Videogame Franchises that outstayed their welcome?

[Justin11]

Just now, Heatman said:

I still very much love Mortal Kombat series. Yeah, it's been around for a while now but it's still something good to play. At some point, I think it even got a lot more better with more series released. 

Their is no doubt to what you've said, but it isn't popular like it used to be. That's why it is included in the list, maybe it have one last moment and finally go exile. It was a major hit during my childhood days, I don't think anyone was popular back then like the way MK was. 

[Yaramaki]

8 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

While I disagree that Mario himself has outstayed his welcome, nor have the mainline games, Mario Kart definitely has. It's too feature bloated to be recognisable as what it once was, and Mario Kart Tour - as much as I like it - is less about the racing and more about how many points you can rack up for seasonal rewards. But then maybe that speaks volumes to the game: that despite the unnecessary feature and character creep, it's still a solid kart racer. It doesn't beat Crash Team Racing by any means besides graphical fidelity, but is otherwise a fun game.

I think Nintendo once said that the reason why their prices don't come down is so it doesn't devalue the brand (or words to that effect), but this is the company that made 25 Mario Party games, so make of that what you will.

The thing with Nintendo is that they always tend to be able to keep their franchises fresh, it's just imo the Mario sports games are just lacking in that departement as in they nintendo doesen't really know what to do with them anymore. Like who on earth is actually exited about the newly released mario strikers on switch, why not include a bunch of other sports in there aswell. Yeah i get those games and since you mentioned mario party may aswell chuck it in alongside are designed for local or online multiplayer, it's just not for me anymore maybe i've outgrown these games i don't know. Being slightly over halfway in my thirties i'd rather have a few drinks and catch up on life with the few people i can still call friends, instead of forcing them to play a videogame with me.

Never had much of a problem with Mario kart to be honest. Mario kart 8 was released 8 years old, if people still enjoy playing  it and apperently it's still a game that sells very well even to this day, it can only mean one thing that it's still extremely good even today. Not that much of a mario kart guy myself but they are good games imo but are nothing more then a couple of afternoons of fun and when you played trough every cup, you move on to something else.

Also about the Mario main line games, nintendo keeps reinventing themselves over and over with their Mario games (well maybe not the 2d mario games) but well enough to keep them fresh and exiting. Super Mario Odysey is easly one the top 5 best games on switch avaible. Yeah it's hard to say mario outstayed his welcome just for the love of god give him a break and don't let him do any sports anymore for a while.

[Yaramaki]

4 hours ago, Justin11 said:

- Sonic the Hedgehog 

- Wolfenstein

- FIFA

- Mortal Kombat

All this series have faded over time. MK used to be the 'go to series game, but it's been long the developers brought sequels for the series. At this time it has overstayed it's welcome, same to EA FIFA and any other in the list. 

What makes you feel like a franchise like Wolfenstein and Mortal kombat have outstayed their welcome? 

Wolfenstein are still some of the most fun and story driven single player fps out there. In a genre that is dominated by multiplayer games i'd say wolfenstein is a breath of fresh air.

Mortal Kombat is a franchise i don't know but dare i say it has overtaken street fighter in terms of quality and content. Mortal kombat is more fun to play then ever imo. We have gotten like 3 really good games in the past 11 years, you can hardly say Warner bros is milking the franchise dry or for the matter i've never heard anybody mentioning Mortal kombat needs to die alltogether. Sure during the ps2 area i'd say the franchise was at an all time low and probably should have died then but as it stands today give me more blood and gore lol.

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

Call of Duty; but that's just my personal preference. 

[Withywarlock]

3 hours ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

Call of Duty; but that's just my personal preference. 

I consider myself a fan and even I believe Activision-Blizzard needs to slow it down. I'm going to be done with CoD for a while knowing that a lot of my stuff isn't going to carry over into MW & WZ 2, so I'd rather just get what progress I can in those games as I wait and see how Microsoft's going to handle the release schedules.

Even now if someone were to offer me the ~£50 I paid for Vanguard to wipe my progress from it, I'd probably take it. That's hardly a good sign of one's opinion of a series' longevity...

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

15 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

I consider myself a fan and even I believe Activision-Blizzard needs to slow it down. I'm going to be done with CoD for a while knowing that a lot of my stuff isn't going to carry over into MW & WZ 2, so I'd rather just get what progress I can in those games as I wait and see how Microsoft's going to handle the release schedules.

Even now if someone were to offer me the ~£50 I paid for Vanguard to wipe my progress from it, I'd probably take it. That's hardly a good sign of one's opinion of a series' longevity...

I'm out of the loop so I didn't know you could sell your account or stats. Thing is that COD isn't really heavy on a complex story and grand innovation like Assassins Creed, so games like Assassins Creed can release every 2 years at this point with excitement from people unlike COD. The current system of Assassins Creed is downright spectacular, and ties together several elements of other popular games. Valhalla's system, which I'm guessing is based on Odyssey although I haven't played Valhalla yet, is certainly going to change and shift around in the future. The new Assassins Creed games are practically guaranteed to have a great reception by fans, but the only thing the AC people did wrong was throw out the Desmond Miles/current day part of the story in terms of how complex and relevant it was.

 

At some point you would think the Assassins Creed developers are going to have to go full Sam Fisher mode and have the series involve modern day sequences involving armies and intelligence agencies like Fisher was, because the Templar's came from BC era and go all the way to the modern day except the gameplay currently does not touch on the modern day as much as it used to. It's kind of like "Check Out Historical Exhibit #1 This Year", and in two years comes Historical Exhibit X. More reasons why I should be made an AC executive.

[Kane99]

4 minutes ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

I'm out of the loop so I didn't know you could sell your account or stats. Thing is that COD isn't really heavy on a complex story and grand innovation like Assassins Creed, so games like Assassins Creed can release every 2 years at this point with excitement from people unlike COD. The current system of Assassins Creed is downright spectacular, and ties together several elements of other popular games. Valhalla's system, which I'm guessing is based on Odyssey although I haven't played Valhalla yet, is certainly going to change and shift around in the future. The new Assassins Creed games are practically guaranteed to have a great reception by fans, but the only thing the AC people did wrong was throw out the Desmond Miles/current day part of the story in terms of how complex and relevant it was.

 

At some point you would think the Assassins Creed developers are going to have to go full Sam Fisher mode and have the series involve modern day sequences involving armies and intelligence agencies like Fisher was, because the Templar's came from BC era and go all the way to the modern day except the gameplay currently does not touch on the modern day as much as it used to. It's kind of like "Check Out Historical Exhibit #1 This Year", and in two years comes Historical Exhibit X. More reasons why I should be made an AC executive.

I think he meant more so that he would take money to reset his stats in COD, but I could be wrong. I know it's against Activision's rules & terms and conditions sell your account for any reason. I know people have sold their accounts, but it's something that could result in that account getting banned. 

I disagree about the stories in COD games. If anything the single player modes are often where the stories shine. The last Modern Warfare game for example had a fairly decent campaign. It was still COD all the way through, but it was interesting and at times depressing. They know how to create campaigns with interesting stories, it's just that they haven't done much of anything new in a long time. 

And yeah, with AC, it's helped a lot to release a new game every 2 years or so. I think it helped the franchise recover somewhat, but I still think there's a lot of fatigue when it comes to AC games, even with them taking it slower to release new games. 

[Withywarlock]

16 minutes ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

I'm out of the loop so I didn't know you could sell your account or stats.

I should've said earlier I meant hypothetically (@Kane99 above me is correct). I suppose one can technically sell their account but that's against the Terms of Service, et cetera!

16 minutes ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

Thing is that COD isn't really heavy on a complex story and grand innovation like Assassins Creed, so games like Assassins Creed can release every 2 years at this point with excitement from people unlike COD.

Agreed. One doesn't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs year after year, and even then I genuinely don't know what CoD could do to remain 'CoD-like' to people.

I disagree with Kane's assessment of the stories shining. I once believed that with Call of Duty 2 - Modern Warfare 3, but even then MW was more interested in upping the stakes to unrealistic and in some cases just intellectually/emotionally insulting degrees. At this point it's pornography: which game can tally up the most war-crimes and make it arcade-y?

The reason why we still talk about Spec Ops: The Line to this day is because of the single use of white phosphorus (among other things, but mainly that). The only memorable shocking things I can think of from a CoD game were, err, the bombings in London and that's because the 7/7 bombings were still fresh in my mind.

16 minutes ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

The current system of Assassins Creed is downright spectacular, and ties together several elements of other popular games. Valhalla's system, which I'm guessing is based on Odyssey although I haven't played Valhalla yet, is certainly going to change and shift around in the future. The new Assassins Creed games are practically guaranteed to have a great reception by fans, but the only thing the AC people did wrong was throw out the Desmond Miles/current day part of the story in terms of how complex and relevant it was.

Assassin's Creed: Origins was well praised, but there was a lot of worry about dramatically changing the formula. Out of the two styles I prefer the original, and I'd prefer the modern stuff taken out of it, but then I'm not the target audience and ultimately not making Ubisoft the millions of dollars the current style generates. "Ubisoft Game" just isn't for me, really, but I get what you mean.

16 minutes ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

At some point you would think the Assassins Creed developers are going to have to go full Sam Fisher mode and have the series involve modern day sequences involving armies and intelligence agencies like Fisher was, because the Templar's came from BC era and go all the way to the modern day except the gameplay currently does not touch on the modern day as much as it used to. It's kind of like "Check Out Historical Exhibit #1 This Year", and in two years comes Historical Exhibit X.

That's the first argument I've agreed to the relevence of the modern stuff. Throw in some tried-and-true crime thriller writers and one could have an Assassin's Creed game that encourages the Splinter Cell audience to step in and give it a look. Maybe even people who don't play video games...

Edited August 18, 2022 by Withywarlock

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

3 hours ago, Kane99 said:

I think he meant more so that he would take money to reset his stats in COD, but I could be wrong. I know it's against Activision's rules & terms and conditions sell your account for any reason. I know people have sold their accounts, but it's something that could result in that account getting banned. 

I disagree about the stories in COD games. If anything the single player modes are often where the stories shine. The last Modern Warfare game for example had a fairly decent campaign. It was still COD all the way through, but it was interesting and at times depressing. They know how to create campaigns with interesting stories, it's just that they haven't done much of anything new in a long time. 

And yeah, with AC, it's helped a lot to release a new game every 2 years or so. I think it helped the franchise recover somewhat, but I still think there's a lot of fatigue when it comes to AC games, even with them taking it slower to release new games. 

I was more or less comparing COD's stories to Assassins Creed caliber specifically. I don't think COD would have the same level of success if it released games every year or two with their current style of story, but Assassins Creed does that and is still huge.

 

Even where Valhalla is at in terms of story is still based on Assassins Creed 1 in a sorta kinda way.

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

3 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

I should've said earlier I meant hypothetically (@Kane99 above me is correct). I suppose one can technically sell their account but that's against the Terms of Service, et cetera!

Agreed. One doesn't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs year after year, and even then I genuinely don't know what CoD could do to remain 'CoD-like' to people.

Assassin's Creed: Origins was well praised, but there was a lot of worry about dramatically changing the formula. Out of the two styles I prefer the original, and I'd prefer the modern stuff taken out of it, but then I'm not the target audience and ultimately not making Ubisoft the millions of dollars the current style generates. "Ubisoft Game" just isn't for me, really, but I get what you mean.

That's the first argument I've agreed to the relevence of the modern stuff. Throw in some tried-and-true crime thriller writers and one could have an Assassin's Creed game that encourages the Splinter Cell audience to step in and give it a look. Maybe even people who don't play video games...

**SPOILERS** (Maybe)

 

 

The entire point of the Assassins Creed games from the beginning -- literally the whole fabric of the story arc -- was to take Desmond Miles (a person from the modern day era) and send him to the past through a holographic re-living of the past in order to acquire information and context for the present-day events. Desmond has since been replaced by a plethora of randoms and now the modern day sequences I basically ignore as much as other folks like you do.

 

Modern day stuff could be excellent, it's just that the developers choose not to take the risk at this point. If they removed any reference to the modern day at all, the games themselves would be essentially be random tours of random historical places. Even when you play as Alexios or Cassie in AC Odyssey, you find the original network of the Knights Templar and track them down. And that's like a thousand years before Desmond was dealing with the pharmaceutical company in the games modern era in the first game; the company of which both created the Animus and was a Templar front. So the context is still there. The satanic looking devil being "cult" members in Odyssey developed into a modern day drug company; why am I not surprised.

Edited August 18, 2022 by ForwardSlashDownPoke

[Heatman]

On 8/8/2022 at 11:39 AM, Justin11 said:

Their is no doubt to what you've said, but it isn't popular like it used to be. That's why it is included in the list, maybe it have one last moment and finally go exile. It was a major hit during my childhood days, I don't think anyone was popular back then like the way MK was. 

To the best of my knowledge, Mortal Kombat games are still very popular till today. It's why we saw Mortal Kombat X hit the sales record of 11 million copies, thereby making it the biggest Mortal Kombat release till date. 

[Justin11]

On 8/18/2022 at 9:15 PM, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

**SPOILERS** (Maybe)

 

 

The entire point of the Assassins Creed games from the beginning -- literally the whole fabric of the story arc -- was to take Desmond Miles (a person from the modern day era) and send him to the past through a holographic re-living of the past in order to acquire information and context for the present-day events. Desmond has since been replaced by a plethora of randoms and now the modern day sequences I basically ignore as much as other folks like you do.

 

Modern day stuff could be excellent, it's just that the developers choose not to take the risk at this point. If they removed any reference to the modern day at all, the games themselves would be essentially be random tours of random historical places. Even when you play as Alexios or Cassie in AC Odyssey, you find the original network of the Knights Templar and track them down. And that's like a thousand years before Desmond was dealing with the pharmaceutical company in the games modern era in the first game; the company of which both created the Animus and was a Templar front. So the context is still there. The satanic looking devil being "cult" members in Odyssey developed into a modern day drug company; why am I not surprised.

In my opinion Assassin's creed has been able to develop their characters really and no matter the era the video game is set in they still try to make the characters be relatable to that era as well.