We’ve had a real resurgence of certain game franchises over the years. Whether it’s the recent influx of remakes and remasters of old games or the new iterations of franchises we thought were long since buries, there are just so many games to play!
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Some of them are fantastic new twists on the old games we love, while others took what everyone enjoyed in the classic games and ruined them with the newest addition. There are ups and downs for every franchise, and we decided to take a look at some of the most prominent examples on both sides.
10Improved: Fire Emblem
It may not feel like it now, butFire Emblemwas in a real rough spot beforeFE: Awakeningcame out. The franchise was almost canned by Nintendo back before the days ofAwakening. Nintendo basically told the dev team that if the newest game didn’t sell around 250k copies that the series would be done.
So, in a panic, the team threw in everything they thought might work for making the game sell! It was an all or nothing risk that worked out for them, and ever since,Fire Emblemhas become a household name, especially withThree Houses.
9Faltered: The Metal Gear Franchise
This question depends on who you ask, butwhichMetal Gear Solidgame is the best? Personally, we’re tied betweenMGS5: The Phantom PainandMGS3: Snake Eater. But, another absolute fanatic for the franchise might say that the original one is the best, or maybe evenMGS4: Guns of the Patriots. Our point is, the series is divisive because each game is so different in tone and overall story.
But, I think we can all agree thatMetal Gear Survivewas awful. This was after Konami fired Director Hideo Kojima and attempted to turn theMGSseries into a cash cow while they transitioned to becoming a mostly pachinko focused company.
8Improved: Resident Evil
TheResident Evilseries has had a real rollercoaster-style life. The games are usually good, but there are plenty of stinkers in there. And, past the games, there are even live-action and CGI films, books based on the games, and tons of spin-offs thrown in there.
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But, the series has absolutely improved in recent years, especially with the new line of remakes ofRE1,RE2, andRE3. Sure you’re able to say thatRE: 5andRE: 6were real dips in quality, but even then they were still decent video games, just not greatREgames. In any case, we’re glad it’s back in full force.
7Faltered: The Fallout Series
Again, this is another pick that is often debated between long time fans. Some say thatFallout 4was a real step down, some swear thatFallout 76is good, and the rare few argue that they’ve all been bad afterFallout 1 & 2. In any case, the most common opinion is thatFallout 3was what brought the franchise back,New Vegaswas a perfect sequel, andFallout 4was decent but had a fair share of problems.
But,Fallout 76has been the most poorly run,scandal-filled, broken mess of a game that we can remember in recent history. If you don’t believe us, just searchFallout 76scandal on Google or something and see how many different stories pop up.
6Improved: Monster Hunter
Quite honestly, if we simply said thatMonster Hunterfinally had a game not stuck on the handheld consoles, we could end the entry right there. TheMonster Hunterfranchise is one that requires careful planning and also one where every swing on the monster matters. So, having this mammoth of a series stuck on the 3DS and other handhelds with no free camera control was an odd form of torture.
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But, withMonster Hunter World, that was finally changed.MHWand by extension Iceborne have been the saving grace for a franchise that seemed almost unapproachable to newcomers previously. It streamlined a lot of the overcomplicated aspects of previous titles and worked to up the graphical integrity. Plus, Capcom made it clear that they’d still be releaseMHgames in both the new and old style.
5Faltered: Mass Effect
What an amazing franchise at the start. But, sometime betweenMass Effect 2 and 3, things changed. Suddenly the writing quality took a big hit, and the continuity of the world started getting broken more and more often. Honestly,Mass Effect 3is still a great game mechanically, but it took away aspects of the combat that people loved fromME2, so it was almost a step down in every way. Plus that ending is something that will go down in history as one of the most polarizing things in video games.
And,ME: Andromedawas supposed to be either a return to form or the last-ditch effort for cash by a now suffering Bioware. And unfortunately, it really wasn’t either, the game sold poorly, was a mess in general, and was quickly forgotten by the gaming community as a whole.
4Improved: Persona/Shin Megami Tensei
ThePersonaseries is a relatively simple example of a successful franchise. Why? Because each game does what the last game did, but better. There are no real “huge” changes to the formula or overall design, they’re the same game at their core with a new concept built on top. Eventhe anime adaptations follow a similar formula! And, just for the record, that’s not a bad thing.
We likedPersona 3, lovedPersona 4, and adoredPersona 5. Each time, the characters become a bit more complex, the systems get more quality-of-life changes, and the overall mechanics of the game are jazzed in new and exciting ways. And, the gaming community agrees, at least sales-wise.
3Faltered: Paper Mario
Aww man, this one bums us out. ThePaper Mariofranchise started out so amazingly unique, but then fell from grace.Paper Mariogames always had such a charming tone to them and felt so different from the mainline games. In fact, their turn-based combat paved the way for tons of games like them going forward.Paper Mario And The Thousand-Year Dooris the fan-favorite, but we lovedSuper Paper Marioas well.
But, after that, the series started going downhill. They simplified the best systems and put on over-reliance on “stickers” and “cards”. And, it was absolutely detested by the loyal fanbase. The sales peaked withSuper Paper Marioin 2007, and since then have been falling rapidly with the release ofSticker StarandColor Splash.
2Improved: The Legend Of Zelda
Throughout the article, we’ve been using sales as a metric of quality, but that isn’t always proof. Sometimes a series improves on every single system but fails in the marketing department, so they get no sales.Breath of The Wildwasn’t one of those games. In fact,Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wildis the best sellingLoZgame of all time! It even beat out the granddaddy of them all,Ocarina of Time.
And it’s safe to say that a large part of this new influx of sales was the risk Nintendo took with both the setting and gameplay of this new title.Breath of the Wildtries a lot of stuff brand new to the franchise, and it seems to have worked!
1Faltered: Sonic The Hedgehog
And finally, we think it’s time to talk about theSonic the Hedgehoggame franchise. OriginalSonicgames were so fast and colorful and artistically creative! But then, somewhere along the way, the Sega team decided that people were sick of the same old mechanics and started branching out. There’s where we got things likeSonic and The Black Knight, Sonic And the Secret Rings,and the dreadedSonic 2006.
Basically, for every 4-5Sonictitles that released, only one of them would be of decent quality. Luckily, we’ve had little happy moments here and there withSonic GenerationsandSonic Mania, but then it was right back to the status quo withSonic Forcesin the same year. Why can’t the Blue Blur get a break?
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