In an industry that sometimes seems to thrive on sequels, publishers often evaluate the success of a game on whether or not it can become a gaming franchise. And while publishers will milk some franchises for all they are worth, there are some that seem to have been left by the wayside for no good reason. Three of our Video Game Journalists sound off on what franchises they would like to see back on the shelves at their local game stores.

John Newby

 5. Freelancer

I have no idea if one release counts as a franchise, but Freelancer is one of the best games I have ever played (I even included it in the top 50 games list). Freelancer fulfilled that fantasy of flying through space that had been missing since X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. More importantly, Freelancer had an online cooperative system so I could fly around fulfilling contracts and fighting space pirates with all of my closest friends. How could I pass up that opportunity, especially when you included the variety of ships to purchase?

Yes, Freelancer’s creative lead is making a “spiritual sequel” to the game in Star Citizen, but who knows if it will fulfill the promises of Freelancer and its cancelled sequel, Freelancer 2: Project Lonestar? I want a massive, cooperative sequel to Freelancer for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

4. Cool Boarders

Snowboarding is pretty great, but it’s held down by realism and physics. The classic game series, Cool Boarders, by UEP Systems got rid of this realism and focused more on big jumps and bad attitude. Of course, Cool Boarders 2 was the best of this series, and it included important features like multiple characters and levels long before Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater exploded in popularity. Even better, Cool Boarders 2 also included multiple hidden characters that could be unlocked by completing high score challenges. Cool Boarders did have a third and fourth game, but a different studio developed these sequels. Unfortunately, UEP Systems disappeared after a subpar action game on the PlayStation 2, and my favorite snowboarding series disappeared along with the company.

I would absolutely love to once again tear down a mountain on a snowboard while jumping past billboards for Butterfinger BB’s (RIP). SSX was decent fun, but I prefer Cool Boarders.

3. Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Ok, so Marvel: Ultimate Alliance hasn’t been dead for that long, but I desperately want another sequel. This Diablo clone with Marvel characters was so much fun, mostly because of the included four-player cooperative mode. You could create a superhero team with Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, and Blade. Or, you could use the entire Fantastic Four. In fact, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance gave you almost infinite combinations of heroes and villains to use in your quest against evil. Plus, Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 included special costumes, attacks, and gear to make your heroes even better.

Diablo III was a massive success for PC and every console, so I think that a third Ultimate Alliance could do very well. Of course, Activision and Capcom would have to work together to figure out the licensing, but that’s above my pay grade.

2. No One Lives Forever

Spy games are potentially great, but few actually fulfill this potential and produce entertaining experiences. However, No One Lives Forever is one of the only series that actually made being a spy entertaining. These games, developed by Monolith, placed you in the shoes of the world’s top spy as you attempted to stop the evil organization, H.A.R.M., from taking over the world. This mission pitted you against ninjas, a Scottish strongman, and fast-talking double agents.

No One Lives Forever 1 and 2 were fantastic shooters that combined regular weapons with fancy spy gadgets. Additionally, these games took you through a world that is the weird love child of James Bond and Austin Powers, only with humor that works. Now that Shadow of Mordor is finished, I think that Monolith should dedicate their time to creating a much-needed return to Cate Archer’s universe.

1. NFL Blitz

Watching football is one of my favorite pastimes. Actually, I prefer watching three games of football at once while obsessively tracking fantasy stats on my computer. In fact, I love football so much that I buy Madden every single year. Unfortunately, this football series has gotten a little stagnant over the years. In fact, some of the later Madden games have made it less entertaining to play as bad teams (my beloved Vikings) because mediocre teams destroy them. This exact reason is why I prefer playing NFL Blitz. It doesn’t matter if your team is good or bad, because everyone ends up on equal ground. Of course, the ability to beat the crap out of the opposing team is pretty important as well.

Now, there was a digital only version of Blitz released a couple years ago, but it was held back by the NFL’s focus on player safety. No longer could you run around the field tackling and smashing other players for hours on end. This version of Blitz felt a little hollow at times. Of course, the versions of Blitz without the NFL license weren’t very good either. I may be slightly nostalgic, but I just want an old school version of NFL Blitz that lets me play as a big-headed mascot who can run backwards while on fire and throw a 99-yard jump pass before kicking another player in the face. Is that too much to ask for?

Kierra Prince

5. Clock Tower

Being a huge fan of survival horror, I’ve always loved the Clock Tower series for what it brought to the table. While other horror titles like Siren also focused more on running and hiding as opposed to straight fighting, Clock Tower did it phenomenally well while throwing in some of the more bizarre forms of horror that Silent Hill also had. And to be fair, I’d even accept another point and click title. But seeing how much horror has grown over the last few years definitely makes me hungry for a Clock Tower title again, especially if it built upon and fixed some of the stuff that kept Clock Tower 3 from being a really great game. It was weird, it was spooky, and it gave us one of the best villains in the form(s) of Scissorman. Bring me more Scissormen!

 4. Manhunt

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I’d enjoy Manhunt when I first picked it up. Hyped as being gritty and ultra-violent, I assumed it would be a title focusing on gratuitous violence for no good reason. Boy did it prove me wrong. The violence was a tremendous part of it but the story played out in a way that made you question the role of violence in pretty much every form of media. In a world where we cheer on heroes valiantly slaying the enemy and want our games to give us bigger, badder weapons for bloodier kills, Manhunt sat there and asked us why. For a medium where I’d normally be more than happy to stalk someone until I could violently strangle them to death with a plastic bag, Manhunt made me feel dirty. As The Director gleefully egged me on I suddenly didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to kill anyone if it was for that huge jerk. And Piggsy? Piggsy was terrifying in every way, shape, and form. I’d love to see what Rockstar could do with the themes present in Manhunt in today’s day and age and I feel like the game wouldn’t be slapped with the AO rating that essentially doomed the second title in the series. Rockstar is a company that knows what they’re doing, and being forced to trim content so it could be sold it stores definitely hurt it. And considering it’s been over a decade since release? There’s a lot to explore.

3. Bloody Roar

Bloody Roar was one of my favorite fighters in the PlayStation era after it was included on that wonderful demo disc that pretty much everyone got and my local arcade got in the cabinet. I was almost instantly hooked. Considering the fact that Killer Instinct has had some good success in being rebooted and Mortal Kombat is continuing its run, I have no doubt that now is as good a time as any for Bloody Roar to make its triumphant return. Pulling off combos in any game is a satisfying but there was something special about transforming into whatever violent beast your character was hiding inside and demolishing your opponent. I need that experience again.

2. Viewtiful Joe

Viewtiful Joe is a game that I still find myself playing every so often. The game was fast. It was frenzied. It was difficult. It was fun. It was really, really cool. And it was super inventive. Everything about the game (and franchise) just screamed wacky fun and it was one of the most talked about, and highest rated, games during that console generation. It grabbed you and didn’t let go. It challenged you its various combos, mechanics, and upgrades. You got sucked into the fact that you died 20 times fighting a boss but the 21st time you’d beat him for sure. You replayed levels to get every single unlockable. It was basically everything we could ask for in a game. And its cartoony, cel-shaded graphics mixed with its very plot centering around two movie lovers getting sucked into a literal Movieland instantly set it apart from every other game out there at the time. And what better time to reboot this franchise other than now? These guys have recently given us The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 which have both received rave reviews and feature some of the same glorious frantic enemy killing that we enjoyed in Viewtiful Joe. Nintendo has been proving that its once again the console for action-packed Japanese titles and I desperately hope they decide that Joe and Silvia are characters worth investing in.

1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Forget Dragon Age. Forget Mass Effect. THIS is where it all started. This is where I first fell in love with Bioware’s brand of storytelling. Where I sank hours into developing relationships with fictional characters, debating over how my choices would affect an entire world, and seeing where I fell on the good/evil spectrum. Knights of the Old Republic was a dream come true for me. It was game where I could be any kind of person I wanted. A game where one minute I was saving Wookies on Kashyyyk and earning brownie points with Jedi so that 5 minutes later I could lose said brownie points because I used force persuade to talk my way out of paying docking fees. The universe was huge, the game was long, and seeing my choices play out and determine not only which way various scenarios would go but which powers I was allowed to use was something I could barely comprehend. Knights of the Old Republic 2 may not have have as good of a game as the first but it was still definitely a blast and its dialogue options still gave us a ton to think about. And as Bioware has released more and more games along the same line, I can’t help but feel like Bioware needs to finish out this series. Mass Effect was an absolute masterpiece of a trilogy and it’s not hard to see just how good a KOTOR game would be today. With news that Bioware is signed on to do some sort of Star Wars game in the near future, I’m desperately hoping it turns out to be another Knights of the Old Republic.KOTOR may not have been the best game in Bioware’s choice-heavy RPG set but I guarantee that this is the game where we first fell in love.

Bryan Boshart

 5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Yes, yes, yes I know that there is a MMO out, but I would like to see Knights of the Old Republic revived in its original form. For a person like me who was both a Star Wars nerd and an avid RPG gamer, KOTOR was the perfect game for me. I must have played through the two games in the series at least ten times. While the gameplay was functional if a little slow, the story was phenomenal. Bioware penned a masterpiece in the first title, which features one of the biggest twists in gaming. KOTOR sets itself up as a trilogy with the hero from the second game going off to meet the hero of the first game, but a third title never came to fruition. With Bioware being one of the few companies able to publish Star Wars games, a new Knights of the Old Republic isn’t entirely out of the question.

 4. Actraiser

The Actraiser franchise is one of the most unique series I’ve ever owned. The first title was half side-scrolling action game half Sim-City. This may sound like one of the most bizarre mixes ever, and it was, but it somehow gelled brilliantly. Actraiser tasked you as god fighting to retake the world from the demons who’ve overrun it. Upon entering an area, you’ll build a suitable city for your followers answer requests, and generally keep them safe. After you build a respectable city, the citizens will unearth the lair of a demon lord that you must fight and kill.

The action portions of the first Actraiser were some of the best side-scrolling sequences of the era. Environments were as diverse as the enemies. Actraiser was always difficult but fair, at least until the final boss, which drawing inspiration from Mega Man required you to beat all of the bosses from the game first before you can take on the Demon King. Sadly, while Actraiser 2 had fantastic action levels as well, it lost the city builder that made it unique and sold nowhere near enough to keep the franchise going. Seeing as it has been dead for two decades the odds of ever seeing a new one are next to nothing, but a man can dream.

3. Mega Man

Where to start with Mega Man? Capcom’s classic platformer was one of the games I spent my childhood on. While I was never able to beat any of them as a kid, I spent countless hours honing my skills attempting to defeat Dr. Wily. Then on the SNES when the series was rebooted into the “X” series, the speed picked up, but the perfectly designed levels remained and were somehow improved upon. Whenever you felt the Mega Man series was getting stale, they always found a fresh way to reboot him. Command Mission, Legends, EXE, while the style of the game may have changed the quality never left.

Mega Man 10 was the last Mega Man title released back in 2010, and while that may not sound like that long ago, the series has been in limbo ever since. Producers of the game have left Capcom to follow their own goals. Mega Man Legends 3 was supposed to be one of the highlight games for the 3DS, but it was cancelled it doesn’t appear there will be a Mega Man anytime soon. Luckily, if Mega Man has proven one thing over the years, it’s his adaptability. All it will take is one fresh idea and Mega Man will be back in the limelight once again.

2. Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Conker’s Bad Fur Day  was a somewhat hidden gem from the N64. The basic premise is turning a cartoon mascot into a crass, swear-slinging squirrel and then slap him into an endless parade of movie scenes. The plot is one of the most absurd things ever, and the whole impetus for the game is that Conker doesn’t want to serve as a replacement chair leg for the Panther King. The gameplay feels like a much simpler Banjo-Kazooie, as part of the beauty of the game is that Conker is that he doesn’t have all kinds of crazy moves. In fact, the only time Conker can do anything remotely complicated is when he stands on a “context sensitive” button.

While the game doesn’t sound that good on paper, it worked surprisingly well. Dozens of movie references, ranging from reenacting the lobby scene in the Matrix to a Jaws level. To highlight how absolutely insane this title was, just know that the first major boss you fight is an opera singing pile of feces. Conker’s Bad Fur Day even included a good mulitplayer mode too, the major levels were all redesigned to be played against friends. Conker was a sneakily brilliant game, and one of the last great Rare titles before their studio fell into disarray. Even though Bad Fur Day was rereleased on the original XBOX it has almost no chance of ever appearing again.

1. Darkstalkers

The first company you think of when you think of fighting games is going to be Capcom. Their flagship Street Fighter series has been the standard for the genre practically since I was born. Where Street Fighter was the standard, Darkstalkers was the research lab. Nearly every major technique incorporated into fighting games can trace its origin to Darkstalkers. Chain Combos, Air Blocks, Instant Air Dashes all make their first appearances in this series. On top of the impact the game has had on the genre, they were all amazingly fun, and vastly different than the prior versions.

All the fighters in Darkstalkers were monster movie characters. Vampires, succubi, werewolfs, demon bees, and a sasquatch are just a sampling of the unique characters you’ll get a chance to play. Special and Super moves looked devastating, especially at the end of a round as the loser could be left cut in half, or worse. Fantastically tight controls helped Darkstalkers become my personal favorite fighting game, tragically (for me at least) Darkstalkers Resurrection didn’t sell anywhere near the 2 million copies that Capcom considers the standard to continue a franchise.