EA’s nickel and dime business practices should disgust anyone with an ounce of integrity however, Mass Effect and Dead Space are my 2 favorite franchises so fuck yes I’ll continue to support those 2 series. I haven’t played ME3 or DS3 but plan on buying both later this year.
I haven’t played the PSP or mobile God of War games but 1-3 were perfect and delivered the badass, bloody fun they promised, it’s the most consistent franchise this generation.
Rocket Knight Adventures which is on the short list of greatest games ever made, had a snes spinoff/sequel that was decent but nothing compared to the original, finally got a proper sequel in 2010. It has a very different art style but I’m cool with that because the game play is very faithful to RKA and it was one of the most pleasant and unexpected resurrections of a franchise for me.
Another franchise that raised from the grave gracefully like RKA is Shinobi. Shinobi 3DS is a very 90’s style platformer/beat’emup and reminded me that games used to give no fucks about kicking the shit out of the player. It’s the best game in the series and it sucks no one cares about it. I guess not that many people both own a 3DS and enjoy a really hard side scroller.
The Contra franchise has had a few shitty games but overall has been consistent. One of if not the best game in the series Contra 4 blew me away because like the above mentioned games it transported me back to the 90’s and made really smart use of both screens to make it harder. hardcorps: Uprising was pretty good too. I’m upset WayForward isn’t making Contra 3DS but then again I read online it might have been canceled…not like any of you knew it existed lol.
We should all agree the franchise that took the biggest nosedive off a cliff into the deepest pits of hell this generation is Sonic with Sonic 06. I haven’t played it but I’ve seen enough vids to know its one of the glitchiest and most poorly designed games this generation. Fast forward a bunch of shitty games later, ironically the franchise then made one of the strongest comebacks of any other with Sonic Colors DS and Sonic Generations. While they don’t begin to compare with the genesis Sonic’s and have some flaws, they also captured enough of the greatness of those early games to remind us why we loved Sonic to begin with, even Specs would blush blue playing them. Assuming Sonic Team doesn’t fuck it up (again) with SG2 they’re on track to one of gaming’s biggest turnarounds.
Mega Man…yeah not much to say that hasn’t been said over 9000 times.
On SRK I seem to be the vast minority on this but I think GTA4 is easily the best game in the franchise dons flame shield. I preferred it’s adult oriented and sober tone over the whacky cartoonishness of the other games, and it serves as a prime example of how a great story and well written characters can enhance the investment a player has in a game.
I haven’t played the new Tomb Raider reboot but it looks really fun and I fucking loved Guardian of Light, that’s one of the most fun downloadable games around. Whoever thought of turning TR into a twin stick shooter deserves a raise. Why can’t more developers think outside the box and make spinoff games in a series in a completely different genre…for example a Fire Emblem beat’emup or a 2D Dead Space, think of how cool the cutting mechanic could be in 2.5D
Which reminds me, the Metroid series evolved with the times and we got Metroid Prime, which was a GDLK 3D platformer masquerading as a Halo clone. Then something went wrong because we got 2 more console Primes, a DS Prime, a DS pinball spinoff, and Other: M all of which were kind of fun but when you look at the first Metroid Prime and Fusion it makes you say WTF is wrong with you Ninentdo why are you killing one of your best and only series? Seriously Ninentdo stop dragging the Metroid name through the mud and make Metroid Dread already! And if this Prime 4 rumor is true I’m going to steal a truckload of Wii U’s and crash them into Iwata’s office.
I forgive Ninentdo for the 2 shitty, lazily designed, easy as pie handholding that are the 2 New Super Mario Bros because Super Mario Galaxy 1, 2, and 3D Land are among the best entries in the series. Just please no more “New” games, stick to making Super Mario 3D Land 2.
Since I’m in a Ninentdo rant I should talk a little about Zelda, the franchise has been consistently GDLK, I say that not having yet beaten Twilight Princess which so far I like but don’t love. Skyward Sword looks fun and maybe it’s a much better game than TP, but I really feel the classic Zelda formula has run it’s course, the next entry in the series whether its on Wii U or 3DS needs to change things up somehow, maybe a futuristic cyberpunk Zelda with new Portal like puzzles? I don’t have the answer I just would like to see Nintendo take a risk with the property. If they don’t then hopefully sales numbers for the next title won’t be as high as expected and the hit Ninentdo takes on projected revenue will wake them up forcing a change.