What franchises do you think deserve a break?

This has gotten my attention recently, that not only are there more sequels in gaming now, there's a new franchise revival going on. Some good, like Mortal kombat and Rayman, but mostly I find some franchises are being dragged out. One notable game that made me think this is:

• God of War Ascension, there has been a trilogy on consoles, and prequels on the PSP, how much more can they flush out the story and gameplay with? It seems obviously like a milking of a great franchise, that should be put to rest for a while, at least well into the PS Orbis's run.

• Halo 4 promises another trilogy, something so grand, I don't think it will still be relevant by the time the sixth in the main story installment comes out. Other than the original trilogy, we've gotten Halo wars, Halo reach and ODST. I know Halo makes huge amounts of money, so I can't slag off Microsoft for doing this, but maybe the fans want it to age a bit, find more modern mechanics, then blow away the industry again. That's just me though.

• Mario, it has been proven the most recognizable, and probably most loved videogame icon, has run out of truly new tricks, with the recent mediocrities such as Super mario 3D land, New super mario brothers Wii, and New super mario brothers 2 on the 3DS, it really feels like Nintendo is seriously churning them out by now. I know a lot of people disagree, but that's almost more harmful to the brand than admitting it's no longer fresh. I'd hate to see Mario turn into a boring yearly, or even bi yearly 'thing'. Not a special event like it used to be, but a 'oh, another mario game' situation. Nintendo needs to let mario nostalgia work back up, and maybe, I don't know, MAKE SOME MORE IPS?

So what are your franchises, either recently revived, or just being pumped out that you'd like the studios to kind of chill out on?

Honorable Mentions.

• Gears of war: Judgement
• Resident evil 6

EDIT: I just noticed my three picks are essentially the mascots for their respective systems. That explains it -__-.

Nintendo can't afford to send Mario to a vacation, but it has to be him.

Super Mario 3D Land is great! It made New Super Mario Bros. 2 look like a pile of shit. Or maybe NSMB2 really is a pile of shit. Either way, 3D Land is great.

@LordAndrew said:

Super Mario 3D Land is great! It made New Super Mario Bros. 2 look like a pile of shit. Or maybe NSMB2 really is a pile of shit. Either way, 3D Land is great.

I know I have a really unpopular opinion on 3D land, but I didn't feel the amount of fun I did in previous 3d mario platformers.

i feel that mario deserves a break

Call of Duty?

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

Never played any of them, but I can just tell that the Final Fantasy series needs to take a breather. But, on to the games I have played, Gears of War is dangerously close to that line with Judgement coming out soon. GOW 3 was a great send off, could they not have waited a couple of years or make it a title for the next generation?

All of them!

@SmilingPig said:

All of them!

YAY, another videogame crash.

The only part of the Mario franchise that really needs a break is the New Super Mario Bros line. That thing could use a cooling off period.

But the series as a whole is still running well; Galaxy, 3D Land, the Paper Mario stuff...Mario is incredibly versatile. Nintendo just needs to give the rote platforming style a bit of a break for a while.

I just don't buy games of franchises I think deserve a break.

@BestUsernameEver said:

@LordAndrew said:

Super Mario 3D Land is great! It made New Super Mario Bros. 2 look like a pile of shit. Or maybe NSMB2 really is a pile of shit. Either way, 3D Land is great.

I know I have a really unpopular opinion on 3D land, but I didn't feel the amount of fun I did in previous 3d mario platformers.

Same here. The game was good, but what I consider to be some poor design decisions made the game a lot less fun to play than what it should have been.

On topic, Battlefield. BF3 last year, BF4 next. I can see it going the Call of Duty route in a few years. Add a stable spin-off series (Bad Company, for example), and you have a 2-title annual franchise like CoD.

• Halo 4 promises another trilogy, something so grand, I don't think it will still be relevant by the time the sixth in the main story installment comes out. Other than the original trilogy, we've gotten Halo wars, Halo reach and ODST. I know Halo makes huge amounts of money, so I can't slag off Microsoft for doing this, but maybe the fans want it to age a bit, find more modern mechanics, then blow away the industry again. That's just me though.

    

@BestUsernameEver said:

with the recent mediocrities such as Super mario 3D land, New super mario brothers Wii, and New super mario brothers 2 on the 3DS, it really feels like Nintendo is seriously churning them out by now.

Seriously? Both those were fucking awesome! I can understand calling NSMB2 mediocre (by series standards) but the other two? Hell no!

And I also think that Halo at least tries different things every now and then. Halo Wars being the most obvious but the noir-styled ODST and heavily Metroid-inspired Halo 4 keep things fresh a little more than other franchises usually do.

With God of War on the other hand I completely agree. But I cannot stand those games (played the first two and that was more than enough for me) anyway so take that as you will.

Final Fantasy. They need to go away and really think about what they want that franchise to be. They also need to get fresh perspectives on stories and characters. The new games aren't terrible. I think they can be rather good if you can get past the atmosphere, the characters, and the stories (or if you like those things you poor lost soul). But, at best, the current games are just mediocre JRPGs. They don't do enough to set the world on fire like the previous Final Fantasy games did. Who knows if the franchise could be as exciting and innovative as it once was. But they need to try and time will help that process.

CoD. Not that I hate the series or anything (although MW3 was a hot mess), I just think it could be rejuvenated given some time off. BLOPS was the best CoD since MW1, because it wasn't "just a new sequel", and BLOPS2 looks promising for the same reasons. If Activision would just give it a couple years to marinate and be rebuilt from the ground up, people might respect it again.

Mario should have taken a permanent vacation decades ago...

Assassins Creed.

@Galiant said:

I just don't buy games of franchises I think deserve a break.

I don't think Mario needs to take a break because Nintendo is still releasing great Mario games (Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario Galaxy 2). 
 
I think Call of Duty needs a break but it obviously won't happen anytime soon. Those games are so goddam boring.

I don't think Resident Evil deserves a break at all. The last three main entries have been drastically different. 
 
Oh, and also: 
 
@Galiant said:

I just don't buy games of franchises I think deserve a break.

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

What about Guitar Hero?

@SmilingPig said:

All of them!

Didn't Seth Killian basically say that games like God of War fund the smaller indie stuff because they are confirmed hits?

@LordAndrew said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

What about Guitar Hero?

It hasn't been long at all since they said they were going to take a break from guitar hero and tony hawk.

@LordAndrew said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

What about Guitar Hero?

lol... They'll run it into the ground and then it'll get a long break.

Also I do think Super Mario really needs a break. Most of the games are just rehashes of the same old same old and although Super Mario Galaxy although a great game and different than most Mario games, all I'm seeing is just another Mario-branded game.

Call of Duty for sure. I am not interested in Black Ops 2 in the slightest. Assassins Creed has been getting stale and Revalations was pretty bad. Mario can but I haven't bought a Mario game since Galaxy so I don't really care (and even then I didn't play it through cause it was boring). Halo is fine, it has been 2 years since the last real Halo (reach) and they seem to be making a lot of good changes to it (like the weekly multiplayer episodes). I haven't cared for a Final Fantasy game for a while but I would like them to take a hard look at what they are doing and how it can be better.

And surprising I would actually like to see another Guitar Hero or proper Rock Band game. After playing a lot of Blitz I am reminded how fun those games can be.

Final Fantasy

@LordAndrew said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

What about Guitar Hero?

Activision didn't tell Guitar Hero it was time for a break, Guitar Hero told Activision it was time for a break.

@LordAndrew said:

Super Mario 3D Land is great! It made New Super Mario Bros. 2 look like a pile of shit. Or maybe NSMB2 really is a pile of shit. Either way, 3D Land is great.

You're right. It's hard to condemn the character after one stale game with NSMB 2. 3D Land is up there with Galaxy.

Unfortunately that will be followed up with another stale NSMB game for the Wii U and people will be having this conversation all over again.

WAT ? / thread

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

How the fuck can you say that and say that Mario needs a break?

@BestUsernameEver said:

Mario, it has been proven the most recognizable, and probably most loved videogame icon, has run out of truly new tricks, with the recent mediocrities such as Super mario 3D land, New super mario brothers Wii, and New super mario brothers 2 on the 3DS, it really feels like Nintendo is seriously churning them out by now.

Seriously, what? It's been a while since I've played, but I remember New Super Mario Bros. Wii being pretty damn good.

Mario and Zelda are sort of a given, but I fear Nintendo would be done for without them. The one that pops to mind for me is Assassin's Creed, although I fear Ubisoft might actually be in the same situation as Nintendo.

Definitely Call of Duty. I think Activision is destroying the industry by bringing out a new game every year. Its like bringing water every month to the poor who don't have water supply and people just drink from it because its the only way they could.

@MaxxS said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

How the fuck can you say that and say that Mario needs a break?

Because mario used to be good and fresh, and Activision is Activision. Chill.

Every current franchise needs a break. We need more new IPs. Just about every one of my favorite games in the past couple years have been new IPs. Keeps things fresh.

Metal Gear Solid.

I'll clarify that I'm not a fan of the franchise but I'm not saying this because of my personal tastes or because I think it needs one per se, but more because I think it would be interesting to see Kojima do something different.

I noticed Gears of War: Judgment was given an honorable mention, but I'd like to stress how much more advantageous it would have been for them to give the franchise a break after 3.

Considering how much the first Gears of War accomplished in terms of pushing what was then the latest iteration of the unreal engine into this generation, I feel like it would've been even better to take the franchise full circle and have them take a break after 3 for the next generation and unveil the next Gears as soon as the next Xbox is close to release with the next unreal engine iteration. It'd be so much more fitting, but I guess they can still do the same thing after Judgment, I'm just afraid they would have exhausted everyone of the franchise by the time Judgment is released for a next generation Gears to have as much impact.

@EquitasInvictus said:

Considering how much the first Gears of War accomplished in terms of pushing what was then the latest iteration of the unreal engine into this generation, I feel like it would've been even better to take the franchise full circle and have them take a break after 3 for the next generation and unveil the next Gears as soon as the next Xbox is close to release with the next unreal engine iteration. It'd be so much more fitting, but I guess they can still do the same thing after Judgment, I'm just afraid they would have exhausted everyone of the franchise by the time Judgment is released for a next generation Gears to have as much impact.

I agree. I think the Gears trilogy will go down as one of, if not the landmark franchise of the generation. A nice clean trilogy where each title showed significant and meaningful iteration would have been quite fitting and I think time would have flattered that decision.

SILENT HILL!

Assassin's Creed and/or Call of Duty.

@Gargantuan said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

• Halo 4 promises another trilogy, something so grand, I don't think it will still be relevant by the time the sixth in the main story installment comes out. Other than the original trilogy, we've gotten Halo wars, Halo reach and ODST. I know Halo makes huge amounts of money, so I can't slag off Microsoft for doing this, but maybe the fans want it to age a bit, find more modern mechanics, then blow away the industry again. That's just me though.

I don't want modern mechanics like iron sights and killstreak bonuses. I love Halo for what it is and I don't want it to copy other stuff just because it's popular.

Exactly! Halo is amazing because it pulls from the Arena shooters of past, like Quake and UT. Halo like those games is all about map control, making sure you're there to pick up power weapons and accuracy. Unlike BF and COD where a couple bullets kill you, if you're getting shot from behind in Halo you can still kill the person shooting at you if you are better then them. The only other game i can think of like Halo on consoles is Gears.

All of them?

@Coafi: Well it's not as if Konami has been whoring the franchise. It doesn't need a break; it needs to be reinvented. Konami should simply hire the Amnesia guys to reboot the thing. I'd play that.

I'll preface this by pointing out how I think that new IP's are extremely overrated as there's an abundance of ideas for new IP's (and there are generally way more that are greenlit than people give the industry credit for) and the ones with worth are the ones which deserve sequels (and usually get them due to how rare it is to actually have an idea which does well enough to deserve another; especially if their first one was reigned in to keep the cost along the lines of a B-level game and they want to make the sequel nearer an AAA game - think Darksiders as an example of this). However, there are a couple franchises which I think are on the precipice of destroying everything they have built up to this point and need to have a hard look at themselves to stop them going over the edge:

• Demon's/Dark Souls : I think if their next game is the same style, in the same setting, with the same combat then they could quickly kill off the love of the franchise in general.
• Assassin's Creed : This series is generally pretty out-there (I still wonder why people thought the ending of ACII was shockingly over-the-top after the almost-out-of-nowhere ending of the first game) but they are starting to make the series fall into the "story is there for the minority followers who have played all the previous ones and are paying attention; everyone else is playing for the novelty of being an Assassin in X scenario" (something which already plagues Kingdom Hearts- instead replacing the Assassin novelty with the "meet Disney characters [and some Final Fantasy character)" novelty). And with each game they are continuing to make it harder and harder for people to join in the latter group.
• Crysis : The story seems to be getting more and more unbelievable (although honestly the story isn't an important part of the game) but they seem to be losing what makes the series such a cult hit in the original one. Hopefully the third might blend the line between 2 and 3 better to give the series a core identity again (rather than just: Battlefield but with a super soldier and aliens, which the series could easily fall into).
• Persona : This is probably going to be a not-well-liked opinion but I really think after 3 and 4 the next main game needs to be vastly different (maybe like 2 to 3 although I don't know much for pre-3 Persona). I honestly don't think they are going to equal their efforts of Persona 3 and Persona 4 with the way they are set-up and I could easily see people getting annoyed at a "sub-par Persona 5" and arguing to being the 3 and 4 character back leading to a string of sequels following those characters and eventually either killing all interest in the entire series from making people sick of the 3/4 characters or by simply reducing them down to their most basic attributes.
• Little Big Planet : I liked LBP1 and 2 but with the number of expansions and downloadable things for each game (like having things from other games appear as DLC0 which keeps appearing on gaming news, as well as things like the karting game; I am getting very tired of the series and they really need to do something vastly different with the series to make me care at all with it (and this is from someone who loves the floatiness of the gameplay, the humour, art-style and music - but it needs to translate into something more or just take a big break).

Those are the ones I can think of that I fear couple cause irreparable damage to themselves if they don't take a step back.

i'm gonna take the opposite of you question and say that WWII games should come back a little. they left a while back and it's been a while since we've had a good game (cod 2 or 3)

@Wakka said:

@SmilingPig said:

All of them!

God, Call of Duty with two hands.

@AuthenticM said:

@Coafi: Well it's not as if Konami has been whoring the franchise. It doesn't need a break; it needs to be reinvented. Konami should simply hire the Amnesia guys to reboot the thing. I'd play that.

Yeah, but if only Konami would stop hiring publishers who don't "get" SH, and instead hired people who would make their product shine again would be awesome. I still think it needs a break, right now fans of the series feel like Konami has slapped them in the face repeatedly each time they put out a new game that's a rehash of the same formula or it's a just a broken piece of garbage. I would love to see what Frictional Games (the Amnesia guys) would do with something like this.