Franchises that died too soon

Similar to a topic from a few days ago, but flipped around. What are some franchises that died out too soon, or maybe just sooner than you expected?

The fact there were only two Power Stones hurts my head. The peak of it's genre that to this day has never been matched. Iknow there are rumors of a new Power Stone in development, but I'm not getting my hopes up until we hear something official. Internet has burned me too many times.

F-Zero GX is my favorite game of all time, period, full stop. While I get Miyamoto's point that GX left no room for improvement, it's been almost 20 years. Sometimes, more of the same is enough. Speaking of...

All the annual sports games that don't get made anymore. This one isn't sad, just kinda surprising. Mainstream sports once had 3-7 active game series apiece. Not so anymore. Some make sense like EA paying off the NFL to pull the rug out from under 2K, but most of the others died from natural causes. Also, remember when every console needed to have a first-party snowboarding franchise? Judaspete remembers.

Motorstorm (Pacific Rift especially) is by far the best offroad racing sreies ever made. Considering the extenuating circumstances that held back Apocalypse, I'm surprised Sony didn't give this another shot on PS4, and just killed the studio.

Starlancer/Freelancer. In most ways, these were Wing Commander but better. At the time, didn't see this fall, or the fall of the whole genre in general, coming.

Honorable mention for Twisted Metal. There is a TV show in the works, so a new game seems likely. But still, birthed a genre overnight and (mostly) stayed at the top of it. I used to think this and other games like it would always be around.

Fear had 1 good game.

Then they saw $$$ jumped boat to consoles.

2 is basically a shitty remake for pads.

3 is meh.

The Conflict series, it's a shame they really only lasted one generation of games. Arguably two but there hasn't been a peep from this series since 2008. Generally it was just fun playing split screen G.I. Joe, now I know that sounds like a lot of games but it really was something special.

Dino Crisis. The first game was pretty cool and the second one was excellent. Never played the third but it sounded like it was kind of bad.

Parasite Eve was another one that had two really good games but then just kind of fell off.

Not a franchise, but damn there should've been another Enslaved Odyssey to the West.

Pure. It's an ATV racing game that only had one iteration. I loved Pure because it had some insane tricks that you could do, and doing tricks would give you more speed boosts to use, so it was kinda like a mix between Tony Hawk and Burnout.

Maybe a new Syphon Filter or Gauntlet game.

Agreed on MS .... I wish Drive Club and Apocalypse had switched order. Apocalypse could've really benefitted from the additional horse power of the PS4.(Also other arcade racers like Burnout,Midnight Club,Blur, Split Second )

Ninja Gaiden. If DMC was allowed to continue after DMC2, NG should get another shot after NG3.

Heavenly Sword - with GoW missing in action, another hack and slash would be nice.

I would love another Jet Moto and Socom.

kinda sad and wierd because FEAR is not really that complex game that cant work on console.

Legacy of Kain.

Rallisport Challenge, Ready to Rumble Boxing, Road Rash, Strike Series, Project Gotham Racing, Power Stone, Shining Force, I could go on for ages but I won't.

Don’t know if it “died” per se but holy hell can we get a new Chrono game sometime. It’s been way too long since Chrono Cross.

IMO if take Legacy of Kain: Defiance as the final entry, compared to pretty much most long running series it had a incredibly dignified ending.

Like, it had a "start" and a proper "end" to the story.

@my_user_name: Apocalypse would have been amazing on PS4. Still can't believe some of the stuff that game pulled off on a PS3. It also probably should have been a Jet Moto reboot. The devs seemed to have trouble making the tracks work for every vehicle class. Hover-bikes would have solved the issue.

Darkwatch on Xbox and PS2 was going to get a sequel, High Noon (currently owned by Activision-Blizzard) had the IP but Capcom was going to help them publish it for Xbox 360 and PS3 then in 2007 it was cancelled. Not sure why. I'd love to see a sequel, or a remake, even a remaster, or just add it to Xbox BC for Heaven's sake.

@lamprey263: Good one! Darkwatch was badass. Played faster than most console shooters, and it might just be me, but enemy behavior felt a bit more like Devil May Cry than a typical shooter. Maybe I just think that because of the art direction. Tons of fun either way. If the multiplayer was more robust, I'd rate it higher than Timesplitters.

Final Fight. Loved the original arcade game and the two SNES sequels. I think it was in that leaked Capcom list that there was a remake in the planning so really hoping that proves true and we something about it soon.

Yes to both of them.

Final Fight died too soon. It seems like it died after Streetwise. A Final Fight remake or a new one would be nice.

Sega rally we need more rally games on the market.

motorstorm and warhawk

Space Harrier,hope I spelled it correctly? It was on the Sega Master System back in the 1980’s.

Had a sequel on Mega-Drive. And a spin off.

Sonic Ages thing as well, but that largely sucks.

@uninspiredcup: Fear was made by Monolith, which is the same company that made Blood. Sadly, Blood was a franchise that died too soon as well. At least we have a remaster of the game (Blood Fresh supply). Hopefully Blood 2 gets same treatment.

Shenmue. I know it got revived but it's just not the same.

Dead Rising

Star Fox

Medal of Honor

Kotor 1/2 really deserved a proper conclusion.

KotoR for sure. Infamous as well. I happened to love Second Son.

Project Gotham Racing was one of my most played games on 360. There was room for it to carry on.

@GameboyTroy: I totally forgot about Streetwise. 😅

Never did try it.

Ok I know its beaten to death but Demon Souls/ Bloodborne. I group them together cause its a only on playstation (for now) series by the same team. Idk I feel like we just need that third game to close the series, give fans of bloodborne (and demons souls) something to move on from.

Serious answer, Dino crisis. Dont know what the fk Capcom was smoking with Dino Crisis 3 only on xbox really sealed its fate. Loved Dino Crisis 2 its score mechanics really helped the game playtime. Spent hours farming dinosaurs till there literally none just so I could max available weapons before moving on to the next scene.

Same!

Mass Effect.... Arguably the biggest franchise of the 360 generation.... It didn't even exist in the next generation outside of a singular horrible effort from ea/BioWare and this generation it's simply just talk with nothing compelling to show for it several years in. EA took gaming's most exciting new franchise and effectly slit it's throat.

Got a flashback reading this back to Dragon Age. Everyone was "wow CRPGs are back baby! Bioware are king!"

Now nobody seems to give a flying **** about it and can just go on steam for cool indie games.

And basically been outclassed by Larian regardless.

@uninspiredcup: Dragon Age 4 would be wise to keep it's release date far from Baulders Gate 3. No TitanfallBattlefieldCOD shenanigans.

Motorstorm, Hydro Thunder.....arcade racers in general from AA or AAA studios. Thank Jebus for Crusin Blast

@judaspete:

• MechAssault
• Resistance
• CrimsonSkies
• Hunter: the Reckoning
• Kid Icarus

Sad really, remember when Bioware could do no wrong.

Games were an event.

Frist up for me would be Lunar. I loved Lunar and Lunar Eternal Blue. They were fun lighthearted JRPGs on Sega CD. Very fun games. I would have loved to see more! 2nd is Dragon Force. I LOVED Dragon force on Sega Dreamcast it was AMAZING! 3rd would be Shining Force. I loved 1 and 2. Then 3 came out and they only gave us 1/3rd of part 3 then never released the other 2 parts of Shining Force 3 in the West....BOO!! And lastly is Phantasy Star. I know they made crappy online games for it, but I miss the real Phantasy Star games. I wish they would make a Phantasy Star 5.

There's definitely potential in a Resistance reboot, but a new Hunter: The Reckoning would be awesome. What if you could LAN up a few boxes and have a bunch of friends over to wreck a whole city? Then all come together for a giant boss battle or something. That sounds fun.

I'm really shocked no one didn't mention Bloody Roar series as I for one love that fighting game series with the ability to change into Humanoid Animals in the middle of the fight was one of the coolest things. Hated Konami for killing the series. The great and last was Bloody Roar: Primal Fury is still a fun game to replay. Just find it hard this franchise died so fast before my very eyes. I yarned for a Bloody Roar reboot someday.

BG3 has been flogged on sale as an alpha/beta for a very long time already. The 'release date' will basically be saying okay we've finished the game now by which time anyone who wanted it has long since already paid them to develop it.

If DA4 is anywhere near as good as DAI it will piss all over DOS 2.5. Current reports suggest that's extremely unlikely to happen since the game has changed direction multiple times during its prolonged dev hell period. More is the pity. I would rather play a good DA game than Larian making yet another DOS and sticking a BG3 title on the front of it.

@davillain: Rumor was Sony had planned to bring back Bloody Roar before they made the Street Fighter V deal. Bummer if true.

I wasn't a huge fan of the series back in the day, but recently gave it another shot and had a good time. Maybe I'm just starved for 3D fighters :).

@dabear: Good freaking god damn do I want another Crimson Skies. It was like the Unreal Tournament of flight combat games.

Would love Jade Empire 2, in addition to the staples.

Left 4 Dead. Really enjoyed the games but with the amount of rage quitters the game wasn't fun anymore.

Lol. I'm pretty sure the first time I heard the term "ragequitting" it was in fact playing L4D.

Sega franchises:

• Space Harrier
• Alex Kidd
• OutRun
• Wonder Boy
• After Burner
• Phantasy Star
• Shinobi
• Golden Axe
• Virtua
• Shenmue

Other franchises:

• Ninja Gaiden
• Star Cruiser
• Final Fight
• Prince of Persia
• Lunar
• Lufia
• Chrono
• Alundra
• Metal Slug
• SSX

Def Jam, make a new Def Jam please..

Also I miss the street sports games.

NBA Street and NFL street were a blast. Wish they make a new one.

A new NFL Blitz would be cool too btw

New SSX would be welcomed.

Need a new Ninja Gaiden that's not like 3.