Which games killed their series?

[gmer412]

I have a feeling that Starcraft II is going to kill the series when it comes out. It's really nothing more than an expansion pack with hardly-tuned graphics and very few additions. But what already have killed their series? Well, I don't know if you'd consider Perfect Dark to be a series with only two games, but I know PD64 was one of the best games ever invented and PD-Zero was one of the worst games on the 360 (or so I've heard, I'd never tried it). Brawl actually kind of killed the series for me. They made every level the exact same, took out all of the good Melee levels and put in the crappy ones. Though they added a lot of new stuff, the stuff that they added all sucked and it might as well have just been Melee with a few new characters. But come on? Pit? Sonic? And really, Snake? Has Metal Gear been on a Nintendo console since the first one? That'd be like adding Cloud Strife because Final Fantasy was once upon a time on the Nintendo console.

What? I disagree on both Starcraft and Brawl. Blizzard has taken so much time... How can it just be an expansion pack? That's ridiculous. And I loved Brawl. The levels were varied (in my opinion) and had some true gems among them. Plus the music feature was pretty cool as well.

And I really liked SA2. And Sonic Rush.

 

[=Kharhaz=]

I mostly agree with everyone saying that Oblivion ended the Elder Scrolls series. Only because Bethesda promised a bunch of shit that they didn't actually put into the game, for example, I remember reading that I was gonna be able to make spells however I wanted, like a spell that sent someone to bed, or any other fun scripts like that, but they just dumbed down the magic and gave us the same old shit from Morrowind...

 

[Logan Westbrook]

I mostly agree with everyone saying that Oblivion ended the Elder Scrolls series. Only because Bethesda promised a bunch of shit that they didn't actually put into the game, for example, I remember reading that I was gonna be able to make spells however I wanted, like a spell that sent someone to bed, or any other fun scripts like that, but they just dumbed down the magic and gave us the same old shit from Morrowind...

Yes, because nothing says epic fantasy adventure like narcolepsy.

 

[neonorangcrayola]

I am soooo NOT a disney fan never played any fantasy that was final (for more than 5 minutes), but I am SOO ADDICTED to Kingdom hearts... if they announced right now they were releasing KH3 tomorrow I would actually dish out too much money for the PS3 tonight if it was only on that console. Everyone has different tastes and I guess me being a chick helps cuz a guy playing that game who is above 10 yrs old will probably be called a pussy by most. However playing Kingdom Hearts actually inspired me to buy a final fantasy game and I thought Final Fantasy sucked after 2 minuets of play (then again it was 10 which I have heard I joined in at the wrong time) but Kingdom Hearts didn't seem " the beginning of something that simply never should have been imo" It was a regular Final fantasy game that came across that way to me.

 

[Cryofthewolf]

Video killed the.... wait, what? Oh.

Oblivion killed the Elder Scrolls.

- J

=-o What? Why would you say that? I've only played Elder Scrolls III and IV, but I think that Oblivion is one of the best games that I have ever played. I really want to try Elder Scrolls I and II. I heard that II is amazing.

I know that everyone is allowed their own opinions, but please give me a reason why you dislike Oblivion.

(I'm actually playing the game now, by the way, While playing my SP, Watching "Destination Truth" with my family and typing this all at the same time. I doubt that anyone cares, but I find it an impressive feat.) ;-)

 

[Cryofthewolf]

Oh, and I think that the "Dynasty Warriors" games killed the series. They are all the same game, aren't they? What will they do to to make "Dynasty Warriors 24" Different and unique when it undoubtedly comes out? =-/

 

[Cryofthewolf]

While Tomb Raider sequels were nothing more than re-hashes of previous games, Angel of Darkness was the last nail on the coffin. With any luck, Lara Croft can pick herself up again (I think she has back problems. I'll let you think why.)

Final Fantasy XI was a bullet to FF's brain. FFXII brought it back to life. Mostly.

I would have to agree with you here RTR on the Tomb Raider issue. Although I enjoyed playing the newest Tomb Raider title that came out about two years ago, it wasn't the same as the originals. It had a stale feeling to it, in a way. (I also found it very annoying that Laura's horny pals back at the mansion would comment Laura's jumping skills every time I completed one of her super duper jumps.) Why can't they just go away?)

Although I guess they added them to the game to add a little more life to it. I remember the ominous silence from the originals when there was no music or nobody was talking during the cut-scenes. Poor Laura must have been lonely in those tombs all alone. ='-(

 

[EnzoHonda]

Well for a lot of games here, it's not that they're killing the series, but they could be the beginning of the end for the series.

Deus Ex 2 was a great game... if you forgot about the first Deus Ex. DX1 was a spawling, epic cyber-punk adventure. DX2 was the same... but 1/8 the size.

Double Agent would have been fun, but the glitches and performance on my PC absolutely sucked (unplayable) whereas Chaos Theory was perfect in every way. Plus, some of the levels in DA were dull (the cruise ship). I might rent if for 360 some time.

FF8 didn't kill the series (they made 4 more) but it's the only FF that I never bothered to finish. I really liked 12, but I can certainly understand a lot of the problems people have with it.

Age of Empires III killed the series for me. The over-scripting of the game made me bored (surprisingly it didn't bother me much during my first play-through of Warcraft III).

World of Warcraft has killed the MMORPG, because even if a good game comes out, everyone will still be playing WoW.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms... I don't know... 4? I mean, seriously, talk about your pointless sequels...

And to note, I actually enjoyed FFX, as stupid and ridiculous as the Sphere Grid system was (I've given up on Square having any kind of limits in their RPG's anymore) There was plenty to do that made the game fun for a few hundred hours. Unlike FFXII, where the only thing to do besides a few tiny side quests was go around and kill things--excuse me---watch my characters kill things. >.<

Surprised nobody has mentioned Mega Man Battle Network... ugh...

 

[ArmTheBomb]

(sigh) sonic the hedgehog. I mean, I really liked the first 2D Sonic titles. I also had quite a lot of fun with Sonis Adventure 2 battle for the gamecube but after that, the series drowned in a million new characters that it could do without and the massive letdown get new installment brought. Other things like bad camera angles, glitches,long load times, storyline and gameplay issues didnt exactly help the later games. Anyway, with all the disappointment, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Sonic Unleashed and the The Sonic RPG for the nintendo DS. Please Bioware and Sega, don't let us down.

 

[Phantom6]

Shadow the Hedgehog. Enough said. I have a friend who genuinely enjoyed it though, and to this day that still freaks me out.


I also think Halo killed the FPS genre. They were good in the days of Duke Nukem 3D, great in the days of Goldeneye, and then Halo showed up. Oh, and here comes the million letters of hate mail already...*eye roll*

 

[stompy]

crash bandicoot3 ruined it, it gave me a bad taste on my mouth, and now there just juicing whats left of it now.

Really. I thought that 3 was the best, and whatever came after that (I believe it was a racer) ruined it. But, it's your opinion.

For me, I'd say that Jak X killed the Jak series (they made it a full fledged sequel; a platformer turned into a fucking racer), Vegas killed Rainbow 6 (tactical shooter turns Rambo), Fallout 3 kills the Fallout series (it's in the hands of Bethsada(sp?)now) and 'Video Kills the Radio Star' (no, I'm not that old).

- A procrastinator

 

[the-kitchen-slayer]

Travel back into history, back to the days when PC was still really good. Look at mechwarrior 4, and cringe. Great plot, fits the history well, but omni-mechs with less omni-slots than others?!? the "promise" of choosing your missions, only to have a linear storyline with one, that's right, one choice in the whole story that only changes how much equipment you have in the final fight? the only mention of the clans is their mechs?!? SHEESH! they have a nice little battle which leads to "the truce of tukkayid", and they don't even have a single mention of the clans anywhere except "you fought in the clan wars, so your good". sure, i love mechwarrior, but mech 4 went and shot it in the head. My personal opinion: any game with a 4 in the name has shown that the milking of the series is starting. and don't even get me started on Mech Assault ~shudder~

 

[The name's Scruffy]

The Addam's Family - Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt. It was just so very sad.

 

[Dr Faust]

Deus Ex 2 killed DE for me. There wasn't a need for a sequel, especially not one so far removed from what made the first one intriguing. I really liked the conspiracy theory cyper-punk thing DE1 had going on. It had that plausibility and normal-meets-weird vibe that made Men In Black and the Matrix movies fun to watch. The sequel didn't have any of that kind of magic. It also controlled like crap.

For me, Fable killed Fable. I remember reading about a mega-epic action RPG with real-time scarring and simulated injuries and you could turn yourself into a werewolf if you weren't careful. It wasn't bad... It just didn't live up to its hype. Sometimes, it didn't even live up to its back-of-the-box. The combat system was about as balanced as the one in Oblivion, that is to say, there was a RIGHT way to level up and a MILLION wrong ways.

Does anyone remember the point Tony Hawk's games stopped being fun? What about Pokemon? At some point, those games became like a sex-addict relative who came by every Christmas with a new kid I had to learn about, and try as hard as you like, you just can't care after kid number 8. You really can't.

I remember thinking Megaman X4 didn't make the transition to CD very well, but maybe it was X5, X6, or X7 that nailed the coffin closed. Megaman Battle Network was fun the first two times, but a tedious chore after that.

Does anyone remember Xenosaga Vol. 1? By the time Vol. 2 came out, I couldn't remember the main character's name anymore. The .hack// series was another that faded into mediocrity because IT JUST KEPT GOING. Both thought they had something more to say, but they took a little too long to say it.

There are a lot of other games that just KEEP ON GOING long after the title should be put to bed. See also Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, Spyro the Dragon, Mortal Kombat, Dynasty Warriors, Pac-Man, ad infinitum.

Star Fox died as soon as he stepped out of the Arwing. For some reason they thought third person shooting was far better than space dogfights.

Castlevania died after that first one for the Playstation, and if anyone here says they needed more than one Contra, they're lying. Is it possible to kill a series by being too good? Cause these two might have done it.

 

[nightfish]

I have a feeling that Starcraft II is going to kill the series when it comes out. It's really nothing more than an expansion pack with hardly-tuned graphics and very few additions.

What? I disagree on both Starcraft and Brawl. Blizzard has taken so much time... How can it just be an expansion pack? That's ridiculous.

By their own admission theres no major changes to the game. Simply because thats not what the South Asian community wanted from Starcraft and everyone knows that playing Starcraft is equivalent to attending the Olympics for them. Its who the game is being made for.

It will be interesting to see how the game plays.

 

[DarkKitchen]

Also, Gothic 3.

Agreed, but hopefully they fix it with this new company and the new expansion they are releasing later this year.

 

[Mr.Expendable]

Broken Sword 4 took a good adventure series and shit all over it. It's not a good sign when you start thinking of Godfather 3 in a favorable light in comparison.

I was just about to mention that... Broken Sword 1 & 2 were the epicenter of my intelligent growth as a child and I was really looking forward to continuing that tradition of intelligent humor and difficult, yet, logical and entertaining puzzles. But, no... That was not too be. What I got was disappointed and shat on by the makers of that game. Who else agrees with me that the transaction from 2d to 3d was a mistake by the point-and-click adventure game gurus. Look at Monkey Island f.ex...

 

[raankh]

Master of Orion 3

Slaughtered the series, not just killed it. Chitterlings, scrapple, offal; anything nasty put through a grinder. That's what it was. Reeked, it did as well. Yuck.

As for the future, Fallout 3 looks set to Bloody Mess that proud bastion of CRPGs ....

 

[GregorV]

How about Falcon 4.0? That not only killed the series, but also the whole genre of combat flight simulators. Its goals, while never fully achieved, set the bar so high that it killed both the series as well as any developer trying to do one better. There were still simulators that came out after it (mostly from Russia) and did some things better, but the expectations were now set so high and yet the increased complexity put off so many people new to the genre that the whole genre basically went under.