10 Video Game Series You Either LOVE or HATE

10 Video Game Series You Either Love or Hate

Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re not picking sides but we’re definitely on the fence about some of the biggest franchises in gaming.

“Metal Gear Solid” (1987-2015)

Starting out in the industry in his 20s, Hideo Kojima’s vision outpaced the technology at the time, and he was forced to invent an entirely new genre to bring his creation to life: the stealth genre. Since then, he’s become renowned both famously and infamously for his eccentric style of cinematic gaming in which sometimes his flourish for production can completely overshadow the game itself. With innovative mechanics and characters that have become part of the gaming zeitgeist, it’s almost impossible to ignore Kojima’s impact on the industry. However, it’s in much of Kojima’s “Show Don’t Tell” approach to storytelling that has turned off a large part of gamers simply looking to stealth their way through some increasingly outlandish scenarios. Kojima has a story to tell and he’s going to tell it his way and you might as well grab the popcorn because you’re going to be here for a while as he tells it.

“Fortnite” (2017)

Arguably one of the biggest franchises in the world right now, that’s also one of the reasons it has become so despised by many gamers over the years. Fortnite became one of the biggest gaming sensations in history and the constant stream of updates and new skins kept players coming back and pumping millions of dollars into Epic’s bank accounts. It is partially due to this popularity, however, that much of the audience began to turn on Fortnite. Due to its enormous reach and popularity, the game became not only a commercial success but also overly commercialized. Everyone and their grandma wanted some kind of cross promotion until you had Goku taking on John Wick at the top of some hastily built skyscrapers. Then there was the merchandise. So. Much. Merchandise. Gaming isn’t exactly a niche hobby anymore, but no one wants to have a game shoved down their throat at every possible turn either.

“Destiny” (2014-)

Bungie’s split from Microsoft to begin a new original franchise understandably had a lot of people’s attention and while the initial releases of Destiny still had the series’ trademark solid shooting mechanics, everything else around the game was severely lacking. Thankfully, Bungie stuck with it and managed to turn the series around with consistent updates and a vastly improved sequel. After their split with Activision however, Bungie has consistently divided their own fanbase with many feeling the recent updates are consistently dropping in quality as well as numerous balancing issues that make it more difficult to acquire some of the games rarest items. Every new patch and DLC is met with anticipation the series will manage to return to the best days of the franchise that may well be truly over. And because of this, many are hoping Bungie will move on to a new experience and leave the world of Destiny behind.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” (2014-)

Five Nights at Freddy’s arguably wouldn’t be the gaming sensation it is without the vast number of YouTubers playing and reacting to the game’s many jump scares. The simple premise of a night watchman surviving the night against various living animatronics recreates a fear many had growing up and seeing those Chuck E Cheese nightmares dancing and singing on stage. Through numerous sequels and spin-offs, the FNAF series has maintained a solid fanbase and even spawned what will likely be a just as successful film franchise. However, many longtime fans have turned their back on it in recent years. The repetitive gameplay, inconsistent lore, the aforementioned endless stream of spin-offs, as well as the recent entry Security Breach seemingly being aimed specifically at a younger audience seems to have oversaturated the market that once adored the animatronic Bear and his murderous friends.

“Pokemon” (1996-)

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who couldn’t name at least a couple Pokemon. The series took the world by storm back in the late 90s and early 2000s with numerous entries, spin-offs, card games and collectibles and has maintained a consistently loyal fanbase dedicated to “catching ‘em all”. That being said, even the most die-hard of fans have been having a rough go of it in recent years. Alongside some confusing type combinations, the mainline games themselves have dropped significantly in quality compared to the early days of Pokemon hunting back on Nintendo’s handhelds. While there have been a couple bright spots such as Legends Arceus, the most recent Scarlet and Violet were technical disasters, full of bugs, ugly game worlds and design, and nowhere near the quality fans of Pokemon and Nintendo have come to expect. We can only hope the upcoming Legends Z-A turns the series around.

“Assassin’s Creed” (2007-)

The Assassin’s Creed series put Ubisoft on the map in a big way and they have consistently been pumping out sequels and spinoffs for almost 2 decades. While the early entries had memorable characters, impressive recreations of historic cities, the constant yearly release diluted the brand and eventually led to a re-evaluation of the franchise which in turn led to yet ANOTHER re-evaluation due to backlash over the many changes that split the fanbase. Whereas the AC series used to have tightly designed cities for players to explore, later entries went much bigger and what used to be intricately designed parkour arenas were instead vast stretches of landmass with little to do or explore. Even the most loyal of fans have been calling for Ubisoft to return to the series’ roots and while Mirage was a step in the right direction, it still failed to measure up to the classics, especially the beloved Ezio trilogy.

“Sonic The Hedgehog” (1991-) It can be rough being a Sonic fan these days. For every shining example of what makes the series iconic such as Sonic Mania, there’s a Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric to just crush die-hard fans' dreams. While Sonic dominated the scene in the 90s, Sega’s mascot struggled to keep pace in the 3D space and his speed often caused problems navigating the 3D environments. Longtime fans have clung to the few titles that managed to stand out and offer a fun experience such as Sonic Unleashed, while other attempts haven’t been nearly as successful such as the now infamous Sonic ‘06. Throughout everything however, Sonic has always managed to come out on top and his fanbase has remained loyal and if the recent success of Sonic Frontiers is any indication, hopefully even those who had given up on Sonic years ago can rekindle their love for the Hedgehog.

“Kingdom Hearts” (2002-)

Admittedly there’s a lot of reasons why Kingdom Hearts doesn’t appeal to everyone: the convoluted story spread across numerous consoles and generations, the dramatic and over-the-top nature of the many characters and the anime-esque delivery of many of their awkward lines of dialogue, but that’s also some of the reasons so many people love it as well. The teams at Square have done a remarkable job of recreating the various Disney worlds players explore and, in some cases, even expanding on the world beyond the movies, with many of the voice actors from the films even reprising their roles. We’re not going to lie, all the discussion about hearts and Heartless can get a little cringe-worthy but that’s also part of the series charm and is understandably not for everyone, but those who love the series LOVE the series and eagerly await any and all new entries.

“Dark Souls” (2011-16)

This one will be a bit contentious but stick with me here. There’s no denying how much of an impact the Dark Souls series has had on the industry and rightfully so. The worlds FromSoftware have created are so intricately designed and complimented by their tough but relatively fair combat, it led millions of players to “git gud”. However, the other side of this impact is the influence it has had on the gaming world. Nearly every year since Dark Souls became a sensation, there has consistently been well over a handful of “Souls-Likes” from both AAA and indie developers to the point where it seems that there is some kind of Souls DNA in nearly every major action game released in the last decade. It’s honestly becoming exhausting and an immediate turn-off for anyone looking for or expecting a fun hack-and-slash or action game to have to endure yet another “Souls-Like”.

“Call of Duty” (2003-)

The Call of Duty series is one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world and has millions playing its titles every single day. But that doesn’t mean the series is still as beloved as it once was. After the unprecedented success of Modern Warfare back in 2007, Activision has been pumping out sequels to varying success almost every single year without fail. After the success of Fortnite and PUBG, COD introduced its own version of Battle Royale in Warzone, and this is arguably where the series began to deviate the most from its roots. Much like Fortnite, Warzone began releasing numerous Operator bundles that were often nothing more than cross-promotion that made little to no sense within the more semi-realistic Call of Duty series. Many fans have since gone back to playing the older titles and given up on modern COD entirely, finding more joy in reliving the tightly constructed maps of the series peak.


Which video game series do you love despite everyone else hating it? Share your favorites down in the comments.