The 8 Ball 02.14.12: Top 8 Gaming Franchises

Posted by David McGregor on 02.14.2012

From the WWE N64 series and the Mario series to Sonic, Grand Theft Auto, Zelda, and more, 411's David McGregor ranks his Top 8 Gaming Franchises!

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the 8 Ball: Games Edition. My name is David McGregor and I will be counting down my top 8 every week, here on the games section. This week I am going to look at gaming franchises and their effect on the industry. I will be marking them on their impact, influence and my own personal preference of the series. I won't be including an honorable mentions list, truthfully because I end up writing too much for the Top 8 that anymore and the article would just get exhausting.





8th – WWF Series on N64 (Wrestlemania 2000 + No Mercy)





I will admit that this is just pure personal bias, there are other franchises that could go here and I'm sure the comments section will be filled with examples. However, the wrestling games released for the N64 are the stuff of gaming legend, and have never truly been bettered some 12 years later. Not one game, before or since, that has topped WWF No Mercy in terms of sheer quality. The story mode, the match types and even the gaming engine are all adored by gaming fans because they were absolutely outstanding in every way. And that isn't just compared to its rivals in 2000; the game today still wipes the floor with every wrestling game.

I know it isn't the longest series in the world but technically a franchise is more than one game, at least that's the argument I'm sticking to. But in those two games they set the gold standard for wrestling games. It isn't even a case of nostalgia as the games are just as entertaining now as they were back in 2000, which can't be said for many games like the original Smackdown which just pales in comparison to its newer incarnations.

A truly great duo of games that will probably never be matched, that may in part be down to stubborn nostalgia, but the games really are better than everything that has come after. Wrestling games are the only genre in gaming, which has regressed, which is almost a sadder story than number 7.



7th – Sonic the Hedgehog





At one time Sonic was a bigger mascot than Mario or even Mickey Mouse! During the early 90's there was no bigger brand in the gaming world than Sonic, and for good reason as this little blue hedgehog fronted some of the greatest games Sega has ever produced. The original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive is up there with the most enjoyable games off all time. Sega even managed to improve upon that in the sequel "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", thus making Sega and Sonic the premiere brand in gaming for a period of time.

That time didn't last long though; the series seemed to be worn out after only a few games. Whereas Mario was going from strength to strength, Sonic was just never able to recapture the magic of his debut in 1991. For a long period of time every incarnation of Sonic just devalued the brand further and further, killing any opportunity that the once iconic hedgehog would return to glory. Recently Sonic has headlined a few decent games as well as appeared as a bit player in others, but it is a far cry from selling 15 million copies of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive. Sonic is on this list more so because of his influence on gaming and pop culture than for fronting an array of amazing games. But the Sonic series has had more of an impact with a few amazing games than any other with a more consistent gaming track record.



6th – Call of Duty





Call of Duty is the youngest series to be placed on this list, but its impact on the gaming world cannot be overlooked. Since its introduction on the PC in 2003 the series has went on to become the biggest thing in all of gaming, and entertainment. Its dominance is due to the sheer brilliance of the series; each and every edition has furthered the franchises and made its own unique stamp on the Call of Duty brand. But it wasn't until Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released that the series really exploded in popularity.

The product had been set in the Second World War for so long that by the time Call of Duty 3 was completed the audience had had enough of WW2. That all changed in 2007 when the whole series was revolutionized. The introduction of Modern Warfare changed the brand into a global entertainment phenomenon. To show just how much of success Modern Warfare was, Call of Duty 3 sold 2 million units in 2006 but Modern Warfare, just a year later, sold over 13 million copies! No longer was Call of Duty a great game series it was an insanely successful one surpassing all of its closest rivals. The series was selling millions more than franchises such as Metal Gear Solid, Gears of War or even Halo.

What was different about Call of Duty was that it was primarily sold on the basis that the customer was practically guaranteed an amazing gaming experience. Sonic or Mario rested on their name value more times than should be legal, but Call of Duty have always strived for greatness in their product. The franchise is easily the biggest thing in gaming today and has redefined the first person shooter, so much so that every gaming developer is releasing clones of the series ad nauseam. Yet Call of Duty still comes around every year and blows the competition away.


5th – The Sims





For a long time I never saw the appeal of The Sims series, it always struck me as slightly odd, but an unwanted Christmas gift one year changed my perspective of the entire franchise. There is an odd pleasure in The Sims, one that the imitations could never really capture. Those who have played the array of games will understand what I mean by this, sometimes it's just fun to mess with your character or spend hours decorating your house with pointless gadgets. It doesn't get you anywhere or achieve anything but it is highly addictive, which is one of the reasons the franchise has been so popular. No other game gives the user so much freedom, yes that freedom may be decorating a lounge or aimlessly making your character swim but it is freedom that very few games allowed us. While Mario and Zelda had a defined path to go down The Sims let you choose your path, and to a lot of people that was very enticing.

The series has continually developed and update itself, in fact there was 7 expansion packs for the original game alone. The premise of the game is one which many would get bored of relatively quickly, but the addition of expansion packs have created an ever updating medium that is constantly adding new bells and whistles to entertain the user. Sure that premise is still the same but there is enough in the updates to keep the customer happy, so much so in fact that the franchise has sold somewhere between 105 – 150 million copies. The Sims beguiled the casual and female gamer to become one of the biggest names in gaming, and one of the most addictive.



4th – Legend of Zelda





The Legend of Zelda series has gone through many alterations, but at its very heart is one of the finest gaming experiences any gaming company has ever developed. The Zelda games have been a cornerstone of the Nintendo Company for decades, and have been at the adoration of millions of fans since its first appearance back in 1986.

From the premiere edition on the NES to Skyward Sword in 2011 there hasn't been an outright bad Zelda. That is 25 years of great games, although it can be argued that Zelda peaked during its time on the Nintendo 64. Only two games were released on the N64, but both were amazing and specifically the Ocarina of Time is put down by many as the greatest game of all time. The game play, story and basically everything was just brilliant, truly brilliant. Zelda shined on the N64 becoming a gaming superstar, up there with Mario as a stalwart of gaming and Nintendo. I personally fell in love with Ocarina of Time; there was literally no game like it for me. None of its competitors were even half as detailed or as impressive as Zelda was at the time, even today it's hard to argue anything has topped it. And while it might not have been able to top itself, Zelda has continued to release fantastic and groundbreaking games.

Call of Duty may pride itself on never having a poor game, but Zelda had been doing that for nearing 20 years before Call of Duty was even released. It may not have set the world alight like Call of Duty or Pokémon, but the Legend of Zelda series has made more of an impact in game play and to hardcore gamers than any of the big selling series.



3rd - Pokémon





There have been fads that have come and gone in gaming but there was none bigger or more fanatic than Pokémon! During its heyday Pokémon was literally the biggest thing in the entire entertainment world, nothing eclipsed this juggernaut. Sure that wasn't solely the games, the TV show and card game were partially responsible for its huge success, but that doesn't mean the games weren't enormous in their own right. Pokémon Red and Blue for example sold over 23 million copies on its release, and the rest of the series has been just as popular on the handheld market. Every subsequent release has shipped millions and millions of units, and combined the series has shipped 215 million copies of Pokémon games. There is clearly a lot of life left in the series.

The Pokémon brand at its peak was involved in every sector of entertainment; from figures to films the series had a hand in everything. There have been a lot of attempts by the video gaming industry to diversify into other mediums, but no company has expanded their franchise into as many successful ventures as Pokémon. This was all due to the game being instantly addictive, and Pikachu being the perfect company mascot. We in the UK had an avalanche of Pokémon thrust upon us as the game, TV show and trading card game were all released around the same time. This meant that kids were able to just immerse themselves in this craze. Everything about the series was done so well, the games were amazing, the TV show addictive and the trading card game an essential thing to play for most children. A lot of people will think Pokémon was placed too high, but when you are brought up at the very peak of its popularity it's hard not to have a soft spot for the gaming series.


2nd – Mario Franchise





Mario is the godfather of gaming; he has gone from dodging barrels on the NES to being the face of a multibillion-dollar corporation. He is the starting ground for most people's gaming experience, more often than not the first game we play is a Mario game. Whether it was Super Mario Bros. on the NES or Mario Galaxy on the Wii a lot of us are here because of the Italian plumber. Mario is the single biggest gaming brand in history, with an estimated 262 million games sold worldwide! That must be enough to quit the plumbing business, surely?

Mario has been responsible for some of the finest games of all time. Even 30 years after his debut appearance in Donkey Kong he is still headlining fantastic games; the brand has clearly changed with the times. According to the Guinness World Records Mario has appeared in 116 separate games in some form, more than any other video game character. That shows just how varied Mario has been over the years; from Tennis to Tetris Mario has had his face on every single one of them. This may seem like a sleazy way to earn a buck but a large majority of the extended Mario series have been fantastic games, the Mario Kart series for example revolutionized racing games and is more influential to gaming than every Gran Turismo and Need for Speed combined.

Mario has been truly revolutionary in gaming, probably more so than any other, but it's the series' lasting appeal that made it the first truly legendary entity in gaming. Today, people can still pick up the original Super Mario Bros. and have just as much fun as they would have had back in the 80's. The series has continued leaving the likes of Sonic and Crash Bandicoot in its trails, Mario is simply the biggest legend in gaming.




1st – Grand Theft Auto





Grand Theft Auto has been the most influential game series of the modern era without a doubt. The popularity of the sandbox genre of gaming is solely because of Grand Theft Auto, there are others, which preceded it, but GTA popularized it with the mass media. The series has created many imitators, Saint's Row has built a successful franchise on being an unashamed clone of the series, but none have been able to replicate it. This is why GTA has sold nearly 120 million copies, and with the release of the fifth installment later this year that will only continue to rise.

From Saint's Row to The Godfather to The Simpson's Hit and Run, everyone has copied GTA sometimes more subtly and other times pure blatantly. Every game these days has to have an element of the open world genre; it has become a fixture of the Xbox 360 and PS3 even more so than the first person shooter. But even though its influence is felt everywhere on the gaming landscape nothing compares to a Grand Theft Auto game. This can all be put down to the success of GTA III; this game is a revolutionary point in gaming history that influenced almost everything that came after it. Its popularity was so huge that everything that followed tried to replicate elements of the series, specifically the freedom they allowed the gamer. The freedom to do whatever you liked was a massive selling point; some would argue that there is more fun to be had in causing chaos than there is following the objectives. The third installment of the series set the benchmark, one which imitators have never been able to reach.

Each edition of Grand Theft Auto has gotten better and more ambitious. San Andreas was an enormous game for its time, no other game on any console at that time was so vast and compelling. But for me the greatest game of the series was Vice City, released just a year after the success of GTA III. This game just had everything, it was compelling, it was impressive and most importantly it was fun. There are very few games where you can spend hours doing nothing, but still have an absolute blast. Even just driving around the stunning city whilst listening to the 80's radio stations was amazing, there was literally no better soundtrack to any game than that of Vice City. An utterly brilliant game, and an unbelievable series in which each installment is still as addictive and gripping as it was the day it was released.

Also, it was developed in Scotland and therefore I have to go all-patriotic because we don't actually invent that many things, and no the TV wasn't invented by a Scottish man.



Leave your list down in the comments section below. And if you have an idea for future Top 8 columns write it down there, or even email me. I'm David McGregor and that's this weeks 8 Ball!