5 Video Game Franchises That Died This Decade (& 5 That Came Back To Life)

Lionhead Studio’s Fable was the Xbox’s flagship RPG franchise. While infamous for Peter Molyneux’s grand unfulfilled technological promises, it still managed to please legions of Microsoft fans for years throughout the company’s first two consoles. Sadly, the company closed in 2016 , leaving an upcoming title in the series canceled. The franchise’s future is currently up in the air, though Phil Spencer has hinted at a possible comeback several times in recent years. Whatever happens, it probably won’t involve Molyn

The combat is the most obvious example of Bug Fables borrowing liberally from Mario’s roleplaying adventures. The way you attack enemies is dependent upon different timing sequences and button presses. Moves will require stopping an arrow inside of a meter or timing an attack by holding down the joystick until the right moment, and enemy attacks can be blocked by hitting the A button just as they hit you to reduce the damage you suffer. It’s all very derivative, but excellent, and Bug Fables throws in enough of its own flair so it doesn’t feel like a complete imitat

This will especially be the case if you’re a fan of the first Paper Mario game or its sequel Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door . Bug Fables does everything in its power to be a spiritual successor to those games, and it comes insanely close to being a complete succ

Bug Fables is pretty solid in every aspect, but I will admit to some mild frustration due to the game’s dedication to being a Paper Mario tribute act. As a result of the flat style, sometimes the platforming and puzzle sections were a little awkward. Lining up certain jumps could be hard to gauge as the shadows under the characters were too light to reliably determine where I was going to land. This problem could be exacerbated if I was trying to go toward or away from the screen as the ground might not be fully visible due to the camera’s position. The side view of the game could also be a hindrance to solving puzzles as it would be hard to properly aim abilities like Vi’s Beemerang, which made some puzzles more annoying than they should have b

Nintendo hasn’t made a true Paper Mario game since 2004’s Thousand Year Door , and if you’ve always wished for another game like those first two in the series then you should probably check this out. It doesn’t revolutionize the RPG formula, but Bug Fables shows that you don’t need an Italian plumber to have fun playing with pa

Yet that doesn’t mean every rumor spread online is true, and there are tons of rumors that simply will not manifest at E3 2019 . What does or doesn’t make it to the stage remains to be seen, and though these rumors do not have any real confirmation, here are the biggest rumor game announcements for the gaming e

However, Fable 4 rumors have been popping up quite a bit lately, leading gamers to suspect an announcement was imminent. Unfortunately, no such announcement was made, though it’s possible Microsoft could be saving Fable 4 for next year as an early Project Scarlett rele

One of the newer games on this list, Moving Out is a co-op game all about moving furniture. While the controls can admittedly be frustrating at times, Moving Out otherwise shines thanks to its sharp sense of humor and whacky co-op ant

During Bethesda’s E3 presentation last year, The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 developer Tango Gameworks revealed that it was working on a new survival-horror game, Ghostwire: Tokyo. Not a lot is currently known about Ghostwire: Tokyo , only that it’s not a traditional horror game, but an action-adventure where players will need to rid the city of Tokyo of paranormal enemies and supernatural evil. Given that no release window or platforms were announced, it seems safe to say did ghostwire Tokyo flop: Tokyo is eyeing the next-generation consoles, although this is currently speculat

In between battles, your party of three will travel to various locations that will require some platforming and puzzle-solving to obtain the next artifact. Each character has a special ability that can be used to get past hazards and giant gaps. Vi’s “Beemerang” can be thrown to activate switches and cranks as well as gather items that are out of reach. Kabbu can use his horn to move objects and cut through grass. Leif can use his ice magic to freeze water and enemies so they can be used as platforms. Figuring out which abilities need to be combined to traverse Bugaria’s harsh landscape was never very challenging, but it still managed to be a fun part of the g

Said to have a “small chance” at appearing during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, a Perfect Dark reboot would certainly be welcomed by fans of a franchise long-thought dead. Yet, if this does prove to be the case, it’s rumored to be in third-person and not developed by Rare Studios, marking significant changes from the original, so it remains to be seen how the reception of a reboot would stand up in compari

There are actually a couple of different LEGO games available on Xbox Game Pass at the time of this writing, but LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars is arguably the best of the bunch. The LEGO games have been offering their familiar brand of local co-op action for years now, and while each game is more or less the same, they all have their own little quirks to help them stand apart from one another. Plus, fans can play through LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars on Xbox Game Pass as a refresher while they wait for the release of the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga video g