Alex Lynch's lost mind.

Incase you didn’t hear it by now, THQ is dead. Yep. It’s pretty much official at this point. Reports whooshing in telling us that Clear Lake — the company who hoped to buy THQ as a whole — lost the bid to win the company as the price of their assets was much more profitable than the company as a whole. THQ will be no more. WWE Games published by THQ will be no more. Saint’s Row games published by THQ will be no more. South Park: The Stick Of Truth will not be published by THQ…get the damn point yet?! I’ve played THQ games as long as I can remember, and I’ve even played — and loved — some that were created before I was born. 

Very early on in my life, I was introduced to the world of professional wrestling. I loved it as a small child, and I still love it now. I’ve played plenty of wrestling games as a child on PS1 and N64 before my family upgraded to the PS2, a year or two later than everyone else. We firmly rented WCW Nitro, a cool, fun game at the time. However, it didn’t last long until we purchased wCw Thunder, a sort-of sequel, I guess, to Nitro which had tons of fun easter eggs, decent gameplay and a very fun roster. Some would say Thunder is a terrible game and in many ways I would definitely agree, but it was a defining part of giving me wrestling games as a child and it has the THQ name slapped on the cover, so it’s definitely worthy of being in this…written piece? These wCw video games would introduce me to a roster of fun, over-the-top and cool characters. However, the real, great part of THQ is coming up next with these revolutionary titles.

THQ, I have to say, you completed my childhood with these two games. I sat down every day, spent countless hours with my dad playing these two games. wCw/nWo Revenge for it’s diverse roster, unique gameplay and championship modes, while World Tour served as an…side game with a different roster and arenas while still be a great-a-game as it is. I still sit down and play these two on emulators if I get the chance because my N64 is locked away right now. The opening to Revenge with Sting and the truck, Hogan and the heartbeat, that opening used to haunt me all the time. It was nearly perfect and fit the game really well. These games were what defined my enjoyment in wrestling video games, and mostly wrestling in general. Thank you THQ, you helped make these incredible products. Even if you were only the publishers, we appreciate everything you did to make these two gems on this Nintendo platform, but we must move on…

I didn’t really invest my time in these two greats, but they started what has now become a monster in the wrestling game community (mainly because the series has dominated so hard, it’s become the only wrestling game). The first in an era, Yukes! and THQ! teamed together to create WWF Smackdown!, two games which had plenty of gameplay modes, a monster amount of playable characters and a decent selection of arenas with unique modes and a cool story. WWF Smackdown! and WWF Smackdown! 2 didn’t improve upon each other much, but there was something about these games that were fun. There are certain…technical limitations…(?)that make these games memorable and funny. The stage-less entrances? Picking up a coffin easily? Priceless. All of it. Thank you THQ. Without these games, I doubt your annual WWE games would exist as they are today. Thank you.

Right now, I’d like to skip past the wrestling games. If you’ve played one in the last five years, you’ve basically played them all. I’m in no way hating on the video games, despite them not being the best they can be, but it’s kinda fact. We all know how they turned out and we all know how much they’ve been loved by the community, and fans alike. In this paragraph, I’d like to thank Cory LeDesma, Brian Williams, “THQTank”, Marcus Stephenson, Aubrey Sitterson, and everyone else at THQ for being very communicative with the fans, helping the fans and creating the best games possible for the fans by listening to fan feedback and really taking it into consideration, and for creating some amazing downloadable content for your WWE games as well. I’m sure the series’ wouldn’t be as good as they are right now without these men, some of who do no longer work with THQ (Before this auction crap).

These are pretty much the only THQ games that I can recently remember playing for hours. I was introduced to the Incredibles after my parents bought it for me on GameCube. Needless it say, it was fucking hard for me at my age but I fucking loved it. Mr Incredible was amazing to play as but I don’t nescessarily recall playing as the other heroes or characters from the film which I’m pretty sure you could do. Saints Row 2 & 3 were introduced to me by an internet friend after he bugged us to buy it to play with him, only to discover that Saints Row 2 pretty much only supported two-player co-op. Major bummer. Needless to say, I think plenty of elements from Saints Row 2 and 3 are better than the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and there are many elements from GTA which are better than Saints Row, but each to his own, right? Volition Inc have created great games within the Saints Row franchise and it looks as though they’ll soon be obtained by a new publisher, so hope for the franchise will live on. Maybe the game will change for the better or worse, but it’s looking good right now. Thank you, THQ for starting a great franchise.

R.I.P THQ, we love you and we miss you. You gave us great games and franchises, and while you made a huge mistake with uDraw, we will never forget you. The WWE games, Saints Row, Metro, Darksiders, they were your babies and now they’ve grown up and you’re gone. They’ll miss you, and you’ll surely miss them but we will never forget. RIP.