Greatest Franchise of ALL-TIME?

The Greatest Franchise of All-Time

Many people will argue with you when it comes down to the best video game legacy ever...and I'm not saying that this is right or wrong but only my opinion.

Super Mario, Zelda, Grand Theft Auto, ect...all come up but have their shortcomings in the overall look, for example Zelda had the better gameplay but the story lacked much depth and the same could be said of the rest also

The God of War Saga is now 6 Games deep and ALL are ongoing classics. The first one wowed me more than any game I had played up until that point...the graphics were beautiful, the story was amazing and epic, boss battles were wild, upgrading was fun, and the atmospheres around you sucked you into the environment immediately. I kept thinking the formula would get old but every game is unique and different enough to feel new but stick to the mechanics that made it successful. Also, the game is challenging but never gets too hard to aggregate you.

When you look at the epic journey as a whole I think God of War could win Greatest Franchise Ever!

@phantasm: It's clearly Call of Duty.

With all the highly praised franchises that i know a lot of us have never even played, I disagree. In my opinion the first two God of war games were classics. 3 brought satisfaction due to the fact that we got to experience the end.

God of War 1 and 2 (not the story)were great. Everything after that was simply terrible and thats mainly due to the absolutely horrific storytelling.

The best franchise is Mario

Noone and nothing comes close to that.

God of War? LOL!

To me it's Sonic the hedgehog as it's one of the longest running franchises (since 91) and is still well liked by most gamers, when I think gaming one of the first things I think of is Sonic.

wii sports

@Pedro: What was horrific about the stories?

Mass Effect in my opinion

It's really a shame not enough people know about the Legend of Heroes series. Hopefully the Steam releases next year give it a lot of new exposure.

Same; Sonic pretty much defines gaming to me. I've been playing this franchise from the start, and at this point, I have about 40 Sonic games (multiple copies and various versions included). Streets of Rage is right up there too for me, but there hasn't been a new entry in the series since '94 if you don't count SoR Remake.

Donkey Kong Country

Nice I've been playing Sonic since the first game and I still enjoy playing the early games and the newer ones, that's a winning formula if ever there was one. To me the greatest franchise of all time has to be something that has stood the test of time, not something released in recent years.

Likewise I still enjoy playing Streets of Rage series, Golden Axe series and other retro games too but Sonic is a franchise that stands out as unique with a focus on fun that keeps coming back year after year and sells well while being generally well received by owners of most consoles/pc's. Sure not every game is as memorable as the last but then every franchise has it's highs and lows.

To me, the greatest gaming franchise of all time is Mario. I love different genres, but Mario appeals to everybody. To me, Super Mario Bros. is the greatest game ever made.

Damn, beat me to it. *Sarcasm.*

Definitely Mario. Super Mririo Bros. 3, World, Mario 64, and Galaxy 1 & 2 are some of the greatest games of all time. 3D World may be included in that list but I haven't played it yet so I can't say.

There are actual people who think that unfortunately

Personally I'd have to go with a 3 way tie between Mass Effect (everything was awesome tell the ending of 3), Zelda and The Elder Scrolls.

My favorite is Halo but the greatest is Super Mario Bros and all the games of the Mario franchise that followed. Everyone knows that right? Its not just about sales and modern popularity. It's also the influence it created, the impact it made and standing the true test of time.

Metal Gear Solid is far and away the best franchise in gaming.

Each entry stands on its own, avoiding the typical "bigger better badder" mentaility that most other franchises pertain, rendering its predecessor obsolete. It excels in all elements, from tech to art, to sound, gameplay, story, characters, etc.

Yeah, definitely up there for me.

Also hard to go past Mario & Zelda, for the sheer impact on the industry.

i just bought all the Assassins Creed games (except for black flag) and have made it through Revelations, and I gotta say its pretty remarkable~

Well put. I too think of Metal Gear Solid as the greatest franchise in gaming.

My picks would be:

Mario

Zelda

Metal Gear

Final Fantasy (prior to FFXIII)

Sonic (up until Dreamcast era)

I have yet to play a bad Mario game. Mario 1,2,3, world, 64, sunshine, galaxy, 3d land, 3d world, new super mario bros..etc. The list goes on. Mario has been a beast since 1985.

Final Fantasy

GTA

Anyone who says call of duty is a 14 year old kid who has spent the last 2 years watching youtube video's of people like XJaws and just copying his tactics and having ZERO input into games, and no ideas of their own are idiots.

Metal Gear Solid and Mass Effect 2 are obviously the best

The Elder Scrolls

For Morrowind and Skyrim alone (Oblivion can eat a bag of dicks)

Honorable mention: Zelda and Metal Gear