(ThyBlackMan.com) In some ways, video games are no different from television shows, comics, or films in that a series can be ended when you warm up to it. Sometimes, a series goes on a little too long because the developer has a little too much faith in it being something gamers would want to keep seeing. Other times, it can innovate gaming with certain gameplay mechanics but doesn’t move enough units to keep going. Then you have when a series is just ended with little explanation. Let’s look at five series that were ended cut down too soon.
Def Jam (2003-2007, EA/AKI Corporation)
In the early 2000s, wrestling games were pretty popular. With WWE being the only major game in town (in the U.S) it didn’t have to worry about other companies picking up developers for games. This saw WWE continue its close work with Yuke’s and THQ on titles and leave wrestling game OG AKI Corporation without a license.
That is until Def Jam Recordings hooked up with EA to work on Def Jam Vendetta, a wrestling game featuring mostly Def Jam musicians. Now, EA didn’t have the best history with wrestling games. Acclaim’s Austin studio did better and most of their wrestling titles were bad. Just bad. Meanwhile AKI was constantly putting out gold.
However, EA learned its lesson from those two bad games and hooked up with AKI Corp on this one—and struck gold. The first one—Vendetta—is still held as one of the best wrestling games of the 2000s. Its two sequels Fight for NY and Icon were also well received. Then there were no more Def Jam fighting games.
Now it makes sense understanding likenesses and royalties—all the business side of things—but this is a series that should’ve either continued or shifted away from the Def Jam name to include artists of today and some legends.
Gone too soon.
The Getaway (2002-2004, Team Soho/SCE London Studio)
I would say “Let’s focus on just the first game” but we’re going with series. The Getaway was one of Sony’s first attempts at very strong storytelling in games. It came out roughly three years before the original God of War which most would point to as the first game to lead Sony in that direction but no, the first The Getaway has that honor.
The Getaway games feature stories told from two perspectives—a cop and a criminal. Gameplay-wise, they’re open world action games in a vein similar to GTA at the time only with a stronger leaning towards drama and realism. You don’t have a health meter, cover is extremely important in gunfights, and the cars all have weight to them in a way that cars in GTA’s 3D era never did.
Of the two games in the series, only the first one was received well—even after being delayed two years. If this had been a launch title as Sony intended and more time would’ve been given to the second, The Getaway might still be around now.
Who knows, maybe we’ll see it sometime during the PlayStation 5’s run. One can hope.
Tenchu (1998-2009, Acquire/FromSoftware)
In researching the background for Tenchu, I never knew FromSoftware worked as a developer on this. Weird since Tenchu is a somewhat forgiving game—which isn’t FromSoftware’s style. Tenchu is one of the notable stealth action games from the PS/N64/Dreamcast era that managed to make it three console generations before just ending on the Wii.
As a matter of fact, Tenchu came in with the original PlayStation and didn’t even have a game on PlayStation 3. There’s really no reason why Tenchu wasn’t continued outside of Acquire being something of a sluggish developer.
Tenchu could always make a return and it would be welcomed. Generations of gamers have played at least one Tenchu game and it’s one of those series that no one really has anything bad to say about it—just like Acquire’s other series Way of the Samurai. It had two memorable characters, a formula that worked for it, and it never really strayed from that formula. Everything just worked for Tenchu.
Mercenaries (2005-2008, Pandemic Studios)
Pandemic Studio was a short-lived developer that started in 1998 and ended in 2009. In that roughly eleven-year period, it made several good games. Actually, most of the games the studio did were just good at minimum. It had its series and delivered on those and did what they did for stuff presented by publishers. Pandemic did little wrong. One of those series it really delivered on was Mercenaries.
There are only games in the Mercenaries series and both were a blast to play. You select a mercenary who is part of a small private contractor group, the group is dropped into a country ruled by a dictator, and you do missions to upset the balance of power. In both games there are several factions you can do work for which will shift power in areas. This can work in your favor or make things harder.
It’s a third-person action series in an open world where all the buildings can be destroyed. This was the selling point of the series, really. Mercenaries didn’t need the deepest story and with Pandemic dissolved, the rights to the series fell to EA—who has done nothing with it since the last game.
It happens.
Chrono series (1995-1999, SquareSoft)
Square Enix has too many dropped or ended RPGs in its library to count but one that has been held as the best JRPG or top ten of all time was Chrono Trigger. It’s sequel Chrono Cross also gets a ton of love. It had three things going for it: Square (Enix) will rock the hell out of a JRPG gameplay-wise, the studio can write an amazing story, and finally, artwork by Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest—another big Square Enix JRPG franchise).
A different art direction was taken with Chrono Cross as Square headed into the 3D era on PlayStation but the two main games in the series—there’s a third Radical Dreamers but never mind that. Point is, Square Enix should’ve dropped another Chrono more than a decade ago.
Some might say “Leave the series as it is, no need to add to it and maybe ruin it” but I believe the Chrono series is bulletproof like Dragon Quest. At minimum, I doubt Square Enix would drop the ball on a third game in the main series. Even if they did, the name alone would be enough that it does well and it could rebound from taking a Final Fantasy XIII-grade hit.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.