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    Default Games that killed Franchises?

    I was sitting here thinking about the rare sequels that managed to kill franchises. I don't mean franchises that kind of tapered off in quality, or games that killed a franchise for you. I mean games that you can point to and say "Yep, that was the end of that,"

    For instance: After years of begging from gamers NiGHTS on the Saturn finally got a sequel. A sequel so terrible, I no longer hear any talk of NiGHTS at all. At this point, for all intents, the franchise is dead.

    The Saturn actually had a few. Clockwork Knight 2 and Bug 2 strike me as games that killed the franchises, but they were middling in the first place and unworthy of a sequel.

    Perhaps Bloody Roar 4? Dino Crisis 3? Alone in the Dark?
    Can you think of any others?

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    Toe Jam & Earl 2. I know they made a third game that was closer to the original, but the second one just killed the series for me. Of course the third game actually did kill the franchise which is sad because it had potential.
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    Earthworm Jim 3D was so poorly received it completely obliterated an otherwise very popular 16-bit series that had even spawned it's own cartoon. It's only recently people are talking about it again thanks to the HD remake.

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    By the looks of things NiGHTS isn't entirely dead. Sega has said a NiGHTS 3 is a possibility and it strongly looks like the original is going to be ported to HD consoles. Perhaps if it sells remarkably well N3 will get greenlighted.

    Sonic the Hedghehog (2006) tried it's hardest to kill of the blue hedgehog...

    Banjo: Nuts & Bolts may have very well killed off B&K.
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    PSO pretty much put the nail in the coffin of the original Phantasy Star series. Not because it's a bad game or whatever (maybe it is, I don't know, never played it, don't care about online) but just because it showed they no longer had any interest in the turn based single player franchise.

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    Shining Force Neo killed the "real" Shining Force series.

    And let's not forget Ultima IX.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BlastProcessing402 View Post
    PSO pretty much put the nail in the coffin of the original Phantasy Star series. Not because it's a bad game or whatever (maybe it is, I don't know, never played it, don't care about online) but just because it showed they no longer had any interest in the turn based single player franchise.
    I had a long thoughtful response written out and then the forum ate it


    Basically while PSO was indeed a departure from the original series it was by no means unsuccessful (critically or financially) and still has a fanbase today. Its success simply encouraged SEGA to keep it in the direction that it was moving rather than where it came. I don't think that it quite fits the theme of the thread although it may feel like it killed the franchise to you personally. In fact since I started the series with PSO it seems like that game marked the birth of the series.

    Also, I am a fairly big fan of PSO and I never even played it online. I only played it offline with a buddy, developing my character and hunting for rare items. It is outdated by today's standards but if you have a buddy I would suggest giving the game a try, the true sequel is coming out fairly soon

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    Quote Originally Posted by Swamperon View Post
    By the looks of things NiGHTS isn't entirely dead. Sega has said a NiGHTS 3 is a possibility and it strongly looks like the original is going to be ported to HD consoles. Perhaps if it sells remarkably well N3 will get greenlighted.

    Sonic the Hedghehog (2006) tried it's hardest to kill of the blue hedgehog...

    Banjo: Nuts & Bolts may have very well killed off B&K.
    Nah Sonic Colors was great and Sonic Gen looks great as well. Sonic 2006 really begane with Sonic Heroes. Gimmick after gimmick.
    Series is finally back on track



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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyTheTiger View Post
    Earthworm Jim 3D was so poorly received it completely obliterated an otherwise very popular 16-bit series that had even spawned it's own cartoon. It's only recently people are talking about it again thanks to the HD remake.
    Speaking of poor 3D games, what about Bubsy 3D? I've been playing both and well, they really are as bad as people say.
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    There are also franchises that are dead to some people and not others, like Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy VII was the beginning of the end for the "Final Fantasy ended at VI" crowd. Obviously not for most people, though.

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    Quote Originally Posted by XYXZYZ View Post
    There are also franchises that are dead to some people and not others, like Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy VII was the beginning of the end for the "Final Fantasy ended at VI" crowd. Obviously not for most people, though.
    I agree, it does depend on the person in some cases. I'm actually one of those people that hated Final Fantasy VII and every entry after it, but adored VI and all before it. I think when Sonic went 3D is when it started to die out for me, SA 1 and 2 were pretty good but after that, it just went way downhill from there. And Zelda, I really stopped caring about it when Windwaker came out.

    I also do agree about what one user said about EA taking over Westwood and practically destroying Command & Conquer, they totally butchered it. I grew up playing that game and loved it to death back when Westwood was making them, but wow EA killed it.

    Reading through I actually didn't notice anyone mention anything about Castlevania, not that I saw anyway, I could be mistaken. But after Symphony of the Night came out, it really started to die off, there were a couple of good ones here and there but basically they just turned the series into Devil May Cry/God of War clones. Sad, they really had something going for awhile. Though, Castlevania's always been looked at by me as a classic, I always recognize it for the first 4 and those'll always be the ones that defined the series to me.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kitsune Sniper View Post
    Speaking of poor 3D games, what about Bubsy 3D? I've been playing both and well, they really are as bad as people say.
    Your a idiot that game is a masterpiece!
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    I'm kind of bummed out that this has become more an opinion-fest about "when I think X game franchise jumped the shark" rather than proper analysis of "X franchise that hasn't had a sequel in years because a poor market performance led to publishers avoiding making sequels".

    Let me think of games that haven't had a sequel (not counting any simple ports or rehashes) in over a decade, even if logically one could be well-done, probably because a particular game entry performed poorly in the market;

    1) A few game franchises appeared to be buried along with the Satellaview - in particular the last Famicom Tantei Club game is still "BS Tantei Club", and "Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman Zero" is the last Shockman game. It appears to occur quite often that a franchise released on a platform that isn't a success tends to not be renewed even if it could easily find success outside said platform. There's probably a good amount of other "Franchises that went down with the console" as well, as I can recall a few sequel-laden franchises on the PC-FX, Dreamcast, and Wonderswan that abruptly stopped when those systems expired.

    2) In fact, let me get to the DC now; off the top of my head, the Dreamcast has the Power Stone games, the Shenmue saga, and Space Channel 5.

    3) There hasn't been a new "Cyber Troopers Virtual On" proper game since "MARZ", probably because "Oratorio Tangram" is still the pinnacle of the franchise, and since then the newer entries attempted taking it in different directions with mixed results.

    4) In a bizarre case of a media tie-in killing a franchise, the F-Zero: GP Legend anime not performing in Japan and not even being dubbed past 12 episodes in America appears to have killed the F-Zero franchise as opposed to any particular game entry. I find this rather sad myself, since the games were great and, while I still don't know an extreme amount about the anime, no one really gave it a chance.

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    If I remember correctly, didn't the Guitar Hero series get the off-switch not too long ago along with Tony Hawk?


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    Quote Originally Posted by Zama View Post
    If I remember correctly, didn't the Guitar Hero series get the off-switch not too long ago along with Tony Hawk?
    For Guitar Hero it had to have been GHIII and the whole battles aspect.

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    Ikari Warriors 2. Dead as dead can be after that pile.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sunnyvale420 View Post
    Ikari Warriors 2. Dead as dead can be after that pile.
    Victory Road was amazing. It was Ikari III that put the nails in the coffin.

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    NOTHING can kill Sonic, which is a bummer. He'll be sucking it up until everything is a free to play Facebook game. Annually.

    I guess it all depends on what you consider a dead franchise, because there's no longer any such thing. Game franchises don't die; they hibernate until nostalgia makes them ripe for exploitation again. We haven't seen a Myth game in a while, or a Q-Bert, but its only a matter of time. I mean, we've seen a new Sparkster for Christs sakes, and there's some kind of free to play Zork revival out there. Anything is possible.

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    I think there's a difference between a series that just simply ran its course and no longer has new entries and a series that came to an abrupt halt because of a very bad or poorly received entry.

    For instance, we aren't getting a Shenmue III any time soon but I'm not sure it's fair to say Shenmue II "killed" the series. Same with Killer Instinct.

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    Yeha, I mean, Toejam & Earl 2 wasn't bad, nor was 3. Quite frankly with how many Sega franchises skipped the Saturn it's not a shock.

    Nights 2 was fine outside of the levels with the kids, and there comparatively weren't that many.


    The recent Shining Force games, though? Sega should not be proud of those abominations.
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