Favorite video game franchise

[NerdiestKen]

Got a favorite video game franchise you played over the years? Share them here.

[Zenlethic]

Crash Bandicoot and Minecraft have taken up a lot of my virtual gaming time over the years. Basically been playing both since the 90's (Minecraft is almost the same as Legos ).

[NerdiestKen]

I'm a Mario person myself.

[Megan]

I always liked the Lunar series myself even if there aren’t many games for it.

[nomad]

Some of my favorite game franchise are Final Fantasy, God of War, Assassin Creeds, etc.

[misterbobbypin]

It's hard to say, but I've never missed a Halo game so I guess I would have to pick that.

[Can't Think of a Name]

I don't have many gaming systems that had series to them, such as the Megaman games for the NES (having, oh, 35 or whatever MM games there).  The Genesis almost had some but not quite for me.  I've seen on gaming forums where people have asked "I'm about to get a Genesis, what games would you suggest for it?" and many would reply "all the Sonic games".  I only liked the first one the best.  The second didn't do it for me, nor did Sonic and Knuckles. And the Sonic CD?  Including that it had over 40 levels or whatever it said?  No, it was just the regular 18 or whatever, just with a "past" and "present" to explore during several levels.  Those only looked, not played different!  I only have Sonic 3 because someone gave it to me for free.  Need to record some of the music from it and then have it up for grabs and that's it.

Same went for the Shining series games.  Only have the original Shining in the Darkness, rented Shining Force 1 and 2 back in the day and I never bought them.  The Shining Force CD?  It was supposedly great because it had some S. Force game released only in Japan (I think) and a S. Force game or two for the Sega Game Gear.  Ugh, it was constant battle battle battle!  No town visits.  First RPG I felt like I was out of breath with.  I sold that to Funcoland.

So, mine would be the Pac-Man arcade games.  Pac-Man alone was great and one of the hugest coin operated games of all time.  Ms. Pac-Man blew it away with more escape tunnels, bonus foods you had to chase around the maze and the maze itself changing every third screen.  Pac-Man Plus was a bit odd with some of the new stuff thrown in there.  Super Pac-Man was intriguing with you having to unlock parts of the mazes to get at the food.  Pac and Pal I never saw, much less played in an arcade until I got the Retro Arcade Pac-Man plug and play system years ago.  Like with Super Pac, you had to unlock parts of mazes and...you never ate the monsters?  You shot them with powerups.  Still fun, along with the bonus random levels.  And Jr. Pac-Man was huge since the screens scrolled around.  Pac-Mania seemed cool with it being in 3-D and you jumped over monsters but once it got fast and difficult its replay value was limited.

Piranha was a bastard cousin runner-up since I believe it was a pirated version of Pac-Man.  Different graphics and the mazes were open.  I liked that one in the few arcades I saw it at.

Only one that didn't work was Professor Pac-Man.  It wasn't Pac-Man at all but a trivia game.  It bombed.

[Melcharge]

Pokémon. Definitely, 100%, Pokémon. It was the first game series I ever played (my first ever video game was Blue Version, back in 1999) and I still play it to this day. I love all the gens -- yes, even the ones on the Switch -- but my favorites are gens one, three, and four. My favorite game might be FireRed/LeafGreen because I love Kanto and gen one and FR/LG are the best version of it. I also love Hoenn and Sinnoh. I'm one of the few people who love Diamond/Pearl and not just Platinum, even though Platinum is definitely better. I also really enjoy BD/SP even though it's probably the most hated main series game.

Pokémon has been with me almost my whole life, since I was five. I have a massive amount of nostalgia and fondness for the series. While the main series games tend to be the best part of the franchise, I also like other aspects of it; I watch the anime from time to time (the Hoenn series was my favorite), I've seen a lot of the movies, I have a collection of cards, toys, and other merch, I wear Pokémon shirts, I have Pokémon stuff displayed in my apartment (at the moment, there's a Kanto starters poster in my office, a few Pokémon Funko Pops on my desk, and a ton of Pokémon plushies sitting on the fridge). I have Pokémon plushies clipped to my purse. I could go on and on.

But the most important aspect of the series, for me, might be the online community and the fandom. I discovered the communities of Pokémon fansites and forums almost twenty years ago and immediately got involved. I love Pokémon fan works, especially the fan art and fics and stuff like that. In my opinion, the best of the fandom was during the 2003-2006 era of the Internet, with websites like Mew's Hangout, The Cave of Dragonflies, Suta-Raito, Copy Cat, We All Live In A Pokémon World, Team Rocket's Rockin', and so many more. I grew up with these websites and forums, and they mean a lot to me, even if most of them are long gone (though The Cave of Dragonflies is still around and updated!). My interest in Pokémon was at its peak when all these websites were around.