What is the best "series" of games? --Putting aside Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, CoD/BF, and Sports games

What teh best series game, and let put aside all sports games because those have had too many bites at the apple for the last 40 years. And, let put aside Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy and CoD/Battlefiled; which again had near yearly games in some decades.

I think my choice is Uncharted which narrowly beats out some other. I don't think there has been a "bad" Uncharted game. They most are excellent and maybe the only 'adaquate' game was Golden Abyss. I'm not even a huge fan of Naughty Dogs other works on early PSX and PS2, they were good- just not my thing. However, I think Uncharted is such a steady and capable series of games that I think few can fault.

Runners Up:Civilization Series, Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider

SO what is ist for the rest of you? A driving game? And lesser known RPG? An Action/adventure series? A strategy game? A sim?

Legend of Heroes, no question. The worst games in that series are still solid 7s.

God of War doesn't really have any clunkers. The PSP game was merely solid, but they all ranked highly at their times of release.

My Pick:

The Ratchet & Clank series. All the games are quality, even the battle arena only game was good.

Runner ups:

Sly Cooper series comes in second for the same reason, great quality platform games.

Wipeout series despite being racing games, only come out once in a while and every game in the series was good. The only one lacking was the PS version of the original Wipeout, which was improved in the Sega Saturn version.

And the last one I'll mention is the Castlevania series. There are enough great games in that series to make the list, many of them classics.

Ha, you missed Metal Gear Solid as obvious pick so i will go for that. Series with rediculous highs and even though MGS4 is probably the weakest link, that's still a 8/10 first time experience for me that i don't really want to return to afterwards. But i can't deny that i loved my time with that game back in the day.

Only 4 entries, and mobile, but ill buy anything Kingdom Rush

The Legend of Zelda would be the obvious answer, but to play fair I believe it should be in your list of exclusions.

I agree, I was thinking of that series too.

@onemanarmyy: I didn't so much miss it as I felt like there have only been half a dozen games, unlike a Mario or a Zelda. So, it is not off limits. Yes, the series has had some klunkers... and, my god, when Konami put out Metal Gear Survive it was just sad.

Nevertheless, I agree MGS and with 'some; of the follow up modern games were redeeming in many ways. A solid choice that is perfectly in bounds for the list. ;-)

The series where the producer was like "Tits are life, ass is hometown."

Yakuza for me, they're all pretty great imo. Honourable mentions to Fire Emblem, Tales and Dragon Quest games, they aren't all belters but there's enough classics in each to put them high in my mind. I might've picked Legacy of Kain just on the strength of the writing, voicework and atmosphere.

This is genuinely tough for me to choose. Yakuza probably wins out but the Souls series has taken so many hours from me. The bar of quality remains high throughout Demon's, Dark and Bloodborne.

In terms of having an ongoing narrative, Yakuza 0-6 for sure. Kiryu is the most lovable gangster/childcare worker of any medium. MGS is a close second. I adore KH1-3 + BBS (prequel game).

Max Payne 1-3 are all great and for a good while I would play them all through annually.

The Phoenix Wright series. All of them are worth playing, but the original trilogy are fantastic visual novels.

Uncharted / TLoU, Jak&Daxter. Not a single bad game (except perhaps the PSP/Vita games).

Halo for me. Worst it ever gets is Halo 5 (from a MP perspective, 4 is the worst), which is a decent game in the scheme of things, just not a good Halo game. Even the Halo Wars games are a good time (if you want to count them). Plenty of in game lore that you can spend hours digging through or ignore and just be various Johnny Halos pew pewing aliens or people online.

The Last Blade, Bushido Blade, and Power Stone. Each series only got two entries released about a year after the first, but they are all among my all time favorite fighters.

I've never played a Burnout game that didn't blow my mind.

But I'd be lying if I said anything other than the Metal Gear Series. I'm talking 1-4, Peace Walker, and the criminally under-appreciated and canon-despite-what-Kojima-says Portable Ops.

Did you think Fulton, recruiting, and base management were cool in MGSV? Thank Portable Ops. That's where it started.

Bejeweled. They got it right from the get-go, yet Bejeweled 3 is actually top-tier.

Not to say it's the best objectively, but if I don't get to say Final Fantasy then that's honestly my favourite.

I can't say which one would be the best but here's some I have enjoyed a lot during the years:

X
Wing Commander
Europa Universalis
Crusader Kings
... and many more

It is nice to see many good francises are still doing great and getting new games.

I think StarCraft was a solid series, at least from a campaign standpoint. People have opinions about how bonkers the story went, but I was entertained from start to finish. I was never into the multiplayer, but that seemed pretty hot for a time.

I preferred Command and Conquer overall, but C&C 4 was really, really terrible.

Metal Gear Solid, Max Payne, Half Life.

The SNES era of Final Fantasy

For me? I'd say Assetto Corsa.

8-bit:

Wonder Boy/Monster World

Eggerland Mystery/Lolo

Wario Land

Fantasy Zone

Aleste & Power Strike

Gargoyle's Quest/Makaimura Gaiden

​Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu (Mana series)(GB, 1991)

Bubble Bobble

of Illusion/Mickey Mouse

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Final Fantasy Legend/Makai Toushi SaGa

Shinobi

King's Quest

Ultima

-

16-bit:

Wonder Boy/Monster World

Shinobi

Thunder Force

Bomberman

Streets of Rage

Fantasy Zone

SimCity

TMNT

Aleste

Turrican

Langrisser

Lunar

Shining Force

Rocket Knight Adventures/Sparkster

Star Fox (SNES)(emulated), Star Fox 2 (SNES, 1995)(Unreleased until 2017)

R-Type Leo (ARC, 1992), R-Type II (ARC, 1989), R-Type (ARC, 1987)

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja/Ganbare Goemon

Ultima

Outrun

Spriggan

Micro Machines

Lost Vikings

Age of Empires, Assassin's Creed, and Elder Scrolls have yet to do me dirty, though I expect AC is going to drop off a cliff with whatever live service NFT nightmare Infinity or whatever it's called winds up being.

@banefirelord: I suspect that they will quietly back away from NFTs with that market now starting to go to shit. They weren't fast enough to hit the bubble.

I'd say the souls and souls-adjacent games, I'm honestly smitten and keep coming back to those over and over. Other ones would likely be Civ as I've always enjoyed those and probably the Total War series as well, some are better than others but I've never not enjoyed them since the first Rome.

Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

Both have 3 incredibly solid games, both have flaws in an entry that REALLY got more attention than they deserved back in the day, and while I'm not including Andromeda in this talk, I'd say they at least rate with 3 good-great instances.

And while 3 might not sound like a lot, I see some games on here with much longer lists, but about the same overall quality. Carve off the fat from your Final Fantasies or Shining Forces, and you're left with around three REALLY great entries.

I'd actually say the Yakuza series (minus the spin-offs) are 8 of the MOST consistent games IF you take the remakes/Kiwamis into account. Otherwise, those first 2-3 do NOT hold up.

Rock Band

I strongly think Assassin's Creed should be included in the list because of it's complex plots and characters.

The Yakuza games for me, and yes, I am including the old ones.

With merely 10 seconds of thought, I might give it to Red Dead

Rock Band is definitely up there, they are mostly the same yes, but overall about the gameplay and the list of songs.

Hmmm, I guess the only thing I can recommend is Assassin's Creed series...

BUT only the ones with Ezio Auditore Da Firenze in them 😁

Those are classic. 😉

the Mass Effect trilogy is one of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life. I love that universe, and it's a shame that we don't get more of it.

Max Payne 1 and 2, even 3 to some extent, have a very special place in my heart, played the first one when I was really young and those metro levels, the snowy street levels, everything about the mood and aura of that game are still with me.

yakuza. i've been a fan since the og ps2 version of the first game after randomly discovering it on a torrent site back in HS after geeting myself some swap magic disc. i hadn't thought a ton of it at the time outside of that was pretty cool n it till a yr or 2 later when i seen it had a sequel in the military px i went to with my now ex-husband. we didn't buy it that day and i never seen a copy in the wild again n i went to pirate it shortly after only for him to take my ps2 with me on deployment. .. fast forward a few months n i was finally able to get my ps3 with some b-day money and seen the localization mess or the time with the 3rd and well ... it was an instant pre-order after how much i'd enjoyed the first mixed with what i was able to play of 2 before not having the chance again at the time . the wait was long enough but it was definitely worth it and Might still be my favorite entry in the series. i've played all the localized entries since and if i had to say anything i'd say its the only series i'm consistently happy with even with some weaker entries mixed in . even when i don't like an added protagonists combat or in the case of 7 really scratch my head about the change in battle system since i love beat'em ups i can say that no entry has been bad and that alone is why i'd say its just the best series its also a series that does a great job reusing and updating an area so that returning each entry is like coming home again , and thats just not something alot of games do, let alone do in that good of a way.

Strike series. It seriously needs to make a comeback.

I love all those Xeno-something games especially Xenogears.

Suikoden series. Yes, despite IV.

@undeadpool: The first Dragon Age is such a good modernization of classic ARPG style games. It's a top 10 to 20 game of all time for me. I get why they didn't stick with that style wanting to reach a wider audience but I'd hold the franchise as a whole a lot higher personally if they did, expanding on it's ideas with the sequels. Never finished 2 or Inquisition but I like them well enough for different reasons.

I’m going to go with Heroes of Might and Magic, with the caveat that I never got around to playing the sixth game (despite buying it several years ago). The rundown of the series in my eyes is:

1 - solid game, goofy-ass art/animations

2 - great

3 - potentially my favorite game of all time

4 - underrated (although terrible art style)

5 - great

I think I grabbed the complete sets of 3 and 4 on GOG for a combined total of $4 a couple years back. Just don’t get the Steam version of 3, Ubisoft fucked it up real bad.