Super Mario Party
Super Mario Party is a solid game that finally got the series back on track and back to its roots. For a few generations, Nintendo has experimented with the Mario Party formula to mostly not-so-great results.
Super Mario Party was the much-needed return to form that fans wanted. The biggest issue, though, with Super Mario Party is that it was a little lacking in content. It only had a small handful of boards that wore out very quickly.
Many people, myself included, assumed that the reason for this is that there would be more boards added on as free updates or paid-DLC depending on how generous Nintendo was feeling.
But nope, Super Mario Party came out… and that was it. This is in spite of the fact that Nintendo has recently warmed up to post-launch content. Mario Tennis Aces for example got regular free content for about a year.
Super Mario Party is joined by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as games that, for whatever reason, despite being very popular, never got any DLC. At least in the case of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, one could make the argument that the reason is that it was a port, but Super Mario Party is a total mystery.
Mass Effect Andromeda
OK, I know that Mass Effect Andromeda is the black sheep of the Mass Effect family at this point. The Legendary Edition is coming out, and it seems like the mainline series is going to forget Andromeda happened and continue the thread from Mass Effect 3 in some shape, way, or form.
That said, Mass Effect Andromeda got a lot of hate after it released, and while some of it was warranted, to me at least, it was excessive.
Mass Effect Andromeda was very flawed from a narrative perspective, but there was enough potential there to improve on that aspect via some kind of story DLC. Even the beloved original trilogy’s legacy benefitted greatly from their post-launch content.
Mass Effect 1 had Bring Down the Sky, Mass Effect 2 had the Shadow Broker, and Mass Effect 3 had Citadel and Leviathan. A tighter and more focused story within the Andromeda galaxy could have done a lot to redeem it in the eyes of some.
Andromeda, while far from perfect, deserved a chance to go out on a more positive note.
Death Stranding
Death Stranding, the bizarre brainchild of Hideo Kojima, was hotly anticipated by fans of the famed director ever since he famously split off from Konami years ago.
For as long as Kojima was at Konami you could expect Metal Gear Solid content to trickle in one way or another. It could be through DLC, a new game, a spin-off, etc.
With Death Stranding, though, Kojima has full creative control so we have no idea if we’ll ever be returning to the Death Stranding universe.
If you loved Death Stranding and were hoping for more to do via some kind of post-launch content, you might be biting your nails now at this point. It’s been over a year since its release and, well, there’s been nothing other than a few small crossover cosmetic stuff.
Fortunately, although we can’t confirm anything at this time, there may be some hope for Death Stranding, which is more than we can say for the other games on this list.
There have been rumors circulating about Death Stranding getting a PS5 release which may include some additional content. If true, it wouldn’t be traditional DLC, but it’s something at least.
Grand Theft Auto V & Red Dead Redemption 2
In both of these cases, we’re obviously talking about the single-player story modes of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. The online portions of each of those games, Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online, have both added a ton by the way of post-launch content, and both still continue to expand to this day.
But let’s be real, while fans may stick around for the online content, they initially come into these franchises for the single-player.
Both of these game’s predecessors, Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, featured post-launch content. In the case of Grand Theft Auto IV, the story DLC content was not only plentiful, but it was also excellent, and also absolutely integral to getting the full picture of the campaign.
That’s why it’s very strange to see both of these games get no single-player love whatsoever. While the universe of each is being expanded through the online game modes of each, and the updates do often have story content attached, single-player purists are unfortunately missing out.
If you’re holding your breath for either game getting single-player story DLC, please don’t, I don’t want to see you get hurt.
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