Iterative. It’s a term that’s often used with some measure of distaste, but the truth is there’s a whole lot to value in games that don’t necessarily switch up their gameplay.
To be clear, there are games that are derivative (like Mutant Mudds) and games that iterate on a core gameplay mechanic that didn’t really work the first time (like Final Fantasy XIII-2), but we’re talking about the practice of taking a refined core and adding new bits and bobs. And that has a history of paying off. Working with a pre-defined gameplay style, and in some cases within the exact same engine as a previous game allows for experimentation and innovation in other areas that can pave the way to the next big thing.
The Need for Speed series is soon to see its 17th main entry (excluding World and Nitro), and has been through at least three distinct eras of iteration, each with their own highs and troughs. In retrospect, the entries that proved most influential and innovative were the ones that released a year or less after their direct predecessors, keeping the core gameplay near-identical while focusing on gimmicks elsewhere.
The best thing that came out of the ill-fated 3DO?
Take Need for Speed II (1997) and Need for Speed III (1998). The latter shipped with a standard racing mode that almost mirrored the features of the older game, but it also added the ‘hot pursuit’ mode which would go on to influence countless games and define the cop chase gaming trope for the generation and beyond.
Similarly, NFS Underground (2003) laid a solid foundation for Underground 2 (2004), which helped pioneer the open world racer and undoubtedly influenced an open world push in other genres as well.
The much more recent Hot Pursuit (2010) consciously takes the decades-old approach to racing pioneered in the original 3DO game as a base, adding the best features from the smorgasbord of following titles and wrapping it all up with a modern sheen. However, it also had an eye on the future with Autolog, the social stat-tracking feature that played a huge role in fostering what we now call asynchronous multiplayer. None of these industry-shifting innovations would have been possible without constant iteration, a process that can establish a solid baseline upon which to build and test innovative features.
New Super Mario Bros is a pretty fresh example. Sure, the concurrent development of both a 3DS and a Wii U iteration of a decades-old gameplay style has had pockets of the community frothing at the ‘stache with rage. But let’s not forget that Super Mario Galaxy 2, almost universally lauded for moving the series forward with innovation (and often contrasted with the New Super games as a series that ‘does it right’), borrowed much from its iterative and super-successful cousin NSMB Wii. Galaxy 2 employed a simplified straight-line stage progression, side-scrolling old-school homages and comet medals – a play on Galaxy’s prankster comet system that took direct inspiration from the hidden star coins of the New Super series.
So while each entry into a series can appear to be ‘more of the same’ (and in many ways they may be), that does not discount each title’s ability to contribute significantly to the industry and culture. New Super Mario Bros 2’s coin rush mode, to take just one example, might appear to be tacked on but the idea provides an incentive for dedicated players to learn the ins and outs of every single stage, playing them repeatedly and driving a constant dialogue between gamers.
This tactic is prescient of the indirect social approach Nintendo appears to be making as part of its upcoming home console. It’s an effective tactic, as evidenced by the myriad wiki entries and coin run videos online, and by the fact that according to Nintendo’s Japanese NSMB2 website, which has a live counter, more than 151 billion coins have already been collected worldwide.
A proven and refined game style that is stable, predictable and guaranteed to sell, in other words, is the perfect avenue to test the waters of a new direction. There’s every possibility that in ten years one could look back at NSMB2 as the first step towards the new breed of platformers or even of socially-enhanced single-player experiences.
Of course, there are positive examples of iteration that barely need to move forward at all. Take Professor Layton for example – a game that nailed the perfect gameplay to deliver its content in its first outing – which needs only to deliver new content (puzzles) with each iteration to make for great successive experiences.
Then there are franchises like NBA 2K and WWE, games that are necessarily more of the same because all the gamer really wants is fresh details. Of course these gamers generally have a specialised interest in the genre, and so a slow progression of the gameplay is less of a deal-breaker.
Disenchantment with an iterated franchise really only seems to occur on a large scale, somewhat incongruously, in the most widely popular games.
Call of Duty (and shooters in general) iterated for several chapters before hitting an enormous goldmine of mainstream success in Modern Warfare. The kind of innovation in that game, however, is only possible on a foundation of gameplay forged by iteration and it simply can’t be reproduced year after year.
In the case of CoD, the innovative online suite and attractive setting were merely a dressing on top of already in-place systems including online player rankings and classes, or even gameplay features like iron sights. The slew of features developed and refined in previous games made solid bedrock for the new elements (which could easily have failed if attached to a different game) and the combination results in what feels like a huge revelation of innovation, but is actually just a tipping point.
The period of iteration that follows seems unadventurous by comparison, as developers search for a way to keep the processes that were successful last time but also find something new. Meanwhile, gamers who have been spoilt by a huge new thing – be it Modern Warfare or Mario Galaxy – are often so quick to dismiss the games that seem like ‘more of the same’, that they overlook the function those games have in driving the direction and innovation of future experiences.
Tim is a games writer based in Melbourne. If you’d like to read the same article with new levels and cooperative multiplayer you can find him here on IGN. And why not join the IGN Australia Facebook community while you're at it?
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