To me, the problem with reboots and reinterpretations is respect (or lack thereof) for the source material. Take the TV show Smallville, for example. It's a flat-out insult to the existence of Superman. Everything that the Man of Steel stands for was swept under the rug to simply cater to teen viewers wanting teen drama.

That's why I just can't agree with you on this, Commodore. I mean, I respect your opinion and I'm sure Epic Mickey is a great game, but Mickey, as compared to other franchises doesn't really have a set "source material" per se. Sure, there's 70 years worth of cartoons, movies, comics and other forms of media, but Mickey is Mickey and anything can be done with him. There's essentially no reboot or reinterpretation of who he is. It's just another Mickey story. He may be widely recognized like Superman, but without established canon, even if taken in a slightly different direction, it's like comparing apples to tomatoes. Both are fruit, but worlds apart.

Your question also poses a major segue into discussing the new Buffy story sans Joss Whedon.

My answers of what could be good material for reboots/reinterpretations may be a bit surprising. Mostly, I think old 80's/90's childrens shows could be great if a little creative license is applied.

Conan the Adventurer cartoons - Just watch the opening theme and tell me that doesn't get you even the least bit interested. "Spell of living stone" by itself just sounds awesome. Conan and the other characters need to be made more believable, people and monsters should be shown dying on-screen, loyalties should be more fluid, and hacking apart a serpent-man should be shown as adequate to kill it (although easier with star metal weapons). But after those changes, it may stand up to today's standards.

Captain Skyhawk - A lone, advanced fighter defending Earth against a vastly superior alien invasion force. Can't be everywhere at once. Can't always defend those who helped you in the past.

MegaMan - This series lends itself well to reinvention, as has been seen over the years. I'd like to see a MM series that deals more with the relationships of robots with human society.

Double Dragon - Not a reboot per-say, but a sequel after so long might feel like a reboot anyway. I'd say they should try to capture a bit of the magic of old Bruce Lee movies.

But the biggest one I can think of:

Power Rangers - Blur the line between good and evil on this one so that you can relate to and sympathize with the villains, do less poses, more advanced choreography, and show the world being slowly torn apart by the conflicts. Battlestar Galactica this one and it could be great, IMO.

Hi guys!
I've been thinking about this for a while but I had the same opinion as Mr. K. I didn't really want anyone touching the stuff I like. Respect to the source material is a must of course, preventing the canon from potential rape.
But I finally could think about one single game franchise in this world that I would accept a complete change from: Metal Slug.
Even changing the damn control scheme would be a change in that franchise. It has been the same gameplay,same weapons,same controls,same characters, same enemy sprites,same everything. What at one point was artistic choice now is just lazy videogame design. I would like to see a Metal Slug in 3d enviroments, or in an Iphone RPG, or a pinball or a 2d fighting game! I don't care. But the games need some change now.
I also second KnightCrawler's choices of Mega Man and Double Dragon.

I can only think of two, and even then, I'm dubious on them:

Highlander - everything bar the first film was either awful, a ret-con, or both. I'd like it if someone just said "Go back, pick up where the first film left off, don't try and explain everything and make the sword fights good.". Because that's really all the franchise needs. However, people have a track record of screwing the franchise up, even with carte blanche.

Resident Evil - everyone from the forums should hopefully know my feelings about RE4 (And, by association, RE5). They desperately need to simplify the plot (You're seriously going with Wesker clones?), and perhaps even change up the surviving characters from the first two games (EG What's happened to Rebecca? Why not have Brad die at the start of RE1 instead of Joseph, and have them escape a different way). Maybe even a game where you can decide who lives and who dies (To a certain extent)? AND BRING BACK SURVIVAL HORROR. I'm not saying you need the PS1 tank controls, just make the bosses hard again. Stop enemies dropping ammo. But they're not going to, are they?

Probably Kirby. Could you imagine a full 3-D environment Kirby game? EPIC! (no pun intended)

When I got up this morning, I thought about The Centurions. It was epic in its own crappy way in the first place, so I could somewhat see it being a movie or something. The source material is kind of stupid in its own right, so going somewhere new with it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Otherwise, most stuff needs to be left alone.

Hmmmm . . . . .

To truly "Epic" something, to me, would require the original source material to be somewhat bright and cheery to start with, as adding the "Epic" made it very dark by comparison. The trick is taking something that nobody really sees as "Epic" and making it interesting and different.

My first thought was to do something with Bugs Bunny. There are plenty of lame Looney Tunes games out there (I did enjoy, and own, the Marvin the Martian game from the Game Boy Color days). And there isn't anything particularly canon in the Looney Tunes universe. Perhaps you could play as Bugs and do things to promote other characters or be selfish and shamelessly promote yourself. Of course, the things you do determine how you are treated by other characters and the overall outcome of the game.

Popeye would be another character I would like to see. I am not aware of any game with the large forearmed one since the single screen game from the NES. Of course Bluto would be in it. But perhaps the Sea Hag is behind everything. There are several characters, good and bad, that could feel overlooked or jealous of Popeye's fame. Plus the game could be based on a real life, small town, location, Chester, Illinois, since most of the characters are based on real people from that community.

Looking at my comic collection, I immediately saw the Marvel Comics Wizard of Oz. If there was ever a story where what you chose to do could effect the outcome and has the potential to be really dark, Oz would definitely be the place.

Kids shows I grew up with from the 80s and 90s that could lend themselves to Epicization:

Smurfs. With the movie coming out, this would be an opportune time to explore that franchise. Perhaps Gargamel has captured all the Smurfs and it is up to Brainy (probably the most annoying) to redeem himself by becoming a hero through mastering some of the other Smurfs' skills.

Mr Rogers: The Neighborhood of Make Believe and Someplace Else specifically. I mean, the place is imaginary. What couldn't be done there? And the characters are loved everywhere. But, I guess, when it comes down to it, who would actually play this?

Going back to comics, how about Richie Rich? What you do with your money would determine what your friends thought of you. There is a villian, Reggie VanDough. But perhaps Little Dot (in whose comics Richie made his first appearance) is jealous that she has been all but forgotten. But there are a slew of characters that most people have never heard of in that series.

Casper the Friendly Ghost. Much like Richie Rich, there are tons of charcters to interact with that aren't necessarily his friends.

Doing the Power Rangers would be lame.

Highlander, Double Dragon, and Resident Evil were already dark and violent.

What you guys are talking about with these is doing a reboot, not making them "Epic". I mean, the story of "Epic Mickey" could be inserted anywhere within (what could loosely be referred to as) continuity as a stand alone Mickey story and (as far as I can tell) respects the source material and tells a new Mickey story.

Kirby would be a good idea, but a title like "Epic Kirby" would confuse people, as there is already "Kirby's Epic Yarn".

I could see doing Mega Man. Whatever he does affects the way people view him and robots in general and influences what kind of help they offer him. Throwing it into a 3D landscape would make for a new experience in the game franchise as well. The world would have to be clean and pristine on the surface, but in the alleys and underground it woiuld be dark and dingy.

To be honest, I was more than a little skeptical when I heard about "Epic Mickey", but the more I have seen of it, the more I want to play it. It would be nice to see other franchises get the "Epic" treatment, but it would probably feel like a rip-off of "Epic Mickey".

I know it already is happening, but I'd like to see more Mario-Themed RPGs on home consoles. Paper Mario is one of my favorite games of all time. I know the game is being remade for the 3DS, and while it does spark my interest, I'd really like to see more RPG themed Mario games. Though, it doesn't have to be Paper Mario, but I just want more.

Luigi would be a great character to benefit from the "Epic" treatment.

I would like to see him in an adventure comparable to Mario. Mario is Missing and Luigi's Mansion were laughable games and not worthy of the character. Shedding his timidness and perceived shortcomings over the course of the game would be a welcome change to the character.

Wait! What if they start a "Kirby's Epic" series? Kinda like Metroid Prime? Kirby's Epic 3D adventure for 3DS!

My answer would have to be the main final fantasy series it's starting to get stale in the story department with the same cliché JRPG plot and the near copied character personality for most of the newer games either with the brooding mercenaries or an annoying kid who has nothing to do with the actual plot as the central character.

Along the battle systems they've been coming up with while fun for the first 15 hours start to annoy you to the point of holding the run button every time you go in to battle.

A new original plot that didn't have almost every cliché plot device, twist, and characters that weren't just the same personality with a new skin over them. Along with a fresh new battle system would help the series become less stale.

OK

Let's use other words for story, or, at least a play on those words.

Kirby's Epic Tail: Kirby grows a tail and uses abilities associated with it.

Kirby's Epic Record: Kirby has to do things with music.

Kirby's Epic Beat: Kirby has to do things with particular rhythms.

That's about all I got for Kirby.

However, none of those would give Kirby the "Epic Mickey" treatment. There has to be an element of darkness brought to the game.

Maybe a villian tricks Kirby into doing something bad that turns Kirby gray and he has to atone for his mistake to change back to pink.

Totally disagree with Dark Light Paladin. In every way.

The Only two things I can think of that I think could use the Epic Mickey treatment

Streets of Rage-

Streets of Rage was one of my favorite Genesis series. the games were fun, simple, easy to play, but not so easy to master. I think if Sega rebooted (or whatever) the series in 3D while still keeping the gameplay aspects mentioned previously, and made certain innovations to the series, like a wider world with more branching paths that SoR3 had, downloadable content, etc, It would be a big hit.

Dexter's Lab-

I think a good Dexters Lab game would work well for similar reasons that the Epic Mickey game potentially works well; It's a pretty open universe where as the intro to the show says, "Anything can happen." I think developers could really go wild with some cool sci-fi worlds and gadgets to make use of and explore in the Dexter universe. they could put in pretty much any Sci-fi plot device, or Sci-fi tool they wanted to help the game along, (interdemsional portal, gravity switches, laser anything...) as well as the show's really fun and funny characters.

Without a doubt, Pound Puppies.

I agree with dark, Final Fantasy needs a real overhaul, the last true memorable story was FFX.

FF10 had a good level/experience system, but the story was incredibly annoying. This is what the entire game sounds like to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSzCwFu1dYY&feature=related

I'm divided with FFX. The lack of a true main villain is something that isn't good in my book and Tidus isn't really my favorite character ever but the metaphorical critic to religious control and the premise of a pilgrimage to explore the whole world (in a bit of a Lord of the Rings fashion) are pretty memorable in my opinion.
Overall I did enjoy the game.

I think the only way they're really going to fix the FF games, and imo the reason so many FF games are unenjoyable is the voice acting.  If you go back to text, then I think they would be better received, but unfortunately, that would make them really niche and then noone would buy them, so it's a lose-lose situation for FF imo.

Anyway, regarding the "Epic Mickey'd" game/character - I think there have been some great suggestions in this thread - especially the Streets of Rage and Power Rangers ones - trouble is, the way the God of War obsessed market is at the moment, these would probably end up being another boring button bashing clone ala Castlevania, and I'm sick and tired of this formula.  I think Arkham Asylum did a fantastic job of updating the Batman franchise and would hope to see more games in this vain too.

I think something cartoony like Battletoads or Bucky O Hare could be really interesting when creative control is fully in the hands of the game developer - I think the universes of both these original franchises are great and it wouldn't take too much to beef them up about and make the characters a little darker and more menacing. Kind of like the transition between the first Sonic cartoon and the second one - but to a greater extreme. I think there are quite a few cartoony series that could benefit from a swift kick to the proverbial ballsack, a few off the top of my head are The Tick, Earthworm Jim, Superfrog and Robocod.  Also, I'd love to see anything regarding the British TV series Knightmare - I know this is probably lost on the US audience, but it was my favourite TV show as a kid - I really recommend looking it up!  :)

As far as video game series, I'd love to see a reboot of Killer Instinct ala SFIV.

Despite its flaws, I think FFX had one of the best party management systems ever, with being able to use everyone in your party (though only 3 at a time).  It actually made sense that you'd have access to your whole party in a battle.

@Mr. K

haha I remember that part, yes that part of the story was very annoying, but still that one minute doesn't ruin FFX, but then again many of my friends have told me that tidus is annoying and I can see why you would say that.

Overall though the story is still one of the better ones and some consideration should be given to the voice acting seeing it's the first time that FF is using voice actors.

That one clip is how the entire game feels to me. I don't even like Auron.

Battle system? Good.

Level system? Refreshing.

Story? Ass.

When I beat 10 I wanted my money back. I want another grim dark Final Fantasy. I remember how in 4 everything bad that could happen did happen. The story just punished the characters from beginning to end.

I don't know if there's a whole lot that could be done to enhance or ruin Mickey's integrity.  That said, I'm interested in giving Epic Mickey a whirl.

As much as I love the series, I wouldn't mind seeing the Mario franchise getting an "epic" reboot.  I mean, the Galaxy games are awesome, but they're not really breaking the mold when compared with Mario 64.  I think back to 1996, when Mario 64 was released, and THAT felt like "Epic Mario".  What's the next step for the Mario series???

@Mr. K

I didn't realize you thought about the entire game like that, oh well I guess it's not everyones cup of tea. Still though, FFX's story is one of the major reasons it became successful.

@Arkus I thought there were many grim moments in FFX, like Tidus' death, his hometown being destroyed...

@barny That's a good point, Nintendo sees that Mario has reached a good point with galaxy, and maybe they don't want to change its formula and risk making another Sunshine.

@ Mario: I know that Mario Sunshine was an attempt to kind of change the style of the Mario series in a way, but I didn't feel like that game was all that different from Mario 64 in terms of formula, and it actually incorporated elements from the 8/16-bit games as well (the challenge stages).  And to be honest, despite it's flaws, I actually enjoyed Sunshine; not nearly as much as Mario 64, but I didn't think it was a bad game by any means.

That said, I just wonder if there's a way to really do something different with the Mario series at this point.  As fun as the Galaxy games are, it would be fun to see something earth-shattering happen with the Mario series.  At this point, Nintendo is probably making WAAAAYY too much cash off of the Galaxy games to even consider tinkering with the formula, but it'd be nice if they tried.  Remember the jump from Super Metroid to Metroid Prime?  Whoa... I wonder if a FPS Mario game would work?

Or how about some more super fun educational Mario games!

OMG, watching Commodore's response to this reminded me of the abomination that is Luigi's Mansion... maybe the Mario series doesn't need a reboot after all!!!