Five Video Game Franchises That Took a Wrong Turn Recently and Have Yet to Recover

College OTR: Let's face it: no matter how great a video game series is, there's usually going to be a dark stain amongst its otherwise glistening record. I mean, even Mario has appeared in a typing tutor and a Dance Dance Revolution game. Luckily though, most of these franchises move past these bad projects to continue producing the sorts of games we love. But then there are the others; the video game franchises that jumped the shark somewhere down the line and haven't yet redeemed themselves. These games probably just need to quit before they do any more damage to their own reputation.

Here are five such tales of great gaming triumph followed by crashing disappointment. And because I kept drawing the same analogy to all these games, I'm also going to add how these all remind me in some way of Lindsay Lohan.