Game franchises that rose from the dead, and those that should have been put down again

I came to see someone saying that Bubsy must die. But nobody did, sooo... Bubsy. Bubsy, I'm talking to you. Return to the grave and let Golden Sun come back in your place. Thank you in advance.

 

Don't know if this counts, but Yakuza was basically completely dead in the west towards the end of the PS3 era. Between Yakuza 3's localization mess, the fact that very wonky Japanese games weren't as en vogue back then, and the absolute failure of Yakuza Dead Souls in the west, it was a miracle that Sega kept trying. Hell, Yakuza 5 for PS3 was digital-only in the west. It was basically dead.
Yakuza 0 changed it all with the last Hail Mary from Sega with its physical copy and special edition, and saved the series in the west, and now it flourishes. That makes me extremely happy as Yakuza is one of my favorite video games series and I'm glad it came back from near-death.

 

Ouch...this is going to hurt, because I've got to slaughter my own favorite games here...

1) Unreal franchise. After a great 3D adventure in a (then) new engine, the game morphed into a 'fight to the death' kind of arena brawler that defined first person shooting for a while. The original Unreal Tournament was awesome. Then they brought out UT2003, which had major flaws. UT2004 fixed these somewhat and brought a MASSIVE amount of content with it. But even so, UT3 was a bit of the nail in the coffin: it was as if you had a child that went goth for no reason. Not really a bad game, but it was no UT2004.
Then they (that'll be Epic games) tried to reboot the franchise as "unreal tournament", which showed they liked microsoft kind of counting. Could've been a decent shooter, but then all the effort went into that other powerhouse. What's it called? Fortnite or something.

2) C&C franchise. This slowly went downhill after EA bought westwood studios. Red alert 2 was the pinnacle of RTS'es, but then lacked origality afterward. C&C 4 was "okay-ish". Red alert 3 was "meh". And once I heard they got rid of base building, I never even bothered to check (what was that? C&C 5?).
EA recently tried to reboot the franchise as a mobile game. I...didn't even continue watching the announcement. I really loved the franchise at one point, but PLEASE...let it stay dead!

 

Wasn't Fire Emblem about to get canned up until Awakening was released?

 

Well I think the reason why yakuza is so successful now is because they released both 0 and kiwami at 20 when they first came out. For all the content thats a steal. Alot of people really liked it and went ahead and got the other games

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the topic, but...

The h*ck is this new Commander Keen game? Yeah, it's not out yet to be fair, but it looks nothing like what I played all those years ago. Seems like they just slapped "Commander Keen" on a generic mobile game. I would've preferred a complete collection (but maybe that's a thing already, I don't know)

 

What? No, neither of those were $20 when they came out. I know this, because I preordered them, and I never preorder games.
Yakuza 0 on launch was a full $60 and Kiwami 1 was $40.
They were $20 when they launched on PC. But not when they first came out.

 

Duke Nukem should have never been out of retirement. 90's tropes don't work these days, if ever again.

Shenmue should not rise from the ashes. It is bound to failure and I can't believe that a game that bombed hard, spawned a sequel that bombed hardest and will see a third entry bomb yet again.

From the top of my head, these.

Also, who farted? Smells bad, yo.

 

It didn't come out yet, but Streets of Rage 4 already looks like a promising revival. It is also a good example of "why collaborations are important", as we see so many incredible people are involved in that project. Some directors and producers understand that it's not about the quantity, but the quality of the people they choose. A lot of IPs which are considered for revival should take that approach if it's affordable.

BUT, as much as i hate to say it....Bubble Bobble should've stayed dead. the new game, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, just doesn't feel right to me. I loved it in the 90s, when it proceeded to the 16-bit dimension with Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble, i also liked it's successor, Rainbow Island, but that's pretty much it. that kind of game was fun for a while when i was a kid, but growing up into more complicated, graphic heavy, and unique games in many art-styles and genres, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends seem forced in order to satisfy people with nostalgia.

 

Halo, Ratchet and Clank, Medievil, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Bethesda as a whole, asassins creed, forza, gran turismo (many times can you guys drive around the same tracks for over two decades?)

 

Altered Beast used to say "Rise From Your Grave!" and it rose from it's grave on PS2, it ended up being one of the worst games ever it should have stayed in it's grave.

 

Spyro and Crash are back baby!

You know after so many horrible games the Warth Of Cortex game is not so bad... on the PS2 and depending on the version you get.

Same about Sonic Heroes... the game is kinda good compared to later games even if all teams play the same stages.

 

Well when it became 20 thats when alot of the people got into it

 

Sonic Mania Plus is pure 90s Nostalia and it totally works.

Same for the remakes of Spyro and Crash.

 

lol spyro can crash have many other games besides the first 3, and they were boring

 

You could say that about literally any game. That's not my point. Yakuza 0 saved the series in the west and caused Kiwami and others to get localized, and that was before it dropped to $20.

 

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge raaaaaacer

rise from your grave!!!!!!

we need you

please

your our only hope

 

I don't know if you are one the same planet as me but the two Shenmue games have had a huge fanbase to this day. I know that, despite selling millions of copies, they were no commercial success because of their massive development costs, if you mean that by 'bombed', but you surely can not be speaking of the games' quality. They were years ahead of their time back then and universally acclaimed, Shenmue 2 even more than the first one.
I'm not sure about Part 3 myself tho. I backed it a few years ago, so I'll be getting a copy of it anyway and in a few weeks we can see for ourselves.

 

Metroid is probably the franchise that exemplifies this.

Releases are sparse, the series oft seems little cared for and at one point we pretty much had a release drought for over a decade (I refuse to see Other M as a Metroid game), yet whenever it comes back, it comes back in full swing.