IGN: Top 25 Videogame Franchises

[Thunderfall]

PC.IGN last week published an article about the Top 25 Videogame Franchises of all time. The Civilization franchise is at #10. Here's what IGN had to say about it:

The brainchild of videogame luminary Sid Meier, the Civilization series pioneered the turn-based strategy genre through its addictive mix of exploration, economics, warfare, research, and diplomacy. The first game in the series charged players with building a "legacy that would stand the test of time." Later games greatly expanded on the formula of the first game, but still retained the same deep gameplay. Civilization games are so notorious for their addictive nature that an alarm clock was included in Civilization IV, alerting payers when they may have played the game for too long. Of course, we always played with the alarm off, we can't stand anything interrupting our Civ time.

Other franchises on the list are 1) Mario 2) Zelda 3) Final Fantasy 4) Castlevania 5) Metal Gear Solid 6) Warcraft 7) Resident Evil 8) Metroid 9) Sim 11) Star Wars 12) Street Fighter 13) Grand Theft Auto 14) Dungeons & Dragons 15) Madden 16) Tom Clancy 17) Pokemon 18) Chrono 19) Sonic 20) Mega Man 21) Command & Conquer 22) Tetris 23) Donkey Kong 24) Half-Life and 25) Virtua Fighter.

[Broken Hawk]

Funny, I've never heard of most of the franchises ranked ahead of Civ. Maybe I''ve been playing the Civ series too much to notice.

[synthboy]

There's a few odd ones there I have to say. Castlevania at #4? Metroid at #8? Warcraft gets a deserved boost thanks to its new MMORPG makeover but I'm surprised to see Sonic and Pokemon so low. In terms of cultural impact, both rank a lot higher than the majority of the titles above them.

[dowski]

Castlevania?

[Nobody]

whats it based on? resident evil and metal gear solid rule but above civ? and Grand theft auto is so low.

[Tycoon101]

Zelda is below Mario? What a travesty! These people must be executed for their ignorance.

[Alraun]

Originally Posted by Nobody

whats it based on? resident evil and metal gear solid rule but above civ? and Grand theft auto is so low.

For some reason, console games always fare better than PC games on polls. Warcraft and Sim X both certainly deserve to be in the top 5 with Mario, Zelda and FF IMO. Hell, if Blizzard had simply claimed that Diablo was in the Warcraft universe and that Starcraft was Warcraft universe in the distant future, it would be an easy 1st.

I was half surprised Civ made the list despite being a Civ fanatic myself. :P

[MjM]

I think the rankings are good. Castlevania is an awesome game. And Mario has to be number 1.

[asioasioasio]

I don't agree with that ranking

[mike p]

Aren't Donkey Kong and Mario the same franchise, really?

[Sto2mEye]

I think that the rankings are decent. I think there is some inbalances on some parts. I think Donkey Kong should be a lot higher and a few other games as well. FF and MGS are pretty fair on their positions and Warcraft should be slightly higher then what it is. There are some other games as well, but overall it's a pretty decent group of franchises. All of those on there are definitely where they are suppose to be, some just might not be on the right "number."

[pat4]

gta, sonic and pokemon should all be in top ten but civ should be number 1

[DaddyMac]

When voting, editors were asked to consider the overall importance of the franchise, the strength of its library of titles and the excitement for future games in the series.

The above criteria from the original article would lead me to a different list. Where is DOOM? What about Pac-Man? Neither has a particularly exciting future, but both were THE defining games of their respective eras. What about Golden Tee for bringing MMO into the bars?

Mario definitely deserves to be at the top of the list. Forget the "super" versions...why not start with the original Mario Brothers? And no, I wouldn't say that Donkey Kong and Mario are the same franchise. They only share screen time in Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., and maybe a couple of others that I can't think of.

Others on the list that would make my list, in no particular order:
Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Warcraft, Sim, Civ, Street Fighter, Grand Theft Auto, Madden, Sonic, Command & Conquer, Tetris, Half-Life

[asioasioasio]

Why Tetris? - anybody cares about it? It was good franchise 15 years ago. Why there's no fallout or gothic? why Gta have so bad rank> Metal Gera Solid - imo it's crap i think they should give diablo franchise in that place. Some games on the list i even don't know - i'm not sure if it means to be good franchise. Where is quake or call of duty and need for speed or FIFA? I don't agree with that rank

[Vind2]

GTA should've been higher

[TheDervish]

I'm dismayed that Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) didn't make the list.

[mike p]

Originally Posted by DaddyMac

And no, I wouldn't say that Donkey Kong and Mario are the same franchise. They only share screen time in Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., and maybe a couple of others that I can't think of.

Mario and Donkey Kong each first appeared in the original Donkey Kong. I'd agree with you if they only crossed over later, in Nintendo games featuring all of their characters, but they were together at the start.

[Innawerkz]

I agree with a lot of the rankings, but not to have included the Ultima series was a bit surprisng.

It spawned almost 20 Ultima title for over 20 years, cross platform and introduced the MMORPG format to the world. Seems to meet the criteria of an enduring series.

Certainly one of my favourite titles EVER was Ultima Underworld.

[Chris1111]

Was thinking same thing, agree with you there about the Ultima Series. Richard Garriott was basically the father of modern rpg's . Ultima IV-VII were true classics.

[civconquer3000]

hey? whatever happened to rct? it should at least be somewhere on the list! It's been big enough, and it's pretty much the only game like that.