310°

Top 10 Overrated Game Franchises of All Time

From the PlanetXbox360.com feature list:

"Ever since the dawn of man people have figured out that if you make something successful, and then make some similar to that first thing that it will also make millions of dollars. This is the basic premise behind all movie and video game franchises, and it has been happening since the beginning of both forms of entertainment. Sometimes it works great (Star Wars IV-VI) and sometimes it's a complete disaster (Star Wars I-III); because of this fact we decided to go back and pick what we believed to be the top 10 overrated game franchises of all time. Now this doesn't mean all the games in the chosen franchise were junk (maybe just half of the 8 games reminded us of feces), but for one reason (level design) or another (review scores) the franchise made our dreaded list. No fan-boy platform is safe and literally every virtual rock will be overturned in the search for the top ten video game overrated franchises of all time."

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planetxbox360.com
UltimaEnder5297d ago

I gotta agree with number 1 - the DLC was great but franchise is getting so OLD!

Killjoy30005297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

I definitely don't appreciate an Xbox site's unfair jab at the greatest hack and slash game of all time. Epic story, amazing level design, unparalleled technical prowess, and the power to make the player feel more badass than any other game can, God of War more than merits its praise.

Pretty lame how they tried to level their criticism by throwing Halo in there. Bringing down the name of the most commonly associated name the Xbox brand definitely doesn't help their cause. I would guess that it would only anger the majority of members of this site.

Poorly composed article. Hating on huge IP's makes you indifferent, but not in the way you want, PlanetXbox. You're just perceived in a bad light more than anything.

Darkstorn5297d ago

For the most part it's a good list, but I'd rearrange some things on there...

ico925297d ago

i definatley agree with pokemon i can't stand the franchise, the gameplay hasnt changed at all in 14 years,and only has slight graphical improvements, i mean i loved yellow and ruby but everything else...meh

Wrathman5297d ago

i gotta agree with the best part of this list. some of them games i havent touched tho.GOW is one and pokemon is the other.if i havent heard of them does that mean they are bad?a butt load of people here rave about GOW and especially GOW3.due to the graphics.i have seldom bought or played a game because it just looked good.maybe thats my age.since playing games in my youth using either a massive floppy disc or tape deck to load games.the youth today are insane about the graphics.

substance over visuals anyday.

FamilyGuy5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

First of all it's annoying to see an xbox centric website put down franchises that don't appear on their console but then the fact that they're putting down many great franchises by scraping up reasons make it even worse.

Seriously, Halo 3 is bad cuz not everyone you play online has beatin the single player? Complains about a science fictional games story?
GOW is only good because of the huge boss battles? What about its art style, theme, graphics, story, the way the story is told?

I didn't read all the complaints, the article was a waste of time.

Tony P5297d ago

I really agree with GoW and have for years.

I've played the games and I honestly don't see what it does differently or so much better than other action games. It confuses me when people think GoW set some kind of bar. I dunno, maybe for popularity? Maybe for gore? Maybe for QTEs? That's all that I can see that stands out about the game. Everything else is strictly standard fare.

This game to me is the Halo of the action franchises. And I don't hate either. They just seem typical of that game that's really popular, but not necessarily the greatest. Is it the same reason poeple thought Mortal Kombat was "better" than Street Fighter? Lotsa blood and guts?

What exactly does this have over its progenitors like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden?

ryhanon5297d ago

I have to agree. I laugh when people make fun of a game like Heavy Rain because they believe it to be nothing more than QTEs and then they go on to praise a game like God of War, which is itself almost nothing but button-mashing and QTEs. God of War is a game that interested me because of the story and rave reviews. I finally picked up the collection and played about 4 or 5 hours of both GoW1 and GoW2 before trading for something else.

I do not understand what people see in these games. Sure, the graphics are pretty good, Kratos is just about the definition of badass, and I'll give it the benefit of the doubt as far as the story is concerned, it was definitely intriguing - but the gameplay felt *severely* dated and uninteresting... everything from the fixed position camera (why a game is even allowed to exist with a fixed camera is beyond me) to the ridiculous button-mashing brawling. There were brawlers nearly 20 years ago that had better gameplay. And I'm sorry, but positioning secret rooms and puzzle solutions in places that are hard to see only because the camera is unmovable does not equate to good level design.

Reibooi5297d ago

@Tony P

Tottaly agree. I have to say that to me the God of War series(while certainly a good series) doesn't deserve the massive hype. I mean it did some cool things when the first one came out like QTE and it had some really over the top gore but now stuff like that means nothing.

The story isn't anything special nor is Kratos himself as a character. You can pretty much find the same thing in any of those movies they have on Sci fi about greek mythology.

In terms of pure game play and skill required games like Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry 3 have GoW beat hands down and even more recently Bayonetta has showed that it can be just as good if not better then GoW.

WildArmed5297d ago

I'd punch in Fable into that...
But I think Final fantasy got overrated in the last few years.
(Beyond FFX imo)

I dunno about GoW franchise as a whole, I've only played GoW1 and loved it.

So I can't say if it's over rated or not. But there are equally great action franchises like Devil May Cry out there.

I'm extremely surprised that Mario/Zelda doesn't make an appearance.

Saaking5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

lol, this is one of the worst Xbox sites around (and a lot of them are horrible). God of War deserves all the praise it has gotten and will get. It's a genre defining game and the first two are some of the best PS2 games ever. Xbox site bashing GOW. Big surprise. Stick to XBOX 360 GAMES (Since that IS the name of the site).

It's from the same guys who made "how Natal will destroyed everything!!" and "how the Xbox 720 will dominate!!!" what a joke.

ryhanon5297d ago

Good call on Fable. I enjoyed the first one, despite all of the unfulfilled hype, but the second one felt like a chore to play and I've already decided to ignore the third.

I'd disagree about Zelda, I've very much enjoyed every Zelda game I've ever played. They're the only real reason to own a Nintendo system as far as I'm concerned.

WildArmed5297d ago

Imo Zelda games lost their touch after Twilight Princess (i loved the game, but it didn't leave the same feeling as the other classics)

And as for Fable, I loved the first one to death.. put well over 200 hours into it.
I was extremely disappointed with the 2nd.. esp. the story.
I am eagerly waiting for the next one, and certainly do hope the devs can redeem themselves.

Marceles5297d ago

Crappy article, I don't even need to elaborate lol. Alot of those games are genre defining...yes if you play them now then they'll feel old but at the time you had to get alot of them props.

Ravage275297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

but to me, GOW is the pinnacle of action games. NG series,Darksiders,DMC series,Bayonetta,Onimusha,i've played them all and none of them leaves as deep an impression in me.

I think it is the combination of the epicness of atmosphere,story,music,graphic s,combat moves(very cool and really fun),Kratos and of course, the boss fights. The battle against the 2 sisters in GOW2 remains one of my top 3 all-time favourite gaming moments. The other 2 are bossfights from Demon's Souls.

It can only be overrated if most of hack&slash fanbase didn't find it that good, but i don't think that's the case.

*edit* NGS is good no doubt but i didn't feel anything while playing it. Combat is challenging in a way, but i prefer Demon's Souls if it is solely about gameplay. As a complete package though, i will take GOW any day

Darkstorn5297d ago

Ninja Gaiden was the first of the hardcore hack n' slashers on console, and it is still the best. They made it even better with NG: Sigma.

ryhanon5297d ago

That's actually a pretty interesting point you make: "It can only be overrated if most of hack&slash fanbase didn't find it that good" - It's easy for me to say that God of War is overrated because I'm not a really huge fan of hack & slash brawlers to begin with (though I am enjoying Darksiders quite a bit), so a lot of the aspects that many say make God of War a "great game" could very well be lost on people like me. I'd be willing to accept that as an explanation for why people feel it's a good game despite me thinking it's mostly crap.

The same could be said about any genre I suppose. I guess that's why people like Madden.

Ravage275297d ago

i enjoyed Darksiders a lot too,just got a platinum for it a few days back. It reminds me alot of GOW though - i wouldn't call it a rip-off but it definitely borrowed quite a bit from the gameplay. Maybe you prefer the level design and RPG elements in Darksiders?

ryhanon5297d ago

Yeah, the RPG elements, level design, *controllable* camera (that's a big one for me), and how you can interact with scenery - these are all things that I think make it better than GoW. At least on a gameplay level, anyhow... I may not have made it very far in GoW1/2 before I grew tired of them and gave up, but even the little bit I did play had a much better story line going for it, and Kratos was a better character. Typically my favorite games are those with a strong story component and my biggest regret about GoW is that I was enjoying the story but not the gameplay and just couldn't bring myself to play through it.

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NotoriousWarrior5297d ago

seriously, the guy actually put God of War as overrated.

I agree with GTA, Halo and all the other games but not God of War.

just my opinion.

THE MAX SPEED 215297d ago

I Agree with every game Except RESIDENT evil & Gow

AngelorD5297d ago

God of War redefined epicness, brutality, boss fights, and set pieces and is one of the greatest A/A game of last gen.
Ahh no it's not overrated.

Wait I forgot the name of that other game that has living breathing titans which are whole levels... uhh no I can't seem to remember... help me out here?

NecrumSlavery5297d ago

At first I thought they put Halo in there to be "fair" in their lame ass attempt at bashing the greatest hack-n-slash adventure series, but then the guys point was to b1tch at some of Halo 3's online quirks and call the single story great. This is a definitely BS article.

ndibu5297d ago

I think you'll find you are indeed mistaken. Said multiplayer was great, story. . .not so much

heroicjanitor5297d ago

But angelor if you weren't being sarcastic I'd almost count shadow of the colossus, those were very big and you were climbing them a lot...

Perjoss5297d ago

The Halo 'story' is actually very good, its just very badly told.

5297d ago
johnnywit5297d ago

@perjoss

Uh what?? How can something have a great story but it be badly told. Let me ask you this, if someone were to tell you a story, or you were to read a book,or watch a movie, and the story didn't make any sense or was just plain bad then it was a bad story. It doesn't matter about the bigger picture if it was never conveyed in a way that the audience could grasp it. I love halo but I think myself and majority of people agree it's not a good story. Now if you mean the dialogue was bad and the story is good that still doesn't matter because they were using dialogue to explain their story and it didn't work to well. That is why you always have people who say the book was better, or the comic was better, because the story worked out well for that form of media. In this discussion we are not talking about the halo books, or graphic novels, we are talking about the game and as the game stands it has a bad story. Take Care.

silvacrest5297d ago

by definition if the story is told bad then the story is bad, if bungie, the makers of the game/story tell it bad, what hope does anyone else have?

heroicjanitor5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

If you had an adult read a book to you or a 5 year old child read a book to you, the child would stop and start and not know how to read certain words etc, but it isn't the book's fault because the adult could read it quite well

johnnywit5297d ago

@hero

Then you would be debating spoken word versus what was written. In this case we are debating the way the story was conveyed in the game. Would you say the story in the game was good? I don't think so. The books may be great or any other media for that matter but we are talking about the game. BTW I'm not trying to be an a$$ either I just don't understand the comment perjoss wrote.

heroicjanitor5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

He means that the story is good, just not the way it was told in the game. The game didn't tell the story well(like the child in my analogy). I'm not vouching for halo's story I'm just saying that what perjoss said could be true, maybe the base story is good, it was just told poorly.

ryhanon5297d ago

What's not to understand?

Think of books turned to movies that have been complete crap. If you'd rather remain in a consistent media, think of movies that have been remade one or more times, movies like King Kong, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, etc... Something can have a good story and a bad storyteller. Happens pretty frequently.

That said, I think the Halo story is mediocre at best. There is a lot of subtlety and nuance to it that is sadly unexplored, but the underlying story is pretty generic.

It's a shame because Bungie used to craft games with some pretty fantastic stories too, perhaps some of the absolute best in gaming, I miss the days of Marathon ( http://marathon.bungie.org/... ) and Myth ( http://myth.bungie.org/lege... ).

johnnywit5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

@ryhanon

The story in the game is different than that of the book. In this discussion we were talking about the story in the game not being well. Like I said in my earlier comment stories don't always work well using different forms of media. We were not talking about the halo game versus the halo books we were talking about the story in the game and the game alone. Then Someone post "the "halo story is good it's just not told well" doesn't make any sense. What he should have said was the story in the halo books was great but they didn't do a good job in the game. That's what I didn't understand was he was talking about the story from something other than the game but hero cleared that up. Now back on topic was the story good in the game??????

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reintype5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

Show me a DBZ game that rated 90 and above, you fricking can't. Hell, it would be lucky just to get a rating of 70-80.

I don't think this guy even knows what overrated really means.

silvacrest5297d ago

i think budokia 3 (or whatever its called) atleast got to the 70-80 mark
it was and still is the only almost complete DBZ game, all the others have something missing, if its not a saga its characters

ClownBelt5297d ago

What the flying hell? Final Fantasy? NO WAI! lol

Myze5297d ago

Well, a massive amount of FF's popularity can be attributed to time after FFX (FFX-2/FFXI and forward), in which case I would consider it overrated (FFXII not bad, but nowhere near some of it's scores, and apparently FFXIII is good, but not amazing). If, however, they are referring to the series as a whole, FFIV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, Tactics are still 7 of the best games ever made. So, no matter how bad the FF series gets, those games will make up for it, and hopefully we can add FFvsXIII.

PepperJack5297d ago

halo is the most overrated by far

kaveti66165297d ago

Halo is fun. If I could give a game a 10 based only on fun, I would give it to Halo.

It is overrated in every other aspect.

Look at Halo 3 and how IGN rated it.

They gave graphics a 9 and this is what they said.

"Despite a few moments of slowdown, this is a gorgeous game, especially considering the demands of the replay function. And it's to die for in 1080p"

I've seen Halo 3 in 1080p. It's not "to die for." It's very bad. And the game is good-looking in many segments but it is NOT gorgeous.

In comparison, IGN gave Killzone 2 a 9.5, where one would think it deserved a 10 if Halo 3 managed to get a 9.

I would have given Halo 3's graphics an 8.

Then there's the sound.

IGN gave Halo 3's sound a 10.

"This is the reason God created Surround Sound. Halo's theme is a futuristic anthem that inspires the troops. The chatter during combat is fantastic."

Wow. Now that's hyping the sound to kingdom come, for sure. Halo 3 doesn't have bad sound, but what in it is deserving of a 10?

In comparison, IGN gave Killzone 2 a 9 in the Sound department. Interesting.

"7.1 channel sound captures every nuance of the battlefield from gunshots to screams along with a great soundtrack. Weakly delivered, curse-filled dialogue (sans Brian Cox) could've been done better."

With higher quality sound, it still got a lower score because the reviewer felt there was too much cursing. I agree with the too much cursing part, but I still would have given Killzone 2 a 10 in sound.

Saaking5297d ago

Don't trust reviews. They're mostly biased. PS3 exclusives get much harsher treatment than 360 exclusives and multiplats.

ryhanon5297d ago (Edited 5297d ago )

I think part of the reason why PS3 exclusives often receive harsh reviews is because PS3 exclusives take risks more often. One of the things that makes the PS3 so great is that Sony is not afraid to back projects that try new and interesting things, sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't. Look at Demon's Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Heavy Rain, The Last Guardian, etc... These are all games that take risks (we'll see how successful the latter two are at it) and the 360 has nothing that compares to any of them.

I like my 360, but there just aren't many 360 exclusives that take significant risks and as a result they're generally rated higher because they stick to safe bets, things they know will have a market and be commercially successful. Unfortunately it means 360 exclusives, even if they're very good and well executed, are typically less interesting.

Ravage275297d ago

but IGN does that all the time. I was rolling my eyeballs every second when reading their GTA4 review.

Honestly, those guys sucks at rating stuff and they give in to hype WAY too easily. What's the point in using numbers if they are not going to set a standard?

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80°

Halo Combat Devolved Coming To Gameboy

Halo is going multiplatform…kind of

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gamersocialclub.ca
110°

The Next Halo Game Is Being Developed In-House, Contrary To Earlier Reports

The next entry in the Halo franchise is in development in-house at 343 Industries, contrary to earlier reports.

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twistedvoxel.com
XiNatsuDragnel7d ago

I see it's good they're developing in-house but question is will it be a good halo game?

RaidenBlack7d ago

Next mainline Halo sequel likely to continue with the in-house slipspace engine (since they invested so much in its development) ...and the Halo 1 Remake likely to be UE5 based one and act as UE based Halo template for future Halo projects

rlow17d ago

Nice to see the truth being reported.

CrimsonWing697d ago

I know this is gonna twist a lot of people's panties, but I'm over Halo. The peak for me was 3 and Reach, after that they've been boring and extremely by the numbers. Infinite was not that great, in my opinion. Was it horrible? Absolutely not. But I'm starting to get the feeling of "if you've played one, you've played them all" ever since 4. My apologies to those I triggered.

anast7d ago

In house AI with independent contractors.

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100°

God of War Needs to Redefine Kratos' Purpose Clearly and Quickly

Whatever form the next God of War game takes, it needs to be clear about what role Kratos is playing, lest the franchise lose direction.

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gamerant.com
Nacho_Z59d ago

I'm pretty sure it'd be a major mistake having Atreus as the main character in the next GoW. Seems to me like at best people tolerate him and his gameplay sections.

Ideally the story for the next game would be that Atreus has gone missing in Egypt, Kratos gets mad about it, picks up Mimir and goes on a god killing rampage.

Mad_Matt59d ago

If that is an option for the dev team then they need to make it a clean slate. No Atreus, No Mimir. That's what happened when he changed pantheons before. Lets Kratos be in that world. But it will be a difficult task to complete. Kratos and his past demons are getting a bit redundant as far as story telling goes.

Nacho_Z59d ago

Yeah there's not a lot of meat left on the bone story wise. Personally I'd happily accept any goofy reason they could come up with for why Kratos is in Egypt chopping off heads. I'm personally not that bothered about the finer points of the storytelling, although they do it well.

The_Hooligan58d ago

I would still like to have Mimir in the next game. They (devs) can justify it by saying that Mimir wants to gain knowledge about other realms/pantheons. Also, personally I think Alastair Duncan did a great job as Mimir and would love to see the continuation of the small banters Kratos and Mimir had in the past games.

goldwyncq58d ago

The point of Ragnarok's ending is to show that Atreus is his own man now. Having Daddy Kratos save him in Egypt after getting himself into trouble would just undo his entire character development.

Nacho_Z58d ago (Edited 58d ago )

The point was more to do with getting Atreus out of the way rather than him being saved. Let's say he's off on his own adventures then and invent another reason for Kratos to be in Egypt.

Could be that Kratos thinks he's been captured or killed as motivation but at the close of the game it turns out Atreus has been up to his own shady shenanigans.

Lionsguard59d ago

They need to bring back the "God of War" in God of War. I was expecting to unleash hell and fury in Asgard against Thor that they really talked up in the first game but all we got was brooding middle aged dad drunk in a beer hall. Ragnarok was still "good" but I left that game expecting a lot more.

InUrFoxHole59d ago

Tried Rag... just couldn't get into it. Felt like more of the same. I would welcome a Kratos only game again.