Nintendo has, without a doubt, created the most iconic franchises in gaming history. Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and others are worldwide household names whose games keep improving as the years go on. New things are always in store for Nintendo's most beloved series.
On the other hand, plenty of popular franchises have been set down for good by the gaming titan. Many characters whose names are iconic even today haven't seen a new game for at least ten years, maybe more.
10 F-Zero Didn't Stand Out In The Modern Era
Anyone who's played the Super Smash Bros. series of games knows Captain Falcon, the wielder of the all-powerful falcon punch, and "The Knee." The Captain's original series, F-Zero, made a pretty big splash when its first game launched on the SNES in 1991. It was far and away the best racer on the console, faster than Super Mario Kart and with tighter controls than other games like Top Gear.
F-Zero stood poised to have a long-running series of successes. Unfortunately, as new Mario Kart games came out, F-Zero found that it wasn't as accessible to younger audiences and didn't fit the Nintendo vibe as well. After the 2004 release of the fittingly named F-Zero Climax, the series was put to the side and hasn't been picked up since.
9 Mother/Earthbound Sold Extremely Poorly
Out of the three Mother titles, only one of the trilogy made it to the U.S. Titled Earthbound, it's infamous for its high-quality gameplay that was cast aside due to low-quality advertising. The United States video game market didn't really know how to market avant-garde, trippy JRPG's, and so the wonderful RPG was marketed as a "gross" game, following one of the weirder 90's trends.
This didn't work out in Earthbound's favor, and the game sold terribly upon release, a classic lost to the ages. Only within the past 10 years has the game been widely praised, too late for the series to make a true revival.
8 Pokémon Ranger Was Too Reliant On The DS
Out of all of the spinoff series the Pokémon franchise has spawned, the Pokémon Ranger games were some of the most interesting. Instead of catching Pokémon that were permanently added to a player's team, audiences used the Nintendo DS's touchpad and stylus to draw a certain number of circles around the creature to tame it for a while. Rangers could only use a Pokémon's ability once before letting them go, which made the gathering of critters a fun necessity.
Unfortunately, since the game both relied on the DS's touchpad and saw a severe dip in popularity since the first title, the series never made it to the 3DS.
7 Nintendogs Was A 2000's Fad
Back in the early 2000s when Tamagotchis were hitting peak popularity, Nintendo cashed in with the Nintendogs series for the Nintendo DS. The games had players taking care of a virtual pet they could play with and love as much as they wanted.
Younger kids ate the concept up and the series sold like hotcakes, becoming the second best-selling franchise on the system. After the 3DS versions came out to a very mild reception in comparison, Nintendo realized that the series had outlived its usefulness, and it has yet to return on the Switch.
6 Golden Sun Peaked During Its First Entries
One of the better RPGs to be released on the Game Boy Advance, Golden Sun was an example of a generic yet well-done classic JRPG. Spells could be used both in and out of battle, a way to solve puzzles that increased immersion due to the realistic multi-functionality of the magic.
The stories behind the first two games were well crafted, but the third game, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, simply wasn't as interesting as its predecessors. The concept behind the series was really only suited to the original duo, and instead of overstaying its welcome, Golden Sun was dropped before it could sink lower.
5 Punch Out!! Became A Cult Classic
One of the NES's most popular titles, the Punch Out!! series has a surprisingly short list of games. Other than the non-Nintendo arcade games/home computer titles, only three games have ever appeared on home consoles.
Punch Out!! for the Wii was a fantastic reimagining of the original game, with much more expressive bosses, fun and responsive gameplay, and all-new attack patterns mixed in with old favorites. In many fans' eyes, it was the perfect Punch Out!! reboot, which may explain the complete dearth of new titles. The series peaked and was left alone.
4 Kid Icarus Didn't Stand Out Enough
While two of the three Kid Icarus titles have sold well, Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS even becoming a semi-bestseller, the franchise has never really been all that popular. If it wasn't for fact that the Super Smash Bros. games featured multiple characters from the series, it's unlikely many people outside of Japan would be familiar with Pit or Palutena.
They're not poorly designed characters, but Pit really doesn't stand out enough to get a regularly recurring rotation of games. For the time being, fans shouldn't expect another game in the near future.
3 Banjo Kazooie Walked A Dark Path
The story of Banjo Kazooie's fall from grace is a truly depressing tale. Banjo Kazooie, the original game on the N64, sold like hotcakes, and for good reason. It had everything that a good Nintendo game needed: expressive and memorable characters, tight platforming controls, rewarding exploration, and a sense of childhood wonder. Its successor, Banjo Tooie, was a solid successor, although the gameplay could get a bit slow compared to the original.
Then, no new games for eight years. Banjo Threeie was teased, but in 2008, the heart-breakingly disappointing Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts came out. A mediocre cart-building game toted as the third entry to a beloved collect-a-thon series pushed the franchise over the edge and out of sight.
2 Star Fox Couldn't Recapture Its Glory Days
While the Star Fox series got a game as recently as 2016, it's more than likely that there won't be another game in the series. The last actually good new Star Fox game was the classic Star Fox 64 all the way back in 1997.
Since then, only a few original titles have been released, and instead of simply sticking with a fun rail-shooter style with good level design, the teams behind the newer games always attempt something new and quirky. It hasn't resulted in anything but disaster yet, rendering the franchise effectively dead.
1 Wario Land/World Fell From Popularity
Serving as sort of a counterpart to the Mario 2D side-scrollers of the time, as well as a way to cash in on the popularity of Wario after Super Mario Land 2, the Wario Land games are a hidden gem these days. Running through different locations as Wario was a blast. From shoulder bashing enemies to solving puzzles with one of Wario's unique power-ups, there was a lot of fun to be had.
Unfortunately, as the years went on, Wario's popularity waned, and the Wii game Wario Land: Shake It became the last Wario platformer.
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