Crash Bandicoot
Much like Spyro, Crash continued after the PS1 days, but at a severely reduced quality. The original trilogy are classics of the platforming genre, but Crash has been on a slippery slope since The Wrath of Cortex in 2001. Every game that gets released sees the Bandicoot get a little less relevant, so let’s hope he sees a revival sometime soon.
Silent Hill
Silent Hill 2 stands up as the greatest horror game ever envisioned, serving as a benchmark for scares in gaming ever since. 1 and 3 were also incredible, but the series took a turn for the worst with 2004’s The Room. Not originally intended as a Silent Hill game, The Room became the start of the franchise’s loss of quality and, though the game wasn’t all bad, it started with the immense amount of rehashed level designs in SH4. Homecoming came and went in 2009, effectively removing ever good element from the series and, though Shattered Memories was a breath of fresh air for Silent Hill, I get the feeling that the upcoming Downpour will do even more damage to the series’ reputation.
Final Fantasy
Square Enix have been bending Final Fantasy fans over since 2002. It started with Final Fantasy 10 which, whilst a good game overall, removed a huge amount of core elements from the series gameplay. Plot was abandoned entirely for the online only and only mediocre FF11, and 12 and 13 were just plain shite. Square have been the architects of their own destruction, turning the most beloved RPG franchise in gaming history into a bit of a joke.
