Top 10 Game Franchises Tainted by Free to Play

Despite being amongst the most storied RPG franchises in gaming history, this series’ success didn’t carry over to the mobile title “All the Bravest.” On the surface, it sounds awesome, since it lets you fight a collection of the some of the most iconic enemies in the series, using “all the bravest” characters from throughout the franchise’s lengthy history. Unfortunately, 35 of these sweet character are locked behind a pay wall and cost a buck each, and, get this, you can’t even choose which one you get when you choose to buy.

The first two iterations of this racing franchise were highly lauded for being some of the finest driving games for iOS. Sadly, the third title went the freemium route, and the results weren’t pretty. To start, there were the pricey real-world cars, which cost as much as $160. Even worse, though, you had to pay for repairs to your car after the races were over, or just wait a super long time. This was such an unpopular feature that EA patched the game to cut these times in half, but the damage was done – so to speak.

Next up is yet another iOS franchise where the third game went astray. The first two titles in the action RPG series was one of the best Diablo clones you could find on mobile. But but not so much the third game onward, which jettisoned a decent narrative along with an initial purchase price. Additionally, the arena levels can be frustrating, and you’ll need to buy the keys you use to unlock the treasure you earn after each once you get through the initial ten.

We waited 17 years for the return of this legendary arcade fighting franchise, but the Xbox One’s 2013 F2P version didn’t live up to the hype. That was partially due to the limited character selection, since at launch, Jago was the only one you could play with for free, and additional characters cost $5 each, leading to way too many people using him on Xbox Live. Fans of the series will know this by now but NOBODY LIKES JAGO. Even though the free character now rotates on a schedule, you’re best to stick with the originals to get our fix of the series’ famous combos.

The nineties version of this JRPG for PS1, and GBA is a classic of the genre, but the same can’t be said about its iOS port. While it nicely adopted the combat to touchscreen, it stumbled by making many of the bosses practically unbeatable. Unbeatable, that is, unless you purchased the healing Miracle Orbs for $2 each, which revive your party when they fall in battle. Even if you did get sucked in to buying them, they became worthless once Namco made the app unusable in July 2014.

Here’s another franchise with a later installment that ruined our childhood memories. We grew up with the simulation series ’first three entries, thanks to them letting us create awesome, or sometimes flat out deadly rides. The fourth game, for mobile, looked like its predecessors, but gameplay was wrecked by requiring the purchase of tickets to speed up the building processes, on top of its initial $2.99 cost. It later became F2P, but it didn’t feel anymore worthwhile.

This weapon-based fighting fighting series is right up there with the greats of the genre, but its F2P version for the PS3, “Lost Swords,” certainly isn’t one of them. Loosely building off of Soul Calibur 5, it strips the title of its multiplayer fun for an entirely singer player experience. Although a single player game isn’t horrible, this is a fighting game! Where’s the fun to be had if you can’t embarrass your friends with a little button mashing. Then there’s the load times: “SNORE”.

Why would anyone turn an awesome run and gun series into a bland lane defense game? We don’t know, but developer SNK Playmore seemed to think it was a good idea for “Defense,” their F2P mobile entry in the franchise. Sadly, they were wrong, as it gets the aesthetic appeal of the originals, including the iconic “Mission Start” (:09) voiceover, but without the frenetic fun. Even worse, you’ll need to upgrade your troops to get very far, and that’ll require microtransactions. Lastly, someone should have told the developers that strategy is an important aspect of this genre, because you really don’t need any here, just money.

When the first entry in this mobile franchise came out, it was a refreshing contribution to the tower defense genre, thanks to its hilarious humor, addictive gameplay, and morbid but adorable animations (5:18). Plants vs Zombies 2 brought those elements back, but it also added some vicious difficulty spikes which made it tough to unlock new worlds without buying your way there. Don’t feel like paying? Prepare to grind yourself silly. You’ll be shelling out for premium plants, the plants you got for free in the original.

Before we get to our number one, let’s take a look at some honorable, or maybe we should say dishonorable, mentions:

“Theme Park mobile” (2011)
“Theme Park” series (1994-)

“Where’s My Water? 2” (2013)
“Where’s My Water?” series (2011-)

“Tekken Revolution” (2013)
“Tekken” series (1994-)

Greedily topping our list is the 2013 mobile version of this RTS franchise. Fans we’re waiting a looong time for a sequel to the Dungeon Keeper franchise, and unfornately, they had to wait a lot longer because as they finished the tutorial, they were greeted with an area with a four hour timer for excavation unless you pay to speed it up. And that’s just the first paywall, of which there are many. EA got into a fair amount of trouble for this one; not only were they accused to manipulating reviews in the Google Play Store, but they were found guilty of False advertising in the UK for advertising their veiled cash grab as “Free”. At least EA has such a great repuatation with gamers already, right?

Do you agree with our list? What game franchise do you think was better in its non freemium days? For more free-to-watch top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.