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It happens now and again in the gaming world; a classic series brought to its knees by the industry’s obsession with sequels. This isn’t just a problem in the gaming world either, movies have it just as bad if not worse; just look at the James Bond films to see a text-book example. Generally, the only way to fix the situation is to kill off the series altogether (Home Alone) or bring it back to life with a ‘reboot’ (Batman).  

Let’s take a look at three critically acclaimed gaming franchises that have taken one too many wrong turns and have reached the point where they can only be saved by a full reboot:  

Legacy of Kain

The Legacy of Kain series started in 1996 with Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on the original PlayStation, followed by the indirect sequels Soul Reaver & Soul Reaver 2, the first direct sequel Blood Omen 2, and then finally Legacy of Kain: Defiance which was supposed to tie everything together. If that doesn’t make sense to you you’re not alone.  

Blood Omen was a top-down hack 'n' slash

Starting out with Blood Omen, the series made its mark on the gaming world with an RPG-like, top-down, hack ‘n’ slash adventure game where you control a character called Kain who is unfortunately murdered. Kain is brought back to life as a vampire and the player is allowed to hunt down and kill those responsible for his death. Although a simple game on the surface, a few hours’ playing revealed a tremendously deep storyline with over 50 hours of gameplay if you wanted to pursue everything in the world of Nosgoth. Critically acclaimed, the game soon built up a cult following and when news of a follow-up game was announced, fans waited with baited breath.  

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was finally released in 1999 for PlayStation (and Windows PC). The game took a dramatic turn from the original in terms of both style and gameplay. The top-down 2D graphics were gone and players took control of Raziel, who feasted on souls instead of blood. The most interesting addition to the series was the ability of Razeil to shift planes between the material and the spectral versions of the world. Although quite different from the first game, Soul Reaver was well received by gamers and critics alike; well enough for a direct sequel to be released two years later on PlayStation 2 and PC. Soul Reaver 2  was less successful than its predecessor however, the main problem being that it was that it was too similar to the original Soul Reaver, as well as being easier and dropping most of the side-quests.  

Soul Reaver moved the series into two worlds and three dimensions

Seemingly stuck at a dead end with the Soul Reaver games, the developers tried a different approach and released Blood Omen 2 in 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows PC and eventually Nintendo Gamecube. Again, while moderately successful, the game was not well received by many fans of the original game, who found this first direct sequel to be a more straightforward affair, with gameplay much like Soul Reaver except without the plane shifting.  

In one final last-ditch effort to reconcile the two main branches of the Legacy of Kain storyline and bring the series to a fitting conclusion, Legacy of Kain defiance was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows PC in 2003. While Defiance was generally well received by critics, problems with the in-game camera and poor collision detection held back many review scores.  

Where could the series go from here? Having reasonably concluded the series with Defiance, the developers should have free reign to reboot the series and take it back to its roots. Having first been released fourteen years ago, there will now be a whole generation of gamers who have yet to experience the Legacy of Kain series at its best.  

Mortal Kombat

Like many computer game franchises, the second Mortal Kombat is often regard as the finest game in the series. The original game, released way back in 1992, was fun for a while but is essentially a very basic fighting game once all the blood and gore are stripped away. What drew attention to Mortal Kombat was the unusual ability to kill your opponent in various gruesome ways after you had defeated them, known as a ‘fatality’. However, with only seven fighters and a limited number of moves, the game was still a far cry from genre favourites like Street Fighter II.  

Pulling an opponent's head off was part of the fun in Mortal Kombat

With Mortal Kombat II, released in 1993, the developers took everything that gamers loved about the original and built upon it until they had a game that is considers by many to be a true classic of the genre. With more moves, more characters, more arenas and importantly more fatalities, Mortal Kombat II was a smash-hit success with critics and gamers alike. The series had matured into a fully-fledged and very successful fighting franchise, with or without the gore.  

From then on the series stumbled. Although an increased character roster and a plethora of new moves were welcome additions to Mortal Kombat 3, the tongue-in-cheek nature of the previous games was pushed beyond its limits and the move to a modern-day setting upset many fans of the series. The classic ninjas Scorpion, Reptile  and Sub-Zero were gone, either removed entirely or changed beyond recognition, and Raiden and Johnny Cage were no longer playable  at all. On top of this, the addition of cyborgs and an overall more futuristic tone to the game alienated fans further. Eventually, Midway re-released Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995 as ‘Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3′, reintroducing Scorpion, Reptile and several others, as well as adding tweaks to the gameplay.  

Mortal Kombat 4 swapped most of the fun for an extra dimension

In 1997, Mortal Kombat took its most drastic change yet, with the move into three dimensions. Mortal Kombat 4 address many of the concerns that fans raised with the previous game, and the number of finishing moves was cut back as well as the number of characters. The comical tone of much of the previous game was now gone and the series had moved out of the modern world once more and back to ancient fighting arenas and other fantastical settings. Although moderately well received, Mortal Kombat 4 failed to reach the level of success that Mortal Kombat II attained back in 1993.  

After some critically panned side projects like Mythologies: Sub Zero and Special Forces, the series received a mild rejuvenation with the next two games, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat Deception. Meanwhile, projects in other media were undoing much of the good work Deadly Alliance and Deception had done for the series. While the original Mortal Kombat movie was successful both critically and commercially, the same cannot be said for the sequels and spin-off TV series, most of which were panned by critics. Eventually things quietened down on the Mortal Kombat scene and little was heard of it until the cross-over fighting game Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was released in 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360. While MK vs DC was moderately successful, many long-time fans of the series had given up on the series by now and the absurdly convoluted plot has become virtually meaningless. Like the Mortal Kombat films which progressed from moderately fun to insultingly poor, the entire franchise needs to start again, beginning with a brand new Mortal Kombat game, stripped back to basics but with high definition graphics for a high definition age. If the rumours are to be believed, we might just see something like this at E3 next week…  

Tekken

The Tekken series is synonymous with the PlayStation brand. Every main entry in the Tekken series has at some stage been PlayStation-exclusive with the exception of the latest installment, Tekken 6. When the PlayStation was first launched in 1994, Tekken was one of the first of a new generation of fighting games to be released on the fledgling platform. Until then, traditional 2D fighting games ruled the roost and even the moderate success of SEGA’s Virtua Fighter paled in comparison to the success of 2D classic Street Fighter II.  

Paul's hair didn't improve over time

Tekken quickly became one of the fastest selling PlayStation games and holds the record for the first PlayStation game to sell over one million units. While there was room for improvement, the then revolutionary concept that each attack button corresponded to a particular limb, as well as the high-quality (for the time) 3D graphics, drew much attention from critics and gamers alike. Although the gameplay was essentially still across a 2D plane, Tekken became the benchmark for many 3D fighting games for years to come, not to mention the five main sequels.  

With significant improvements in almost every way, Tekken 2 was released on the PlayStation in 1996 to massive critical and commercial success, remaining a firm favourite among fans to this day. Again, the gameplay was largely along  two planes rather than three, but the refined graphics, additional fighters and extra moves helped secure the success of the series, bringing its popularity into line with older classics like Street Fighter. Clearly, Namco thought there was still room for improvement however, and in 1998 Tekken 3 was released for PlayStation.  

A smart kick will generates pixie dust for some reason

Tekken 3 was universally praised by critics and gamers as one of the best games of all time and its success cemented Tekken’s reputation as one of the greatest gaming series in history. The addition of extra game modes like Tekken Ball and Tekken Force helped round off one the most impressive fighting games ever. The graphics were among the best on the console and pushed the PlayStation hardware to its limits; as the last Tekken game on the original PlayStation, Tekken 3 would be the last numbered Tekken game for four years.  

Tekken 3 was followed by a compilation of sorts, with Tekken Tag debuting on the PlayStation 2 in 2000, which was met with high praise from gamers and critics. Containing virtually every character from each of the previous three Tekken games, Tekken Tag had an enormous roster and boasted a huge array of backgrounds to match. In hindsight, Tekken Tag may have been a pretty good place to stop but Tekken 4 inexorably followed two years later, in July 2002, again for PlayStation 2.  

Although reviews of the game were moderately good, Tekken 4 did not receive anything like the acclaim of its predecessors and many gamers felt that the game did little to progress the series, if anything. The changes it made, such as allowing players unprecedented levels of freedom to move around each arena and interact with the environment, were distractions from the core of the game, the hitherto flawless fighting mechanism of the Tekken series.   

Tekken 5 at least had some impressive backgrounds

Tekken 5, released nearly three years later, again on PlayStation 2, was more of a success that the previous title but still failed to live up to the lofty heights of the series from the days of Tekken 3. By now the series was stalling and other fighting series like Soul Calibur were rapidly moving in to steal Tekken’s crown as the king of 3D fighters. Tekken 5 was eventually re-released for PlayStation 3 as Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection on PSN in 2007 but was largely unnoticed many and soon forgotten. 

The first new game Tekken game to be released for PlayStation 3 was Tekken 6, released later in 2009. With mediocre review scores, and coming in with fierce competition from the well-established and hugely successful Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6 sank without trace for many gamers. The awkward ‘Scenario Campaign’ and a ridiculous ‘Bonus Round’ were unnecessary distractions from the main game which, although entertaining, clearly was not up to par when compared with the new competition. The game itself offered little in the way of progress and simply highlighted how much the series has fallen from grace.  

Rumours of Tekken 7 appearing at E3 next week might be enough to keep the series going for a bit longer but the Tekken series needs more than just another sequelif it is to have a chance at taking back its crown. Tekken needs to be stripped back, with fewer fighters and fewer gimmicks. The storyline has become so convoluted and repetitive that it makes little sense to the few gamers who care enough to try to follow it. Tekken should cut back, reboot, and reintroduce itself to a new brand generation of gamers – and retake its crown as the King of Fighters.  

So there you have three classic gaming series that we want to see rebooted. There are plenty more, some of which will be covered in the next part of this series. Are there any gaming series that you want to see rebooted? Let us know in the comments below.