Dead Video Game Franchises

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The Ninja Gaiden series first appeared in 1988 with arcade and NES games. After being considered dormant since 2015, the franchise made a surprising comeback in 2025. Fans were treated to a remastered version of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a completely new 3D action game called Ninja Gaiden 4, and a retro-style 2D platformer, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.

Fans of Ninja Gaiden have had a fantastic year, proving that some game series can make a strong comeback even after being absent for a long time. But can other forgotten franchises achieve the same success, or are they destined to remain lost to time? Let’s take a look at a mix of different game types to explore this question.

While these games are not officially dead, they haven’t seen any action for a very long time.

Strider

The Missing Ninja

  • Developer: Capcom
  • Publisher: Capcom
  • Released: April 1989 (NA)
  • Platform: Arcade

While the Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden games made a comeback in 2025, another classic ninja series, Strider, has faded from memory. Originally based on a 1988 manga, Strider first appeared in arcades in 1989 and was known for its fast-paced ninja gameplay.

The original Strider game came out in the 90s, but it took until 2014 for a reboot, which was a Metroidvania-style game. While the reboot was well-received, it didn’t get any sequels. However, the main character, Strider Hiryu, sometimes appears as a playable fighter in other games.

Resistance

A Challenge To Halo

After creating the popular Ratchet & Clank games, Insomniac Games developed the Resistance series. The first game, Resistance: Fall of Man, was released with the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and presented a unique spin on World War II, imagining an alien invasion.

Okay, so there were three main Resistance games, plus a couple of spin-offs for handheld consoles. The last one was Resistance: Burning Skies on the PS Vita back in 2012. Honestly, if you’re playing on a PS5, only one of these games is actually playable without needing PlayStation Plus streaming – and that’s the PSP title, Resistance: Retribution. But hey, at least it’s playable, and the emulation works really well!

Kid Icarus

What An Angel

The first Kid Icarus game launched for the NES in 1987. It was a fast-paced, vertical action game where players controlled an angel named Pit. A sequel, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, came out for the Game Boy in 1991. While it was more of a side-scrolling adventure, the gameplay was similar to the original.

Man, it felt like forever, but we finally got another Kid Icarus game in 2012, and Kid Icarus: Uprising on the 3DS totally delivered – it’s hands-down the best one! Since then, Pit’s mostly just popped up as a fighter in the Super Smash Bros. games, along with some other characters from the series.

Parasite Eve

Hot Flashes

Released for the PlayStation in 1998, Parasite Eve blended the suspense of Resident Evil with the storytelling of Final Fantasy. Players took on the role of a detective investigating a dangerous virus outbreak in New York City, and the game featured a unique combat system that combined real-time action with turn-based strategy.

After the first game, the second one on PlayStation 1 was way more about action. The third game, which they called The 3rd Birthday, really leaned into that too. That one came out on the PSP in 2011. Honestly, after the first two games got released digitally on the PS3, Square Enix hasn’t really done much with the series since then, which is a shame!

Breath Of Fire

The Original Dragonborn

Breath of Fire is a role-playing game series developed by Capcom. For a period, it was Capcom’s flagship RPG, similar to how Final Fantasy was for other companies. The first game came out for the Super Nintendo in North America in 1994. The most recent console installment was Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. However, the very last game in the series was Breath of Fire 6: Guardians of the White Dragon.

A free-to-play action RPG released in Japan in 2016 for PC and mobile devices was discontinued in 2017. More recently, Street Fighter 6 (2023) featured some creative character designs, including a nod to Katt from the second game, but fans haven’t seen any news about a new Breath of Fire game in a long time.

Zone Of The Enders

Super Fighting Robots

I still remember when Zone of the Enders first came out on the PS2 back in 2001 – it was such a stylish and fast-paced mech action game! It was popular enough that it actually got a spin-off tactical RPG on the GBA, plus two anime seasons, and then a full-blown sequel, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, also on the PS2. It’s a series I really enjoyed, and I was excited to see it expand beyond just the first game.

The original two Zone of the Enders games were updated in 2012 with the Zone of the Enders HD Collection. Later, in 2018, the second game received another update, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner MARS, which added a virtual reality mode. Although plans existed to create a third game based on the first remastered collection, the project was ultimately canceled.

Ridge Racer

Riiiidge Racer!

Before popular racing games like Need for Speed, Forza Motorsport, and Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer was Namco’s leading racing series. It started as an arcade game in 1993 and later came to home consoles with its debut on the PlayStation 1 in North America in 1995. Since then, many Ridge Racer games have been released on almost every gaming system, and most of them have been well-received.

Like all long-running series, the Ridge Racer franchise eventually ended. The last console game was Ridge Racer Unbounded in 2012, and the very last game released was a mobile title called Ridge Racer Draw & Drift in 2016.

Fat Princess

Sony Could Never Figure Out The Genre

Fat Princess stands out because Sony struggled to define its direction. The original game, released digitally for the PS3 in 2009, offered a unique multiplayer experience inspired by capture-the-flag. Instead of flags, players fought over large princesses, and could even feed them cake to slow down the opposing team.

So, they actually put Fat Princess on the PSP back in 2010, which was cool. Then things got a little weird in 2015 with two totally different games. One, Fat Princess Adventures, was a full-on dungeon crawler where you were exploring and fighting. The other, Fat Princess: Piece of Cake, was a puzzle game – a big shift! After that, the princesses mostly just popped up as little references in other stuff. It felt like they kind of faded away after that.

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2025-11-11 06:05