When a company makes a video game it is a huge risk. Companies are hoping the game sells big or helps start a franchise. Iconic franchises include Mega Man, Mario Brothers and Cast, Kirby, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong Country, and Mortal Kombat. These franchises are well known and are still popular to this day.

For franchises trying to become iconic making a hit game is a big deal. A lot of franchises have started out with promise only for one bad game to ruin or come close to killing the franchise. Now, every franchise makes a bad game no company is immune. For Mega Man Mega Man II for game boy is not considered that great. For Mario it was the first Game Boy game. However, Mega Man and Mario were well established by the time their bad games came out. Basically, they could recover from a terrible game and they did. Mega Man rebounded with III, IV, and V for Game Boy which were huge hits. Mario came out with the next Mario game that fixed the issues.

I decided to take a look back at some of the games that came close too or killed their respective franchise.

Star Fox Zero pretty much has killed the Star Fox Franchise. Now I was never a Star Fox fan. However, I do remember playing some of the Star Fox games in Sears sometimes while my parents would shop and I was not allowed to see what they got. Even though I was not a fan. I remember thinking this franchise has promise. The first Star Fox games were hits and it seemed like Star Fox was going to become the next big franchise. Then came Star Fox Zero. This game was released for the Wii. People described it as having horrible graphics it was rubbish. Matt Byrd of game review stated " Star Fox Zero was the nail in the coffin for the Star Fox games. After Star Fox 64 they had some not so good titles. They went away from the 90's roots. This was supposed to be a game with good graphics. The SNES games had better graphics than this. Its no wonder this entry flopped" (Bryd). Given how no new Star Fox games have been made on the newer systems I think its safe to say this game killed a once promising franchise.

Battle Toads 2020- If you played games in the 90's chances are you heard Battletoads. The franchise was created by Rare. It seemed like the Toads as they were called were going to be huge hits and they were. Battle Toads SNES was known for its difficulty but amazing graphics. The franchise released several more games that were hits. It seemed like Rare had something special on their hands. However Rare was sold to Microsoft and things went down the hill for some of Rare's classic games. In 2020 Microsoft came out with a new Toads game. Well, it was rubbish, the characters were given child like attitudes and not serious. In previous games the toads were no nonsense type. The voice acting was terrible. The plot made no sense and did not follow the originals lines. Fans were outraged that this version came out. IGN stated "Add Battle Toads to the list of great Rare franchises that Microsoft has killed. This game is one that is a dumpster fire". I have seen clips on people playing this game and I agree. Given how there is no new games in the works I agree with IGN this game was probably the nail in the coffin.

Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. Banjo and Kazooie was a franchise you guessed it created by Rare and licensed to Nintendo. The first two games were great. I remember playing the first two games a lot. A lot of gamers were excited when Nuts and Bolts was going to be released. However, Rare had been recently sold to Microsoft. Many thought Nuts and Bolts would be like the first two games. Except that it was not even close. The game was criticized for now being like the first two games. It was also criticized for its lack of game play and not feeling like a Banjo Kazooie game. My cousin had a copy of this so I thought I would see how bad this game was. I got to see first hand why people hated this game, it was terrible. That was over a decade ago and no new Banjo games have been made.

Now for franchises that nearly killed their franchises.

Bubsy 4 also known as Bubsy 3D Play Station- The first Bubsy game made for the SNES and Sega was a hit. I remember playing the first game and I enjoyed it. The first game even won awards as something knew. The second game in the Bubsy line was not as good as the first but okay. The third entry was a computer game. Then came Bubsy 4 for the Play Station. Bubsy 4 was a disaster. The graphics for a play station game were terrible. The voice acting was even more horrible. The cameras just made you want to throw the controller. Victor Lucas of the electronic playground stated "This game is awful and horrible for a play station game. The games graphics and controls are so sloppy it is a pain to play". Many thought this game had killed an up and coming franchise. No knew bubsy games were released for a very long time. It seemed like the Bubsy line was dead, but oh not so fast.

20 years later after Bubsy 4's big flop the series was revived. The makers decided to try to go back to the first game with modern graphics to reboot the franchise. After the first game in 21 years another one has recently been released. Given how it was 20 years before a new game I think its safe to say Bubsy 4 came very close to killing the franchise.

Streets of Rage 3, also known as Bare Knuckle 3). Streets of rage I and II were very solid games. In fact, Streets of rage 2 seem to put the franchise on the map. I can remember me and my cousins being excited for the 3rd game to come out. We had hopes it was going to be like the second game. Except that it was not. The graphics in my opinion declined from the second game. In addition, the controls were stiffer. Streets of Rage 3 had so many issues. Another issue was the game had like several endings and you had to go through all kinds of headaches just to get the cannon and correct ending. It was just not a fun game to play. After Streets of Rage 3 was released and did not perform like the first two games did, it was believed the series was dead. However the series was revived 27 years later with Streets of rage 4. So far the 4th entry has been a hit and rumors are going around a possible 5th game could be in the works. But, the 3rd game nearly done this franchise in.

Indeed, all it takes is one bad game to kill an up and coming or a young video game franchise. Sometimes it can be when the original company is sold that leads to bad games being released. The games I listed really shows how risky making a video game is.

yeah considering that I actually have played SoR 3 that entry did hurt the franchise, good thing we have the untouched version here too, it's clear that game 4 saved the franchise......hey what if the new game is going to coincide with the release of the movie whenever it does happen (we haven't had any new updates in awhile, thanks writer's strike)

classgame: I'm always skeptical when video game franchises get a cartoon or movie made. The reason being Hollywood has botched some video game movies up.

A good example was the Mega Man Cartoon. In the cartoon Protoman was a bad guy which did not follow the video games at all. In the video games Proto Man is a hero and often helps his brother Mega Man fight Dr. Wily. Another good example was the Mario Brothers Movie in the 90's ugh that one you will need a brown bag to watch. Bowser is not even a reptile he is a greedy but human dictator, Toad is a rocker, and there is not even Princess Peach.

However, Hollywood has done a good job with the Sonic and new Mario Bros movie. So hopefully if they make a Streets of Rage Movie it will follow the video games. But due to Hollywood's past I'm always skeptical

Um, Atari? That's all I can think of the moment... There is others, but I know that Atari went down and almost destroyed Gaming.

Dauntez: Yeah Atari nearly killed the video game industry especially during the video game crash of 1983. The reason the crash occurred was a lot of games were poor quality. Atari was the main company. However, Atari also saved the video game industry. Atari rebranded themselves as the Atari Corporation. They fixed the problems that had plagued their earlier games. The new games had more colorful graphics and better controls.

Taking what Atari had done and improved the games. Nintendo emerged around the same time. Their Mario Games would later change the video game industry.

Another video game maker that came out of the 1980's was Capcom. Capcom gave us two icons Mega Man one of the video game's industry most popular characters along with Mario and Street Fighter.

After 1986 video games started to take off again. So yeah while Atari nearly killed the industry. They fixed their problems and ended up saving it.

Funny you wrote this, as I was just looking into what happened to the Trauma Centre franchise a few days ago.

This was a franchise by Atlus that revolved around doctors performing surgery and other tasks and included mechanics that used either the stylus or wii remote.

I love medical things, and really enjoyed this game, especially the last installment, Trauma Team. The funny thing is that Trauma Team wasn't a critical flop; it got pretty good reviews and most people found it enjoyable. However, it didn't sell well at all, which was surprising for a Wii game, the Wii being such a success.

Unfortunately, being a financial flop meant Atlus dropped the Trauma Centre series.