Gaming Franchise with Most Games

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Simple question: What are the longest gaming franchises?

I would hazzard a guess that Mario probably tops the list as having had the most games, closely followed by Sonic.

I also know that there are a hell of a lot of games for the WWF family. I also believe that there have been a great deal of Star Wars games over the years too...


I would say FIFA games would proabably chart pretty high up under those listed above, as would Final Fantasy games and spin-offs... Same goes for Resident Evil games.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

If you count reissues as part of endless iterations of retro collections, there's a small yellow fellow who's got Mario beat.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Yellow fellow? Are you referring to Pikachu? (Or am I not thinking hard enough?) ~ Pacman is the only other yellow critter I can think of...

I suppose reissues (Ie, Platinum / Greatest Hits re-releases) could be counted. But generally I was just referring to separate games

I also wasn't counting the same game on multiple consoles, so Resident Evil II would have just been counted once. Whereas Mario 64, or Mario Advance II (Mario World) I would have counted twice as they are technically different games as they have had bits added...

[Haoie]

Nah, Res Ev doesn't even come close, in fact it's not even a decade yet.

It'll probably be something like Pac, Mario, not really Sonic though.

I'm also thinking some of the old Konami/Capcom characters too, most have around 1-2 decades to their fame.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I'm not really referring to how long a franchise has gone on for... More like how many separate games there have been in the franchise...

Ie, Mario has featured in over 100 games I would guess (I can name about 90 very easially) and there are about half as many Sonic games...


Street Fighters are another long running franchise, in the sense that they have had sequel after sequel after sequel... (Or rather, updates)

[McBacon]

Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2 (Jap)
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario Allstars
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island
SUper Mario 64
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Advance
Super Mario Advance 2
Super Mario Advance 3
Super Mario Advance 4
Super Mario RPG
Paper Mario
Paper Mario - The Thousand Year Door
Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga
Super Mario Kart
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Mario Kart Double Dash
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3
Mario Party 4
Mario Party 5
Mario Party 6
Mario Party Advance
Mario Party e-
Mario Golf 64
Mario Golf Toadstool Toor
Mario Golf Advance Tour
Mario Tennis
Mario Tennis GB
Mario Power Tennis
Mario is Missing
Mario Teaches Typing

There are 40 Mario titles right off the top of my head.

[InsaneDavid]

I'd guess that Megaman is next after Mario.

[Oobgarm]

Done already, although in a slightly different form:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31034

[MarHel78]

Over 100 Mario Games? I couldn't name 20, okay, if I really thought about it maybe... Not saying, I don't believe you.

What about the Final Fantasy Games, or other Japanese RPG series? I guess, they don't come near Mario....

[Jumpman Jr.]

I guess it would have to be Mario, but I find it hard to accept half of those games as "Mario games." Most of them (usually the sports ones) are just normal sports games that Nintendo decided to slap Mario characters into to make more money. I'm not complaining about that (cause they got my money), but its hard for me to call Mario Tennis a 'Mario Game.'

[Slimedog]

If you are just looking at a single system, check out Megaman on GBA. I count 10 Megaman games so far not counting multiple versions of the same title. We are up to 5 on the Battle Network series alone which started on the GBA. According to the guide, we've had 5 installments in 4 years. Thats got to be some sort of record.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Done already, although in a slightly different form:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31034

That's mainly to do with age of the game series though, and not amount of games in a specific series...


Over 100 Mario Games? I couldn't name 20, okay, if I really thought about it maybe... Not saying, I don't believe you.

What about the Final Fantasy Games, or other Japanese RPG series? I guess, they don't come near Mario....

Over 100 if you include all the games that Mario has appeared in (Cameo) ~ That was only a rough guess though. I think I remember reading something in the official Nintendo mag about Mario being in over 120 games!

Bearing in mind that there have been some games released in Japan which we never saw... And a few obscure titles for various systems.

[Howie6925]

I think donkey kong would be one.

[kainemaxwell]

Mega Man would be another.

[Kroogah]

Maybe you should edit the topic title to "Gaming franchise with most games", since you actually aren't listing longest-running franchises.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Maybe you should edit the topic title to "Gaming franchise with most games", since you actually aren't listing longest-running franchises.

Noted for future reference. Cheers for changing it for me :-P

[The Plucky Little Ninja]

I think it comes down to Mario and Megaman. Nintendo has slapped Mario on a lot of games over the years but Megaman has to take into account the originals the X series, and all this network battle stuff that's being released on the Gameboy.

I just read somewhere that Megaman's had 6 games released in the last year alone.

[evildead2099]

Madden Football (What do you expect when EA comes out with sequels to its sports games every damn year? :roll: )

Mega Man

Mario

Sonic

Final Fantasy

Bomberman

Street Fighter

Mortal Kombat

Army Men

Tomb Raider (There may not be enough TR games to seriously compete with Mario & Sonic, but it SEEMS as though the opposite is true)

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Definitely less than a dozen Tomb Raider games and Mortal Kombat games.

I think for the sake of ruling things out, we should inclue franchises which have more than a dozen separate releases... That would help narrow it down a bit to the hardcore franchises

[Nirvana]

I agree that it would come down to Mario and Mega Man, and as much as I like Mega Man more, I believe Mario has more games.

[imanerd0011]

I don't count those games are true Mario games, they are just a random game that Mario is featured in. There are really only 7 true "Super Mario" games:

Mario Bros
SMB
SMB2
SMB3
SMW
SM64
SMS

I would think that Mega Man has far more titles than any other game. There are at least 18 true Mega Man games. Final Fantasy has to be in second.

[sealboy6]

I went to IGN and searched "mario",and after getting rid of some of the Mario Andretti Racing Games, and after counting some that are coming out soon, I counted 131 Mario Games. That is a rough estimate, but it has to be within +/- ten.

Same thing with "Mega Man". After counting some unreleased and some Japan only games, I only came to 90. Mario is the winner.

[Jorpho]

Bomberman, dammit! He easily has Mega Man beat. Well, maybe not so much after all the GBA games. But if you count all the Bomberman games released for all the consoles over the years, not to mention the arcade games and the Panic Bomber spinoff, it's got to be close.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I don't count those games are true Mario games, they are just a random game that Mario is featured in. There are really only 7 true "Super Mario" games:

Mario Bros
SMB
SMB2
SMB3
SMW
SM64
SMS


I would have to possibly disagree there... Ok, fair do's with the sports titles like Tennis and Golf Etc, but there are other games which I think can be included...


Mario RPG for instance. It is actually about Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom. Take away the Mario theme, and you have no game.

Same also applies to the other games that follow Mario RPG (Paper Mario I & II, and Superstar Saga)


And what about Yoshi's Island? Ok, Mario is not necessarily the main star of the game (as the title implies) but I would still have included that.

But as far as the "Mario franchise" goes, I would then also include all Yoshi games and all Wario games as well.


What about Mario Party games? Again, take away the Mario themed components and you have nothing but a board game ~ Well, a board at least...


Luigi's Mansion... Would it have worked if you took out the Mario themed elements? Perhaps, but it would have been a piss poor game in that respect...


Marioland and Marioland II ~ How could you miss those two, when you listed the NES and Snes games?


Mario Paint and Mario Is Missing could perhaps have been counted out. Another example of Nintendo plastering a sub-standard effort with the Mario name hoping it would be more successful...


I'd also count Super Smash Bros. and SSBM as well, as there is a lot of Mario elements included in those two games. Same as how i'd include them in with Zelda or Pokemon, or any of the others...



BTW: Did that IGN search show all the games where Mario cameo's, but where Mario's name is not actually in a game's title? Eg, Tetris or Alleyway?