10 Franchises With The Most BAD Games

10 Franchises With The Most Bad Games

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 video game franchises that have become more well-known for having some truly awful games. If you like them, more power to you, but we cannot ignore the mass number of warts.

“Call of Duty” series (2003-)

Once upon a time, “Call of Duty” was a monumental runaway success where it felt like every game got better and better. We had “Modern Warfare”, “Modern Warfare 2”, “Black Ops”, and “Black Ops II”... But once we started getting into “Ghosts” and “Advanced Warfare”, the gradual plunge began. Every entry since has been excessive in lazily rehashed maps, new maps that are poorly designed, egregious monetization and crossover promotions, and campaigns that seem to constantly underdeliver. You know, maybe having several studios working on this one franchise isn’t such a hot idea after all?

“Need for Speed” series (1994-2022)

The “Need for Speed” games has seen its fair share of ups and downs throughout the decades. One installment of the arcade racing series winds up being amazing, then the next one fumbles miserably. But a frequent problem across most of them is the oppressive rubberbanding that lets the AI steal wins with ease, even if you’ve been sweating your butt off. Its at the point where there are really only three NFS games to pay attention to: “Hot Pursuit”, “Most Wanted”, and “Undercover”.

“Mortal Kombat” series (1992-2023)

There have been some real gems in the “Mortal Kombat” franchise. UMK3, “Deception”, the 2011 reboot, and even “Shaolin Monks” to name a few. They are the reasons the franchise is still revered today. Once you start digging into games like MK4, “Mythologies”, “Armageddon”, MK11, and the recent MK1…it's been an ugly ride, man. If it isn’t because of technical problems, NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Games have been raked over the coals for excessive monetization, poor balancing, recycled assets, god awful writing, and a failure to commit to any single game for more than eighteen months. At what point do we just put “Mortal Kombat” to bed for a few years?

“Sonic the Hedgehog” series (1991-)

Look, for the most part, the 2D Sonic games have been excellent with the exception of “Sonic the Hedgehog 4”. Its when you get into the 3D Sonic games where things get rough. “Sonic & the Black Knight”, “Sonic & the Secret Rings”, the infamous “Sonic ‘06” - they’ve mostly been middling at best. “Sonic Frontiers” was a great step in the right direction, thankfully, and the “Adventure” games are still fun to come back to every now and then. But overall, it remains to be seen whether Sonic really can excel in the third dimension.

Telltale Games (2005-2018)

Don’t get it twisted - Telltale Games made some truly exceptional games like “The Wolf Among Us”, “Tales From the Borderlands”, and even the “Poker Night” games. But for all the gems we remember, there are quite a number of titles in between them that slowly tainted the studio’s name. Whether it was a floundering plot like “Game of Thrones” or a technical trainwreck like “Batman”, Telltale Games dropped the ball several times after “The Walking Dead’s” first season exploded. With the poor quality and extensive wait between episodes, folks soon got fed up, and investors pulled out.

“Guitar Hero” series (2005-15)

It almost pains us to put “Guitar Hero” on here because, in reality, the original trilogy are some of the greatest rhythm games you could ever play. Even “World Tour” isn’t all that bad. But once you get away from those and into the spin-offs, it’s a bit of a dumpster fire. In terms of music, none of them are truly bad. However, they all kind of lack the flair and visual identity that the first four games had. It was no longer about being a rockstar. Now, it’s about being in the band or playing ONLY songs from one particular band like Aerosmith or Metallica.

“Bubsy” series (1993-)

Poor Bubsy has been the punching bag for decades, though you can’t feel too bad for him. Really, almost every “Bubsy” game to ever exist has been about as entertaining as seeing a real cat spend hours trying to hack up a furball. The platforming is awful, hurtboxes are all over the place, and in the case of “Bubsy 3D”, visually sickening. The only game the bobcat has ever seen that was actually decent was “Paws On Fire”, the auto-runner developed by Choice Provisions, the “Bit.Trip” studio. But we’d be lying if we didn’t say that “Bubsy 4D” actually looks pretty solid.

“Angry Birds” series (2009-)

For a time, “Angry Birds” had a fairly promising future. Not only was it among the first mobile games to truly capture the world, it led to some licensed spin-offs like “Star Wars” and “Transformers” that incorporated new mechanics. But over the years, the franchise grew incredibly stale even with spin-offs like “Angry Birds Go!”, “Bad Piggies”, and, well, just about anything that’s got the name tacked onto it. Every game feels the same, and we have to wonder who’s still playing these games anymore. Has Rovio ever thought about, maybe, doing something new?

“WWE 2K” series (2013-)

After THQ spent years publishing “Smackdown vs. Raw” only to go under in 2013, 2K took over the WWE license as developer Yuke’s pushed the series into more of a simulation gameplay formula like the UFC games. Unfortunately, this shift in WWE games would only bite everyone in the ass. Technical problems became more severe as the years droned on, character models got uglier, and eventually, the games became regular entries for WatchMojo’s “Worst Games of the Year” lists. Luckily, 2K finally realized that the series needed to spend more time in the oven with new developer Visual Concepts. So, we went a couple of years without a new WWE game, and when we got “2K22”, it turned out surprisingly great! But “2K25” soon restarted the downward spiral. Praise be THE ISLAND.

“Alone in the Dark” series (1992-2024)

For its time, “Alone in the Dark” was one of the most revolutionary games with its 3D visuals and environmental details. Sadly, the franchise hasn’t maintained its relevancy for decades now. The second and third games were just as solid, but “The New Nightmare” and every new installment after that has been nothing less of a disaster. The 2024 reboot was nowhere near as horrendous as the 2008 reboot and “Illumination”, but even then, it was just mundane, dull, lacking any real flavor while trying so hard to imitate the look and feel of modern “Resident Evil”. Perhaps “Alone in the Dark” is set to become the new “Bubsy”?

Have you played any of these games for yourself? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.