage lol, sold millions, everyone was talking about it... Then Fortnite comes and nobody remembers it exists.

It's still played by millions around the world, but it definitely wasn't as influential as Fortnite.
 
Pushing really far past, I'll go with Duck Hunt. Sold 28 million on the NES, got to such heights Mario only would touch again on the DS, was a one time thing with the gun peripheral stuff, never got an actual sequel, reboot, nothing.

Wasn't as influential to gaming industry as the other Nintendo IPs for the NES like Mario and the ones that sold only a fraction of it like Zelda and Metroid, the only recent stuff it got was the characters in Smash.
 
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Mobile Browser games are first to come to mind, but stuff like Robot Unicorn Attack (and it's spinoffs) certainly dominated my facebook and twitter feed. Granted, could be bias from a circle of friends in university when it was at its widest and exam studying related stress at its peak, but I certainly feel people I talked with in person or online had not only heard of RUA but were also keen to brag about their high score, and that song Always by Erasure ensured that it was pervasive and likely to break out into song as Gangnam Style was.
 
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No Man's Sky maybe? That game was everywhere pre launch and it was even getting featured on late night talks shows. Then after the rocky launch seems like interest in it has fizzled away.
 
Awesomegames23 said:
To this day, Avatar is still the best 3D movie I've ever seen. Every 3D movie felt as if it was a regular movie with a small handful of scenes optimized for 3D (i.e. added negative and positive spaces) to justify the extra cost. 3D filming was literally made for Avatar and the 3D bioluminescent forest and reptilian-like mammals were brought to life with the 3D filming technology.
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I would agree if it weren’t for Gravity.
 
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Belinda Blumenthal said:
If it wasn't for the nemesis system I would say Shadow of Mordor - feels like it was very popular at the time because there wasn't much else available on the PS4 / XB1 but there was really nothing otherwise notable about it and the only way it gets a mention now is for that.
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I actually think the Nemesis System makes this a perfect example - it was touted as this groundbreaking way of having enemy encounters, I believe they even trademarked or copyrighted the name and system, and yet who cares about it now?

I think part of the problem is, as cool as the concept of "this enemy will remember you if it kills you and mock you for it!" is, most games don't incorporate death/reload into the plot and so it would be nonsensical for an enemy to reference having just defeated you.
 
To me it's Bioshock

Absolutely massive in terms of mindshare during the 360 and PS3 days. Bioshock being the big Game of the Year pick in a year that has Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, CoD4, and Portal still stands out to me for how little people care about the game these days. Even at the time I think there was talks of a Bioshock movie being discussed.

Bioshock 2 has even less going for it than the first and Infinite nowadays just seems to get dunked on for being pretentious and overshadowed in the same year GTAV and TLOU came out.

Now Irrational Games has shut down and Ken Levine has put out nothing since as the game industry has largely moved on.
 
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hologram said:
I actually think the Nemesis System makes this a perfect example - it was touted as this groundbreaking way of having enemy encounters, I believe they even trademarked or copyrighted the name and system, and yet who cares about it now?

I think part of the problem is, as cool as the concept of "this enemy will remember you if it kills you and mock you for it!" is, most games don't incorporate death/reload into the plot and so it would be nonsensical for an enemy to reference having just defeated you.
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I mean that's what happens when you patent a system so noone else can use it and then proceed to make no games that take advantage of it afterwards
 
Stephen 776 said:
Less entire game industry, and more specifically "monster collector genre," but Yokai Watch. Technically this got a sequel on the Switch within the past five years, but its underperformance only marks how ephemeral Yokai Watch was as a franchise. Like, it's hard to believe this was once heralded as the Pokemon killer, and it's just a ghost of a franchise now (yes, pun intended). I feel random features in Pokemon, like rotom dex, really is the longterm impact of the Yokai Watch franchise.
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That’s just Level-5 in general . Inazuma Eleven at one point was one of the most popular media franchises for kids in Europe not just in Japan and Profesor Layton was also quite popular , now one is in dev hell since 2015 and the other almost dead with the most recent entry being a mobile games that underperformed.
 
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Chie said:
No Man's Sky maybe? That game was everywhere pre launch and it was even getting featured on late night talks shows. Then after the rocky launch seems like interest in it has fizzled away.
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Still getting major free updates, has had plenty of articles written around the basis that it's a far more impressive game now than at launch, more concurrent Steam players now than most of its first three years.
 
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