New editions or series of games are nothing new, especially when it comes to a developer or publisher wanting to cash in on a particular game’s success by making as many new releases as possible before players move on to a fresh trend.
However, the games that achieve genuine immortality are those whose new variations are true to their original while also bringing something new and exciting to the online gaming party.
Here we take a look at some of the online games that do just that, keeping their loyal army of fans content. Which of these games and their multiple variants do you know and love?
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Online gamers are always on the lookout for a new twist to an original game that they hold dear
Classic Games Always Open to Innovation
It makes sense that some of the games that have been around the longest are those that have the most amounts of variants, and because the likes of chess, blackjack, and mahjong have been around for centuries you can imagine the number of people who have attempted to try and reinvent them.
New variants of chess have been brought about largely due to modern gamers expecting a certain pace of gameplay, with variants like Blitz Chess and Fast Chess. These have been joined by other fun variants like Fog of War and Horde, whose rules are incredibly different to the original strategy game. Blackjack is similar to chess in some ways, because many different offshoots exist of this classic card game, which started life in Southern Europe and has since spread to all four corners of the internet. Its many variants such as Classic, Premium, and Live Free Bet are entertaining players 24/7 in online casino lobbies.
Last but not least there is mahjong, which arguably boasts more variants than any other ancient or classic game. Even just a quick perusal online will show up a vast array of mahjong versions. Some of these include the three-dimensional Mahjong Dimensions, Mahjong Candy, and even Mahjong: Age of Alchemy. Such games are already hugely popular in Asia but are now beginning to gain a foothold in western gaming circles as well.
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Some video game franchises still endure from the days when people played with retro Atari controllers
Console Brand Franchises Just Run and Run
When the video game craze really began to kick in during the 90s few would have predicted that many of the big players in the industry would still be ruling the roost come the 2020s. That is exactly what has happened, though, as the likes of Nintendo, Atari, and Sega continue to milk their brands and popular gaming series for all they are worth.
Some of the best examples of this are Nintendo’s Mario franchise, which at the latest count had at least 200 games in which either Mario fronted a title or made an appearance in a game. Pac-Man was Atari’s answer to Mario, and there are still new versions of the retro classic being released today, such as Pac-Man 99. Of course, Sega’s biggest brand was, and still is, Sonic the Hedgehog, although games featuring the blue spiky mammal have dried up in recent years; despite the success of a 2020 movie dedicated to the character.
First-Person Classics Spawn Copycats
First person shooters continue to be the mainstays of the online gaming realm, having since morphed into battle royale games that people play today like Call of Duty and Fortnite.
All these games owe a huge debt of gratitude to the developers who created titles like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. This is because the development engines that were used to power such games were then taken and run with by a whole host of other developers. This led to other games which were different by name but were ultimately new versions of the originals. Such games included Heretic, Duke Nukem 3D, and Star Wars: Dark Forces. If games such as these were counted alongside the official sequels of games like Doom and Quake, then there would be no doubt that particularly Quake would be one of the most reinvented games ever created.
