Like any part of entertainment, video games are guilty of capitalising on what’s popular at the time and running with it until the fuel is all gone. Just look at how overrun the gaming world is with sequels and mindless first-person shooters, which despite all odds continue to sell relatively well. There’s a reason for that, of course, as certain franchises lure fans in with creative, inventive approaches that inevitably get rehashed to the point of death. Most recently, this happened with Assassin’s Creed Unity. It’s the latest entry in the series that Kotaku noted shouldn’t be played because, despite it being gorgeous, the game just isn’t fun. It’s a shame for the franchise and its fans, but it only proves that (just like Hollywood) video game companies can run out of ideas and release cash-grabbing projects, too.
With all that in mind, however, why haven’t we seen those same companies hop aboard one of the more popular topics of cinema and television? While there are more zombie and zombie-related games out there than you can imagine, the same cannot be said for those featuring werewolves and vampires. And why not? In doing some research, it appears that gaming companies lost the desire to work with vampiric characters in the late ’90s and early 2000s. As Gameranx lists here, most of their picks for the “22 best vampire games” were released at around the same time. Not only that, but most of them are sequels within the same franchise, such as Castlevania, Legacy of Kain, and so on.
Don’t even get me started on werewolves in video games, as they’re hardly ever used and when they are, you’re not going to get a chance to actually control them. Those instances, where you actually play as a werewolf, are few and far between. Some of the more recent examples include 2005’s PlayStation 2 title Altered Beast, which was really just a glossed-up reboot of the 1988 original. Also, you only get to “alter” into a werewolf-life beast, meaning you’re not actually a werewolf to begin with. The same goes for the wolf elements of 2006’s The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, during which you transform into a wolf but have no wolf-like qualities in human form. More recently, online arcade InterCasino combined both monsters into a single game, Vampires vs. Werewolves. You assume the role of either character to take part in a “clash between two of the most bloodthirsty creatures in popular fiction.” It’s a rather dramatic twist on what is a dressed-up online slot machine, but it also stands as one of the only games to actually feature both monsters in the same title.
So here we are, years later, and all we seem to see are zombie games, right? Yes. It’s unfortunate, really, because vampires and werewolves have long been a part of horror-themed lore. And as was mentioned earlier, the timing for games to jump on the bandwagon surrounding those characters seemed perfect. In reality, it would have been that way a few years back, but still, better late than never, right? Of course. Besides, as good as some of those zombie games are, we need some variety. The different games may take on the idea of the undead in a number of ways, but why not offer up a different monster entirely?
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