The Cross-Platform Returns

Written by Thomas Harding on July 05, 2000

The Cross-Platform Returns: Is console hopping the way to go?

Back in the heyday of 16-bit, when we were all playing our Sonic 3's and our Mario World 2's, there were few games that you needed the other system to play. Why? Because during this time, most third party publishers decided to publish the same game for both systems. Sure, there were a few exceptions; Capcom did only publish Street Fighter II for SNES, but SF2: Championship Edition and SF2: Turbo were basically the same games with different titles.

Sure, there were some obvious differences. MK3 was way better looking on SNES, and a hell of a lot easier to play too, but Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game was just friggin' incredible on Genesis.

Eventually, these cross-platform ports transferred over into the 32-bit generation, with Saturn and PSX sharing a many a game. Unfortunately, this was the biggest blow to the concept of cross-platforming a game. The PlayStation as well as its ports of the game sold well, and the Saturn's usually went flop. This not only began the downfall of the Saturn, but it began the short lack of cross-platform games that weren't from Midway or Acclaim. Many third parties (Capcom, Konami, and such) decided that since the two remaining systems had a 32-bit graphical gap. It would be wiser to develop a game just for one system.

When you think of it, the game industry has benefited from it. The features and parts of games like Resident Evil, Turok, and such would have probably been lost if publishers and developers were originally created to launch on both N64 and PSX. Yeah, it'd probably suck.

So, why the big resurrection of cross-platform gaming happening now? Well, it never quite left with companies like Midway and Acclaim making different ports of their games onto both N64 and PSX. But aside from that, cross-platform gaming is returning from the near dead because there is going to be almost a set graphical limit in the next hardware generation. All four systems will each be 128-bit, and mostly Internet interface. Companies like Capcom are planning to take advantage of this, with "The Mighty C" already planning on releasing the next Resident Evil game as a complete multi-platformed masterpiece, pardon my alliteration.

And the biggest benefit of the new age of cross-platform gaming is most obvious, I won't have to pay money to buy another damned system to pay one damned game that much anywhere.