Let's beat a dead horse!

[Bizzaro Stormy]

So there are any number of game franchises that have a lot of games in them. Some would say far too many. Mario, Zelda, Fifa, Madden, Metroid, et cetera. Yet these franchises would not keep getting published if they didn't have fans. So name your favorite, and tells us a little bit about your favorite game from the series. Or your least favorite. Or the weird one. You know, that one...

I'll get things start with my personal favorite overproduced franchise: Dynasty Warriors! Mindless beat-em up fun, or moderately strategic challenge depending on the difficulty setting you choose. My favorite is definitely Dynasty Warriors 3. Dozens of characters, lots of items both temporary and permanent, a wide variety of weapons and fighting styles, many levels, a sweet expansion game, terrible voice acting, and confounding cut scenes. I have sunk far too many good hours into this game and will put in many more. It inspired me to read the book Romance of Three Kingdoms, and then do some studying of Chinese history in general. Who says games can't be intellectually stimulating?

One thing I loved about it was that while some characters were better than others, there was no such thing as a character that could not be upgraded to awesomeness. Though I admit Zhuge Liang, and Diao Chan both required a great deal of patience to grind up to appropriate levels of badassery. I love DW 3 and most of the rest of the games in that series and the spin offs. So what's your favorite?

 

[Barbas]

I like the world presented in Final Fantasy Where Are At Again: A Realm Reborn. Some elements clash - a few bewilderingly so - but it's one of the few worlds that has left my mouth hanging open in its beauty and lovingly crafted detail.

I loved the gameplay as well. That was all pretty unexpected, seeing as the one compliment I usually pay to the FF series is to its writing - you never know what they're going to say next.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Not that Mega Man is ever going to have any more games, but for all the games the name did produce, my favorite will always be the first Mega Man X game. Also probably happens to be my favorite game of all time.

Particularly because it gets the blend of simple to play, difficult to master so well, and the gameplay is so sharp that it never feels clunky or like a product of its time. It's a timeless game to me, and I could play it again and again, even if it only takes an hour or so (being generous) to finish it once you're quite good at it.

 

[Islandbuffilo]

For me its pokémon ruby. Generation 3 was the first generation that fully showcased the new pokémon, where as the previous generation was mainly generation 1 pokémon with generation 2 pokémon sprinkled here and there. It being on the GBA did it a lot of favors as well; The colors, the music, the multiplayer, pretty much everything about the game sends this feeling of joy throughout my body when I think about it. It also was one of the first games I actually had to adapt my strategies for.

 

[VoidOfOne]

Castlevania may never see the dark of night again...

But I enjoyed it when the series went towards a more Metroid-style of game play. I remember getting Symphony of the Night, and that was one of the best games ever, especially on Playstation. The music was awesome, the gameplay was really great, and it just stands out so well to me.

Couldn't bring myself to play the "Lords of Shadow" series, especially seeing how the story played out.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Mario and Zelda are my two favorite long-running series. Well, I would say Metroid, but I haven't gotten around to quite as many games in that series as Mario or Zelda. I also didn't particularly like the earliest Metroid games, while I love most of the (popular) early Mario and Zelda games.

Anyways, my favorite Mario game would be Super Mario Galaxy. While part of me really loves the openness and atmosphere of Sunshine or the long-standing love I have of Super Mario Bros. 3, I did find Galaxy to offer the most enjoyable challenges and the greatest sense of adventure. It also gave us Rosalina, who is probably the best character in the Mario universe now.

And as for Zelda: That one is tough, but I'm going to go with Twilight Princess. As much as I want to join plenty of other Zelda fans in hating on the game for its various problems, I can't think of any other game in the series that has sucked me in anywhere near as much as Twilight Princess did. It's story, characters, and world were all fantastic and far more absorbing than what I've seen in other Zelda titles, and the gameplay was as solid as ever (even among the best) so long as the Wii's controls weren't screwing up. Granted, the aesthetics aren't quite as nice as most other games in the series, but that's a minor complaint when compared to how much I enjoyed the rest of the game.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I have to admit, I still really like the God of War formula. I love the idea of going on an epic quest of discovery in popculture Greek mythos and brawling with giant beasts. Even when it's a rather mediocre entry, like Ascension.

My favourite of that series... still the first one I think. Eventhough 2 balanced out the combat, enemy placements, and environments, GoW1 had a certain atmosphere to it that I just love. It reminds me in a lot of ways of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and really gives you this great feeling of being a lone warrior in a savage land.

 

[Ariseishirou]

I don't know, I've bought all of the CoD games so far, but honestly... AW did shake things up quite a bit and has transformed the the MP tremendously, particularly when compared to Ghosts, but all the same. I don't know if I'm going to buy the new CoD this year for the first time ever because if it's BO3, I have no interest in playing the same game for the third time, BO's MP wasn't very innovative, and unlike MW's SP after CoD4 - which was so bad it was good - BO's was just bad.

 

[Solbasa]

How about Megami Tensei? It started out as a novel series back in 1986, and has since grown, morphed and mutated to the point where there are 9 different subseries and lord knows how many games, and the root series (consisting of 2 games) has long since been buried beneath the tide of spin-offs and new games. And all of the games I've played from the series so far are quite good (at least), so I guess good job to Atlus for that.

More specifically, the Persona subseries. Including, spin-offs, as-of-yet unreleased games, and remakes (but not mobile games because...god damn), there's now 16 games in the series, 10 of which are related to Persona 3 and/or 4. I gotta say that, out of all of it, my favourite game is Persona 4 Golden. It's an extremely well-made dungeon crawler with an engaging and well-written plot, but oddly enough I think the main thing that keeps me coming back (over 180 hours and on my 3rd playthrough now...) is the Social Link system, the real-world part that's basically a slice-of-life anime worked into an RPG, partly because I think that's the only place left in the game where I'll see anything I haven't seen already.

 

[SoreWristed]

Mario party 2 still tickles my fancy, to this day. I even find most recent MP titles just to be throwbacks to MP2. I have kept my N64 for so long, only due to this game (and goldeneye, a bit).

If Nintendo were to bring out a MP collection, you'd notice most mini-games originating in 2 in some form or another...

 

[Guffe]

Favorite long running gameseries...
Pokemon has to be up there, as does the Zelda series.

Favorite pokemon game is a hard one, I've played Red so many times it has gotten boring, but I still find myself looking back now and again. Then I really enjoyed Black, like a lot, maybe because it was something new and unexplored for me in that series. (Have played red and silver a lot, ruby once and nothing after that until I picked up black a few years ago).

Zelda series I have two I like over the rest, the first one is pretty obvious with MajorasMask. But the second one I seem to be in the minroty with Skyward Sword, I really enjoyed this game, like a lot!!! And the new instalment looks even more awesome, so might have a new favorite after that is published

 

[Nazulu]

Metroid would be the closest to me getting stuck into a series, but honestly I only really like a couple of the games.

Super Metroid is not only my introduction to the series but to games becoming artsy altogether. How it represents itself is dark and morbid, and it's so dramatic and clever in how it draws you into it, luring you in a false sense of security or catching you off guard constantly. I easily prefer it over the others because of this and how it's designed in that you need to look out for the oddity's, as well as the freedom in using all the abilities, making many become exited over such simple tricks.

None of the other Metroid games have accomplished this for me. Metroid Prime being the closest but it certainly has some big problems, especially with moving around.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

One of my favourite series is Ace Combat, and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is my favourite by far.

It stood out to me because of it's story. There are some good plot twists that result in some emotional missions. I really liked how some of the story came about as you were playing, instead of the usual shoehorning in between in set scenes... kinda like if instead of just the map screen and the hilarious acting in C&C telling the story, you saw stuff happening and lots of dialoge throughout playing.

I really liked Ace Combat for this, the fact that there was a lot of dialoge and background stuff going on as you played which really brought you into the scenarios and events, including news reports, hearing people fighting on the ground (and calling for your aid) and the thoughts of your team in the air.
I also liked the 4 man squadron thing as well, and that you could chose their equipment. This added a further sense of belonging to the player, and made you care a lot more during some of the twists. Especially as they were more effective than some of the other wing men in other games!

 

[Super Cyborg]

I got a dead horse if you have clubs to bring to beat it with.

Let's see, Zelda is definitely one of them. Unlike Mario, where it's harder to argue they aren't all the same game, every Zelda game has a different atmosphere and mechanics that separate it from the rest. Depending on the person, they will argue whether it was for good or bad. My favorite was Skyward Sword, as the swordplay was fun to me, the level design was cool, and had the beetle, the best item so far of Zelda games.

The SMT series has lots of games, but each is unique in presentation and story. If I had to choose my favorites, it would be Nocturne (just the right amount of difficulty and there was that part where if you changed things up a little, you could change a battle from impossible to easy), Persona 4 Golden (Great story and characters, music was great, only thing it didn't have was Koromaru, which is the only thing 3 had against 4), and Devil Survivor Overclocked (Interesting story, characters were quite good, difficulty was right a good amount of the time).

Ys as well. While only having seven games total (if you don't count remakes of certain ones like Celceta). Seven and Celceta being my favorites, with having a party of three which allows for bigger boss fights. The music is always amazing, and the fights are fast pace. The story and characters can be somewhat desirable at times (Celcetas ending was atrocious, and some characters don't get much development if any). Despite the few flaws, never disappointed with the games, and waiting for more news about the new one.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

I've got two more horses for this roundup.

There are many Total War games, but the original is my favorite. Shogun: Total War is a good blend of tactical battle simulation and large scale strategy. The seven factions each have their own strengths and weaknesses, mostly based on what provinces they start in. Some have more access to resources and are better positioned to attack and defend. The Hojo is easy mode and either the Takeda or the Imagawa are hard mode. You upgrade provinces for better units, finances, and special units that can be game changers. There's nothing quite like ruining clan Hojo's day by having a Geisha assassinate their Diamyo and turning their vast horde into a chaotic mess. Crush your enemies and become Shogun with all Japan in your "loving" grip.

The other horse is Wolfenstein. I know that that there has been a good long wait between each game, but the franchise is about 30 years old and has so far branched out from killing Nazis to... killing Nazis. My favorite has to be Return to Castle Wolfenstein. A reimagining of Wolf 3d, RTCW had a wide variety of weapons, a campy plot, enemies ranging from soldiers, to mummies, machine gun witches, and titanic cyborg warriors. You can go in using mostly stealth or guns blazing with only a few sections requiring one or the other. The varied level locations and decent voice acting are also nice. I've played the others, but I've played this one many times. Watching Himmler's face after you destroyed his plans is a joyous experience. I will admit to being confused by the first boss. It's supposed to be Helga Von Burlow but when it arrives you hear it roaring and Helga screaming at the same time. You also find her headless body lying away from the field of battle after the fight. It always seemed to me that the monster killed her rather than being her. Anyway great game, I recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good FPS.