Despite the popularity of Mario, the long-running series has had its fair share of disappointments. Sure, it has a higher hit rate than most video game series, but games like Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Run are two games that many fans don’t love. That’s not a rarity. Most beloved series have at least one game that fans hate. God of War has its weird mobile offshoots. Fallout’s second tactical game fell short, and Fallout 76’s launch didn’t help matters. The list goes on. However, some series have managed to stay consistently great. Sometimes that’s because we haven’t gotten too many games in the series, but others have somehow managed to deliver year after year.
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Here are the three video game series that are consistently great from beginning to end.
3) Red Dead
Red Dead Revolver isn’t nearly as good as the rest of the series, but it introduced Dead Eye mode and was a solid third-person shooter on the PlayStation 2. For the most part, Dead Eye mode and the setting are the only things that came forward to the rest of the series, but a few characters have popped up in the two Red Dead Redemption games.
Speaking of those two, they are some of the most beloved things developer Rockstar has ever put out. While I have some issues with the slower pace of Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s impossible to deny that it’s one of the most impressive stories ever put into a video game. Rockstar’s production values go above and beyond, taking the basic gameplay of the first Red Dead Redemption and transforming it into an epic Western.
I haven’t even talked about Undead Nightmare. The Red Dead Redemption story DLC is still one of the best examples of good downloadable content, despite being more than a decade old. And while Red Dead Online never caught on like Grand Theft Auto Online, it’s still an enjoyable offshoot. In short, Red Dead is a series that started strong and has only become better.
2) Warcraft
Warcraft is one of the rare series that successfully switched genres, technically pulling it off more than once. The series started as one of the granddaddies of real-time strategy, helping popularize multiplayer gameplay. After the success of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, developer Blizzard released two more RTS games, namely Warcraft 3.
That game will go down as one of the finest RTS games ever produced, and it has the distinction of essentially starting a new genre. Using custom maps and the hero units that Warcraft 3 brought to the table, players created Defense of the Ancients, which kick-started the MOBA genre. Blizzard itself was slow to hop onto that genre train, but games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 wouldn’t exist without Warcraft 3.
Then, Blizzard turned the series on its head, giving fans World of Warcraft. It became the most popular MMO of all time, becoming a true sensation as millions of players hopped in every month. There have been ups and downs with WoW, but it’s still one of the most-played MMOs on the market.
Blizzard made another genre shift with Hearthstone, turning Warcraft into one of the most popular card games in the world. Again, it’s fallen off in recent years, but it was a genuine phenomenon when it launched. Sure, Warcraft Rumble didn’t light the world on fire as a mobile tower defense game. It wasn’t terrible, but it has been shut down because it didn’t meet expectations. That said, it’s a blip on the radar, and tower defense fans didn’t hate it for what it was.
1) Metal Gear Solid
If you want to get technical, this entry would have to include every Metal Gear game, which means we’d have to toss in the horrible Metal Gear Survive survival game from 2018. However, we’re only looking at the Metal Gear Solid series, so we get to throw that game aside (and unfortunately lose the first two games and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance).
The Metal Gear Solid series hasn’t ever had a bad game. That’s impressive when you remember that you have to include portable games like Peace Walker and Portable Ops, and two weird turn-based card games with Acid and Acid 2. Heck, reviewers even liked the mobile-only game Metal Gear Solid Mobile.
And that’s not even touching the mainline series. Hideo Kojima’s five MGS games are some of the most cinematically impressive we’ve ever seen. The commitment to realism is truly jaw-dropping, and Kojima’s team consistently pushed the industry forward visually.
Recently, Konami even proved it still has some chops without Kojima and his team, putting out the mostly excellent Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. It seems unlikely that we’ll ever see a Metal Gear Solid VI, but you never know these days. If it does happen, here’s hoping Konami doesn’t completely screw it up. Even if they do, at least we’ll still have Physint.
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
