Top 10 Lists : The Top 10 Game Franchises

Arguably, the best platformer series ever (many would say Mario is plain better, but the actual Mario platform games are quite bland compared to Sonic's); this game took the Mario basics of what a platformer game is (it couldn't be done eitherwise: Mario did INVENT the platformer genre), and turned it into a really enjoyable and challenging game: with lotsa speed, huge levels to explore, and of course more secret places, shortcuts and hidden areas you can ever imagine (first game's are eventually found all of them; but latter entries have just too large levels for anyone to know how many bonuses are there), this is a platformer game you'll hardly grow weary of. Also, don't forget the boss levels: while lame in the first games, later they started to pummel ass a little more, and posed more of a threat. This series has the best 2D platformers ever (but 3D hadn't treated Sonic that well, but Mario hasn't the greatest 3D platformers: that belongs to Rayman or Crash Bandicoot), and since by now all of these are in Nintendo handhelds, it seems like no Mario fan should have issues against Sonic anymore. In other cases it's hard to tell, but in this case it was clear that Sega did what Nintendon'ts.

A great platformer series (not the greatest as a platformer... yet) with a nifty gameplay scheme: you play as a Belmont, a vampire-hunter armed with a flail and some weapons, like holy water, crosses and knives, and you're in a trip to Castlevania (aka Dracula's Castle) to kick some Dracula's ass. The vintage games (NES, SNES, GEN) are kind of straightforward and repetitive, with a simple level-based gameplay, but a nifty challenge; but then PSX appeared, and so did Symphony of the Night, and the whole series was revamped and redesigned into a non-linear RPG-Platformer hybrid with awesome maps to explore, throngs o'enemies to kill and thousands o'secrets to uncover (and in some cases, several finales). Plot wise, every game is the same: you get to Castlevania for whatever reason and you must either kill Dracula or prevent it's resurrection. While each game plays almost the same as the others, each game has it's own map to explore, it's own enemies, it's own secrets and it's own challenges; and man, you'll be most eager to dive into all that stuff. Don't forget all those special game modes!

Maybe the best multiplayer franchise ever. It might not be the one with the best strategy options (that mark belongs to Advance Wars Series), but it sure is the most exhilarating multiplayer game series ever! The main rules are the same thorought all the games: you play as a team of little pink worms and you've got to fight the other teams to the death; last team with worms remaining wins; but no matter how repetitive it might look like: it cannot be anything but fun (specially when playing with friends). Each game is pretty much the same (there's not that much difference between Worms 2 and... say... Worms World Party), so there's little reason to get a Worms game when you already own one, but it pays for getting a recent one, as the latest game has the greatest arsenal, and as in shoot 'em ups, fun relies on the bumsticks (although the cheesy weapons here have little to do with mainstream bumsticks: Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade, Concrete Donkey, Banana Bomb, Homing Pigeon, an outstanding variety of explosive Sheeps (the trademark bomb-animal of the series), Mole Bomb, Nukes, Carpet Strikes, and so and so forth). This goes to the main series: the 3D Worms (3D, Forts and 4) have a different approach, which while fun, is nowhere as fun as 2D ones; and the Handheld 2D ones (Open Warfare), while maximizing customization, have clumsy controls and small arsenal; but fortunately the greatest firepower stays on. Whichever is your style, there's a Worms for you; remember that whenever you explode a fuzzy animal.

Among all Survival Horror series, this one is the only truely Horror one: unlike other series, focused more on gore than on thriller, this one is just all thriller! (someone please sing along). This series is the best at creating a gruesome, choking, eerie and threatening atmosphere, where nothing is what it seems (luckily) and your mind will go crazy thinking "someoneisgonnajumpoutonme someoneisgonnajumpoutonme", like in an acutal horror movie. Combat is quite bland, but puzzles also are a bonus: the best puzzles ever on a Survival Horror game. And plot cannot be better, although some games outside that Alessa Demongirl story ark have pretty lame plots. Also, if you finish any game, save the game, as you're still far from finishing the whole game: lotsa endings and secrets (and maybe UFOs) await whoever does the encore (at higher difficulty levels, and in such levels fighting is rarely bland anymore) This series may make for some uneasy nights, so use with caution.

The greatest point 'n click series of all times! This series has everything you may ask a point 'n click game for: magnificent story, enjoyable characters, awesome puzzles and the most humorous and exhillarating dialogue you can get in any game. Even if you haven't played any of these games (almost as unlikely as not having seen Star Wars ever), you should know about most of the cheesy stuff: insult duels, zombie pirates, the characters, the islands... Each and every thing from this series is almost common knowledge among gamers of all kinds: no wonder this is the winner among point 'n click game series (even though Broken Sword series would most certainly be in second place). Remember this game whenever you hear something of the likes of "You fight like a COW!"

The winner of the Real-Time-Strategy series; even though its greatest game is no RTS game whatsoever (of course, it is World of Warcraft, the greatest MMORPG of all time); anyway, this point goes mainly for the RTS games of the series. Several RTS series would have been here instead, like Command & Conquer, Commandos, Age of Empires and others, but Warcraft is the world's finest (well, in fact Starcraft is, but that's another franchise, with an only game and expansion released to date...), thanx to it's enjoyable gameplay, balanced races (you bet: in Warcraft 1 and 2 they're just the same; but in Warcraft 3 there're 4 races and each one with different units and techs, but still you cannot tell one as better than the other), awesome campaings, cheesy gimmicks (this is the first RTS game featuring "mages", for example. Warcraft 3's Heroes are a real treat too) and inmense map-design tools. Much better than the other series: C&C is soo damn repetitive that all games are little more than palette swaps of the original with a few new units; Commandos has only two games worth the bucks (1 and 2); and AoE, while enternaining and magnificent, has little variety.

You just cannot start naming the best Survival Horror series ever without eventually naming the world's finest: Resident Evil. The first games (pre-4; Vintage Resident Evils) were masterpieces thanx to the focus on exploration, scary combat (indeed, the scariest feature of the game: bullets are soo scarce that what you want the least is for a zombie thing to show up; let alone half a dozen altogether) and cheesy puzzles (not as neat as Silent Hill's, but they might take a few browsing into GameFAQs for an answer). Those were real Survival Horror, unlike Resident 4 onward, which became mere shoot 'em up (I say "mere", but oddly enough, these are the BEST games in the whole series...), but every bit as enjoyable as Vintage REs (but whoever wants some thriller experience should search elsewhere). If a feature would highlight this series over the other Survival Games, it's replayability: while others (like SH) have increasing difficulty and various endings (so do some REs as well); Resident Evil main gimmick is its post-end minigames! Once you've reached the end, you can play some arcade-like minigames which, while short and simple, are inmensely fun! And don't forget the extra clothes and überweapons, another trademark from RE.

An amazing piece of a game, if you ask me: this beats Mario for good (Mario might win the Best First Game contest, or Greatest Savior of Videogames; but as a whole Zelda is way better). Specially in these times, when good puzzles are kind of scarce and it's hard to find a trully mentally challenging game, Zelda is just a winning option. If you wanna puzzles, you just cannot go wrong with Zelda (even though Alundra beats Zelda puzzle-wise, but that series didn't go any further from it's second game): gigantic world, amazing dungeons (with lotsa, lotsa puzzles. You'll hardly ever find a sole treasure chest you won't have to solve puzzles for in this game, and if you do, it hardly will contain anything but some rupees), cheesy combat and amazing boss-fights! Plot is almost nonexisting: Ganon (or someone else) kidnapps Princess Zelda, and Link goes to the rescue, getting some Triforce and/or Master Sword along the way; it's always like this. I wonder... can't they swap characters? Some games turn Zelda into a cheesy Ninja chick with more than a little idea about Ninjutsu, and man I would gladly play as such a character!! By the way: here in Spain about 98% of the population calls Link Zelda.

Called by someone in a magazine "the game series most resembling a movie", this series is the very best of the stealth game series (and man, there are quite a handful of good ones!). While gameplay-wise this games focuses on stealth less than other stealth series (like Splinter Cell or Hitman), this one is the one which makes stealth and combat most fun overall (other series have great performance at this level, but no other games have boss-levels; and man, they're COOL!). And the plot is just enthraling and among the most moving war-themed plots ever; maybe a side-effect of being the only non-mission-based stealth game series (which, on the other hand, gives a nifty bonus in exploration, as not only scenery is large and there's plenty o'stuff to lot, but also you keep what you pick; many of the other games skip that last part). You're not a fan of stealth games without being a fan of Metal Gear Solid series. I have yet to play the MSX ones, though...

You can call me predictable, you can say this is plain obvious, you can say some other franchises are plain better that this one; but no matter how long and deep may I peer at GameFAQs: Final Fantasy can only be the sole winner ever ever EVER!! Just the greatest plots ever in videogames (although Xenogear's beats all them, but it's no franchise), the holy mother of console-RPG gameplay as we know it, and each and every game being a masterpiece of a game on its own, without anything resembling repetitiveness! This game is just as cool as Buffy series in terms of plot and fun: each season is equal to a game (specially given that almost no FF game has any continuity whatsoever whit any other game of the series), and each game plays completely different from each other, to the point of games having too little in common that there're some issues about whether this is a series or not (anyway, some gimmicks and names and sceneries are FF trademark, so such issues hardly ever last long). Despite games being completely different each other, each one cannot be anything but a masterpiece, both gameplay-wise and plot-wise, not to mention sidequest-wise (each game has a gorgeous lifespan thanks to this); that lack of continuity also prevents the series from getting any dull with time, as each new game is a brand new world to explore. Just the sole winner of this Top 10.

Here you are: the Top 10 best game franchises of all time: no gamer should go without playing any of these. It was really hard to name all these franchises and to decide what wins: it's pretty disappointing to have to scrap amazing series like Street Fighter, Tekken, Devil May Cry, Shin Megami Tensei, Splinter Cell, Wild Arms, Age of Empires, Mario (i'm SOOO making some enemies from scrapping the most beloved plumber ever...), Contra, Metal Slug, Point 'n Blank, Broken Sword, Quake, Doom, Hexen, Call of Duty, HALO... and several others. It really feels restrictive just to have to stick to 10 entries.

List by HighEntomologist (11/23/2009)

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