Top 10 Ruined Video Game Franchises

There have been many great video game franchises. However, there are some that have either been going on too long or have had crappy sequels that have ruined the franchise for good.
The Top Ten
1 Crash Bandicoot

It's hard to believe this franchise fell as quickly as it did. It's not like this franchise became a hit-and-miss series like Sonic. After its first four games, Crash never had a good game again. The 20th anniversary of Crash Bandicoot would of had meaning if the franchise had good games after the first four games. If game developers (apart from the franchise's creators) couldn't make a good Crash game 15 years after the first 4 games, I guess this once great franchise will never have a comeback. The most ruined series in history.

Come on, we need a new game. At least with other franchises like Sonic and Final Fantasy are still making games ( although they are hit-or-miss) Crash hasn't had a full console game since 2008. His last appearance was in a mobile kart racer in 2010. Complain about other franchises as much as you like, at least a good game will come sooner or later. In Crash's case, despite endless rumours, he won't see another game for quite some time.
Also, this is why Activision sucks

2 Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog, trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is the title character and protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog series released by SEGA, as well as numerous spin-off comics, five animated shows, and an animated OVA.

Sonic the Hedgehog is already dead. When is this franchise ever going to be saved just like Sonic Colors did? Well, sadly, the answer is that...it's too late. This franchise has horrible spin-offs, games with bad controls, and Sonic 06 has a completely pointless story. I'm going to say it NOW! Sega is the reason why Sonic the Hedgehog has gone from popular hedgehog, to pile if dirt. I wish I would stop hating Sonic, but it's all Sega's fault. If there's anybody else that should take him off of Sega's hands, I would choose either me, or Nintendo.

To the person that stated that he or she don't know why people think Sonic is dead because of 2 games, the people were talking about a ruined franchise that hit a bunch of bumps, probably before you were born. Now Mario had a few bumps on the road, but those bumps got eclipsed by several noteworthy games. Sonic's bumps on the road are more infamous than Mario's. After the Genesis, Sonic(as well as Sega) gone into a dark age with the Saturn, which did not have one good Sonic game nor any good games that weren't on the Playstation. Sonic Labyrinth from Game Gear wouldn't of helped things either. Sega did have decent Sonic comebacks with the Sonic Adventure games, but they(along with the below average Sonic Shuffle and good games that could also be played on Ps1, PC, or N64) weren't enough to save Sega as a console maker. After Dreamcast, Sega did make the Sonic Advance games, but when they made Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Boy Advance and the abomination in 2006, people really started to lose hope for the Blue Blur. Adding insult to injury, The Black Knight, Shadow the Hedgehog, the Secret Rings, and Boom had made the Blue Blur look like a joke. Now Sonic isn't dead, but he had been ruined. At least there's more to Sonic's history then a strong start with no good nor decent follow-ups, unlike Crash Bandicoot.

3 Spyro the Dragon Spyro is a series of platform games which primarily features the protagonist Spyro the Dragon and his friend, Sparx the Dragonfly.

Spyro was great until skylanders turning him into a statue amongst many others. He was used as a marketing point and then discarded once skylanders became popular enough to stand on its own.

I agree. Activision may used him and now he's treated like a toy ( a toy that is garbage). I say Activision should give this franchise to Sony.

While Skylanders did improve the purple dragon's reputation, Enter the Dragonfly has left a bad taste in the mouth of most Spyro fans.

4 Call of Duty

Back in the day, it used to be considered an absolute GREAT series. Now it's known for annoying 12-year-olds and rehashing to the max.

Today Hackers can always win in this video game franchise. Activision doesn't seem to care.

5 Final Fantasy

They should go back to their roots, get back to what made the games great. Good gameplay, and excellent story writing, with epic music. Care about more about those 3 things, then graphics.

This franchise has taken such a drop in quality that even hardcore fans are doubting Square Enix.

How many Final Fantasy games are there I mean? It's to much of a downer.

6 Banjo-Kazooie

I think this franchise was ruined because of nuts and bolts. Also I didn't like the fact that they changed the characters designs.

After the disastrous Nuts and Bolts, Rareware was shut down for good. So no chance of redemption as far as I can see.

7 Paper Mario

You DO know there is a new paper Mario game coming out right?

This series was good until sticker star.

8 Vectorman

This franchise fell way too quickly. There are claims that what ruined this franchise was Vectorman 2 being released around the same time as Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64. I think that's a big misconception, considering that side scrolling games continued being made after the 3d consoles came out.
I think the main thing that ruined this franchise was the fact that Vectorman 2 lacked the same appeal as the first game. Vectorman 2 is one of the most disappointing games I had ever played.

9 Pac-Man

Pac Man's like the Felix The Cat of video games. He wasn't the first video game, but he was the first video game star, who started to get old and try to mimic other popular characters at the time later on. At this point, the poor little yellow ghost muncher is on life support. Namco isn't even allowed to use Ms. Pac Man anymore, so instead of trying something new again, like the Pac Man World series, Namco just keeps on giving him cameos in other games and re releasing the original arcade game. "Holy moly! I can play Pac-Man on my modern console for the 20th time!" At least Pac Man Museum + is coming out. Hopefully that'll do well and Namco will realize they can do more with the Pacster.

While he is still a video-game legend, why are most of his sequels never mentioned? They're terrible (looking at you, Atari).

10 Halo

Halo 4 left a horrible taste in the mouth of even the casual Halo fans with small maps and a sub-par story.

Basically anything that came after 3 the series is dying slowly for me

The Contenders
11 Five Nights At Freddy's
12 Metal Gear Solid

The First game was brilliant back in 1998. However, the sequels were severely overrated, and although there were some modifications to improve the gameplay, the storyline in the Metal Gear Saga, became more and more ridiculous resulting in an over convoluted mess. The series overall is severely overrated.

Progressive drop in quality with every sequel after the first one.

Hideo Kojima is a supremely overrated hack.

The cutscenes are too long and the story and the dialogue just gets worse and worse.

Everyone knows it went downhill after MGS3: Snake Eater, which was the best in the series.

13 Pokemon

Its been going downhill with this franchise for me since X and Y and its hit ABSOLute rock bottom with Sword and Shield. B2W2 was the last games where Game Freak put heart, soul and care into the games. Now its all about making as much money as possible, doing as little as possible.

just my opinion- Pokemon sword and shield is horrible and a disappointing sign for the future of pokemon games. I'd say I had a blast with every generation before 8, but sword and shield was awful, like GameFreak just doesn't even care anymore

14 Pro Evolution Soccer

Konami ended the franchise and started eFootball, we all know how that went.

15 Assassin's Creed

The sequels have been losing quality. And now with the AC: Unity fiasco, one has to wonder if the series might go down in flames.

16 Undertale
17 Super Mario Bros.
18 Mass Effect
19 The Last of Us
20 Rayman

Ubisoft literally announced a new Rabbids mobile game on the day of Rayman's anniversary. Crash Bandicoot's been treated way better than this poor little thingamajig.

Rayman has had good entries, its just that Ubisoft no longer cares about him. We got absolutely nothing for his anniversary, nothing! Like, would it be so hard to just to do The Art of Rayman?

Still waiting, hoping for Rayman 4...
Origins and Legends where good and fun, but not the Rayman games I wanted.

21 Star Wars: Battlefront
22 God of War

God of War 2016 just isn't God of War...the series is ruined because of it.

23 Mega Man Mega Man, known as Rockman in Japan, is the title character and the protagonist of the Mega Man series by Capcom.

This series was my favorite until capcom ruined it. I used to have fun with everything in the games and after mega man ten I was excited for a new official game...but it never came out! It was instead cancelled which then lead to the end of the franchise. Oh capcom how we used to love you...please release a new game for the 30th anniversary.

This franchise used to be the bomb! Until after mega man ten things went down hill for the franchise...from old great capcom to new crappy capcom. After mega man ten the series just vanished! Street fighter x mega man was just a fan game promoted by capcom. More mega man games became cancelled. And OH MY GOD DO NOT REMIND ME OF STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN MEGA MAN...why capcom why? Then in 2015 we finally get a new announcement for a new mega man game but wait...it's another collection! Nobody wants that. At least it had amiibo compatibility. After keiji inafune left capcom he made mighty no. 9 but...it wasn't good but at least I liked it! It seems that the series will never see the light of day again at this point. Let's hope capcom does something good for the franchises 30th anniversary besides the new T.V. show.

24 Duke Nukem
25 Resident Evil
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