Over the past 5 years, there’s been a massive shift in the way we consume games. Starting with the launch of Steam and Xbox Live Arcade as distribution platforms right up to every major console today having downloadable games (even handhelds), the traditional marketplace for games is transforming, if not dying. Low-price, small-investment games are immensely satisfying and terrifically successful.

However, for one reason or another, some publishers and developers have been slow to join the digital distribution revolution. This is a shame, because are some games from the far and recent past that are almost alarmingly conducive to the downloadable format. Here are five big game franchises that would benefit tremendously from hopping on the bandwagon:

 

5. Rock Band

Reason: Cohesion

It feels weird to call out Harmonix for not nailing the downloadable content thing, when they’ve done what is arguably a better job than anyone else when it comes to embracing DLC.  There are over 800 songs available in the Rock Band Store right now, and when Rock Band Network hits later this year, that number is going to skyrocket very quickly. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that Rock Band 2 is still at its core a disc-based retail game. This has some serious shortcomings. For example, when The Beatles: Rock Band comes out next month, none of the songs on it will be playable in any past version of Rock Band, and any songs you’ve bought and downloaded in previous Rock Band games won’t be playable in Beatles. Kind of a bummer, right?

Out of the 5 franchises on this list, though, this one bears the most hope. Harmonix is already taking steps in the right direction by allowing you to download (for a nominal fee) almost all of the songs in Rock Band 1 to your system for play in Rock Band 2. And you can count on Rock Band 3 incorporating similar features. Still, considering the way retailers are hurting for shelf space and how everyone already has at least one plastic guitar in their house at this point, there’s no reason Harmonix shouldn’t allow players to obtain future iterations without having to get up from their drum kit.

 

4. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

Reason: Revival

The Tony Hawk games used to be great. I mean really, really great. They had everything you could want from an arcadey sports game: an excellent formula, intuitive controls, freedom of motion up there with Spider-Man 2 and Prototype, a sense of improvement. Unfortunately, like any successful franchise getting milked for sequels to the point of absurdity (that is to say, any Activision franchise), the need to add new features and stay competitive has overcomplicated and pulled down an excellent franchise.  There are now well over a dozen Tony Hawk games, and the reception for each one has been on a pretty steady decline since about midway thorough the series. 2007′s Proving Ground committed perhaps the most heinous crime so far by delivering an awkward Skate-lite that nobody was actually asking for. Later this year, Tony Hawk: RIDE is going to change the series pretty significantly, and no matter how you feel about the peripheral, it’s inevitable that it RIDE won’t play like the THPS games of yore. So what is the solution?

Simple: look to what Criterion did after Burnout Revenge was unable to live up to the unfair benchmark set by the absurdly popular Burnout 3. The PSP game Burnout Legends did something brilliant, something that you inexplicably never see in this industry: a “best-of”. Taking the immensely popular gameplay of Burnout 3 and cherrypicking the best levels and cars from the franchise’s past, the game was everything you’d want out of a series retrospective: the best moments in Burnout history, as chosen by the developers, condensed into a great portable experience.

Activision: Do this for Tony Hawk.

One of the THPS series’ greatest strengths is amazing level design. Ironically, an XBLA/PSN game filled with the best levels handpicked from the franchise’s early years wrapped in the gameplay from Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 might end up being the best Tony Hawk game yet.

 

3. Metal Gear

Reason: Evolution

The MGS story has, for all intents and purposes, drawn to a close. The story has ended, and Hideo Kojima has severed most of his non-producerial ties to the series. So where does the series go from here? More subplots in the MGS3 era? Metal Gear Ac!d 3?

No! No, I say! Actually, yes to an Ac!d 3, but I’m going somewhere with this. The Metal Gear franchise has hit every virtually every genre possible. The series proper has done a pretty alright job of sticking to its stealth game roots, but Snake has been found everywhere from cart racers to mascot brawlers to a bizarre lightgun-y iPhone game to a 3D-glasses-enabled PSP card game. So, yeah, everywhere.

Why, then, has there not been a sidescrolling Metal Gear adventure? It doesn’t take much to imagine a Metal Gear version Chair Entertainment’s absolutely fantastic Shadow Complex. And more than a few indie games (Trilby, et al) have proven that stealth sidescrollers actually can work. If executed well and by the right people, it seems like exactly the right direction for the series to go in.

 

2. Wii Sports

Reason: Efficiency

Nintendo has done a great job of positioning the Wii to be taken seriously when it comes to downloadable titles. With at least one WiiWare, one Virtual Console, and now one DSiWare game coming out every week, the Wii Shop Channel is spitting out content at a pace that no other console can keep up with. However, what you don’t see Nintendo doing is releasing truly episodic content. Distribution-wise, the system has no Half-Life 2 or Fallout 3 analogue, which is a shame, because they’re sitting on a franchise that at least as much potential for downloadable success.

Among the Wii series of first-party minigame collections, there currently exists tennis, baseball, basketball, bowling, golf, boxing, billiards, fishing, archery, and LASER HOCKEY, to name a few. The problem is that all 26 or so activities are spread out among multiple games on multiple discs, one of which is only available bundled with a Wii Remote that may or may not be necessary to you. Not to mention that you may not as interested in Frisbee™ as in something like, say, LASER HOCKEY.

Imagine a future where you are only paying for the content you actually want. Instead of waiting three years to buy a $60 collection of a dozen or so games when you’re only peripherally interested in a good chunk of them, what if you could buy your minigames piecemeal?

To wit: If linear, story-driven games are going episodic, why the hell haven’t minigame collections?

 

1. Super Monkey Ball

Reason: it should have happened years ago

The Super Monkey Ball franchise fits perfectly on this list. Arcadey, casual, leaderboard-centric, the SMB series is a textbook example of  what a good XBLA or PSN game should be: easy to pick up and play but an immense timesink if you let it get under your skin. Super Monkey Ball DX on the PS2 and Xbox, a compilation of every Super Monkey Ball level in existence with some extras, was pretty much the definitive version of the franchise, and the prospect of something as simple as digitally-distributed port of the game with online leaderboards, replay sharing, and DLC level packs is incredibly exciting. Not to mention that downloadable price point makes much more sense for a Super Monkey Ball game in 2009; I love the series to death, but even I would feel a little silly paying $60 at the store for a game that uses one stick and zero buttons.

All these factors make it sound like it’d be a surefire hit for Sega. Apparently, though, the less-than-excellent DS and Wii iterations of the series are at least paying the bills, so I’m not holding my breath for this one.

 

Readers! What franchises would you like to see revived as downloadable games? Did I miss any big ones? Let us know in the comments!