Downloadable content always provokes a healthy eye-roll these days, what with pre-order bonuses, locked on-disc features, and companies asking you to pay extra to enjoy the finished version of their product. But hey, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have shown us this year how DLC can actually be done well and without an ounce of money-grubbing cynicism. Here are some games that could have benefited from a healthy DLC program:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Vice City is arguably what shot the Grand Theft Auto series into the big time, and inherent to the game is its Miami Vice sense of place. How great would it have been to be able to expand the adventure with cigarette boats and a GTA-style stand-in for Cuba? I’d have played the snot out of that DLC. Sort of like how I broke my original Xbox’s disc reader playing Vice City.
Super Metroid
There’s a lot of talk about “Metroidvanias” these days and I think it’s because people just want to play Super Metroid again. It was a genre-defining game that was unfortunately far too short. Look, I know it’s impossible to have DLC for a game that was published on a cartridge-based system like the SNES. But man, I want to play more Super Metroid.
Demon’s Souls
We all know about Dark Souls by now, and how the original game was vastly improved by its Artorias of the Abyss expansion and concurrent PC release. But Demon’s Souls was the original and, some would argue, still the best. Problem is, you can only play it on Playstation 3 and when you do, you just want more of it. C’mon, FromSoft – give us a new-gen remastered version of Demon’s Souls with a brand new world to explore and get horribly murdered in.
Ryse: Son of Rome
How about some DLC that transforms this pretty Xbox One launch title into a game that’s actually good?
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Yes, I’m aware that there are like nine (okay, four) different versions of this game that have come out since the original hit shelves in 2009. But not one of them has shipped with any kind of tutorial. Capcom, I am a pitiful Ryu who would be absolutely willing to pay real money for an optional add-on mode that taught me how to suck less at this game.
