Top 11 Video Game Franchises
- CJ Tiernan
- Dec 15, 2025
- 10 min read
By CJ Tiernan
Video games have become so much more than a way to pass the time or a device over which to bond. People make money, have careers even, based around the playing of video games. Isn't it wonderful? I'm not actually particularly good at playing them, and as I get older I find myself distancing more and more from playing, but I sure do enjoy it. My favorite games are largely multiplayer games. I don't play many solo games anymore. I find a little voice in the back of my head nagging at me to be productive when I'm just playing games by myself so unless I'm like staying home sick or something, I don't usually fly solo. However, I do quite like to play with others. You'll find that my list is somewhat skewed toward my local multiplayer experiences. Since I first played Return Fire at my best friend's house in the mid-'90s on the original PlayStation, I've enjoyed the experience. I even played some games on my dad's old Intellivision back in the day. I say all this as a preamble to acknowledge that I have biases and experiences which have influenced my list in a way that will probably differ from yours. That's cool. You can enjoy my list anyway. Below is a list of my Top 11 favorite Video Game Franchises that I've ever played multiple games in.
1. Resident Evil
Games Played in the Franchise: Resident Evil 2 (original and remake), Resident Evil 3 Remake, Resident Evil: Code - Veronica X, Resident Evil: Outbreak, Resident Evil 4 (original and remake), Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Resident Evil 8: Village
Ah, my first love. There's nothing like it. I bought a used copy of Resident Evil 2 (It was two discs because you had to switch depending on whether you were playing as Leon or Claire) from Video Games Etc. for the original PlayStation after watching my friends older brother play it at his house. I loved not only the intense story, dramatic tension, and constant sense of dread, but also that my brothers enjoyed watching me play. It felt like we were playing together. Looking back on it, I don't know that one-player games are played with an audience like this anymore (I guess I could be way off on this. I know Twitch exists but I've never partaken). I went on to play almost all the games in the series except for the original one and even played multiple remakes. My youngest brother and I really bonded over these games and I absolutely love the addition of Mercenaries. It was added to Resident Evil 5 as multiplayer or co-op and that was the greatest addition ever. We played countless hours of Resident Evil 5 (Sheva Tribal!) and Resident Evil 6 on Mercenaries, trying to get an "S" on every iteration of characters. It was a brilliant add to bring multiple players into a world that had been a solo operation for so long.
2. Elder Scrolls
Games Played in the Franchise: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls games are simply amazing. They create such an elaborate and involved world it is unbelievable. You're dropped in a time of swords and armor and slowly develop the ability to survive and thrive by advancing various skill sets. There is also magic and mayhem afoot and you get to join or disavow various factions. The biggest bummer about these games is that you have to wait so long between releases. The masses are hungry for more! It is easy to tell why it takes so long, though. The worlds are unspeakably livable. It is as though Bethesda has copyrighted (copywritten? copywrote?) magic and they're holding it hostage. One day, my friends, we will get to Elder Scrolls VI. One day...
3. Fallout
Games Played in the Franchise: Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4
This is another game wherein it feels as though we have to wait forever for the next installment. The aesthetic in these games is unbelievable. We are placed in a retro-future where the world was destroyed in an alternate past that had butler robots. C'mon, man. Why can't our past have butler robots? You get to play as a naive person who has been living in a vault and then traverse what is left of the world after nuclear annihilation. What's the deal with all this nuclear annihilation stuff? Do people with nukes not have some sort of auditor in charge of, like, making sure that people don't try and blow up the world. What's the benefit here? Once you launch a nuke and initiate the end of the world, you and everyone you know, and everyone you will ever know, are cooked. It's famously a bad move. The games, however, are famously great.
4. TimeSplitters
Games Played in the Franchise: TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters Future Perfect
This is one of the entries on my list with the fewest total games. The 2 games I have played (which, not counting a new fan-released version just released for free online last month, consists of only 3 games) are simply incredible. Again, I mostly played this one in a multiplayer format. I grew up as the oldest of 5. I have 3 brothers and a sister. My sister wasn't huge into playing games, so that left me with 3 brothers. That, my friends, is the perfect number for some 4-player split-screen action. We played a lot of these two games. You had like a hundred different characters you could choose from, a delightful spread of maps and game modes, and some insane choices for weapons. You could also build your own multiplayer maps. Aw man, I used to love building maps for us to play at. You could use teleports and make the levels multiple-stories high. It was elaborate and so much fun. And weird. I liked how weird it was (you could play as someone whose head was a hand and someone who was dressed as a robot using cardboard boxes).
5. Rock Band
Games Played in the Franchise: Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Rock Band 3
Rock Band was a game changer. I'm not, nor have I ever really been (except for when I played the cello in elementary school), very musically inclined. I mean, I like listening to music but I do so without a discerning ear. I like what I like and I can't necessarily extrapolate much beyond that. Because of this game, you didn't have to be a super musician to play super music. What a deal! I have a brother who plays the guitar (who initially got into it because of this and Guitar Hero) and a brother that plays the drums. That left me and my youngest brother to duke it out for vocals and bass guitar (once we got a second guitar, I got bass, he got vocals - and the keyboard in Rock Band 3). You can even randomly generate your band name so you can end up with something like Mouth Lung or Bacon Legislature. We went and named our band Epistaxis (which is the medical term for a nose bleed), but we may have swapped out an "I" or two for a "Y" because, you know, we're cool.
6. Madden
Games Played in the Franchise: Madden 97, Madden 2002-2007, Madden 2009-2010, Madden 2012, Madden 15-16, Madden 18-25
I remember the very first Madden game I ever bought had Dante Culpepper on the cover (names that make you smile, anyone?). The bottom of the disc was cool because it didn't have just the normal color silver on it, it was like blue or purple or something. It was neato Toledo. I first played at a friend's house on the Sega Genesis. I vividly remember having Edgar Bennett running up and down the field for my Green Bay Packers. Good times. Fun fact: during the infamous halftime show that featured Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, and a wardrobe malfunction (I think you know the one), I missed it because I was playing Madden with a friend. We were trying to determine who would win. He rightly had his Patriots beat my Panthers. This game is such an ingrained part of the history of pro football during my lifetime. Not only is John Madden THE voice of football for so many, but it made football fun and accessible. Nowadays, countless players in the league actually play the game themselves. They get recognized when they play so well on the field that they earn the coveted "99 Overall" honor in the game. As for the curse, well, when's the last time you thought about Peyton Hillis?
7. Call of Duty
Games Played in the Franchise: Call of Duty, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (original and remake), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
FPS (first person shooter) games are a staple of the video game world. From the first time I ever played Area 51 in an arcade (shoutout to movie theaters that used to harbor arcade games in their lobbies), I understood the appeal of the FPS. I don't condone taking a gun into the real world, but in a game, it's a blast (pun shamelessly intended!). My brothers and I spent countless hours at Terminal and Rust (Rust!) intermittently shooting at and hiding from one another. The levels were all seemingly designed with painstaking detail to ensure that I would always get sniped from a direction I wasn't looking. It was a real joy. The various weapon sets and perks and killstreaks and all sorts of infrastructure were perfectly manufactured and I simply didn't possess the skills to take advantage. But, game recognize game, it was a great series.
8. Ratchet & Clank
Games Played in the Franchise: Ratchet & Clank (original and reboot/remake), Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
How many games are crafted with more glee than these ones? They are kinda ridiculous and bear unbridled enthusiasm at every turn. I love me some Captain Qwark, and the enemies are hilarious, but how about the guns? You can turn your enemies into a chicken (or a duck or a sheep or a snowman or a penguin, depending on the game). The game play is simple, but you have to do multiple play-throughs to get all the various collectibles and to up your arsenal to the Ryno (or its many sequels). It is crazy fun, ultimately straightforward, and an audiovisual (dare I say multimedia) delight.
9. Twisted Metal
Games Played in the Franchise: Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal 2, Twisted Metal III, Twisted Metal 4, and Twisted Metal: Black
Violence is rarely this removed from a sense of impropriety. It was largely just cars shooting at other cars. You didn't really see human beings and therefore any sense of wrong doing was largely removed your mind. In fact, thanks to the unlimited special cheat code, I could be Spectre and just fire my magic missiles at the bad guys while driving around and not seeing anyone and win in the blink of an eye. That all changed with Twisted Metal: Black. Aw man, what a game! There was a character whose special ability was literally to fling a dude onto another persons car strapped with dynamite and blow up while clinging to the car. You got to see graphic backstories and knife-twists on wish fulfillment. It was crazy and chaotic and an absolute treat. It was one of the first games we got for our PS2 and it was a revolution.
10. Pokémon
Games Played in the Franchise: Pokémon Blue, Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Pinball, Pokémon Silver, Pokémon GO
I was mostly a PlayStation guy growing up but don't you think for one second I didn't have a GameBoy. Ooh, baby, I had an O.G. You remember those gray ones with the reddish purple buttons? Yep, I had one. I quite enjoyed it too until my brother took it, threw it in the air, and interrupted its natural, gravity-assisted arc with his head. The LCD screen cracked and it was a gooey mess. R.I.P. (my brother's head was fine by the way. Thanks for asking). After I got a replacement (an all black one with dark gray buttons), I was back to playing Tetris. I also got me some Pokémon Blue action. That was always the big thing: two versions of the game so you had to have friends and get different versions to be able to trade and complete your Pokédex. I didn't like that part because we had several Pokémon seemingly get stuck in the cord. The person who had it didn't have it anymore but the person who was supposed to receive it never got it. Flawed system. Other than that, though, the games were awesome. I've definitely spent more hours on Pokémon GO than any other Pokémon game, but I did absolutely love Silver and Pinball. The Pokémon Pinball cartridge had a spot where you could put a battery so that the device would shake. I think they called it a rumble pack. It was awesome!
11. Midnight Club
Games Played in the Franchise: Midnight Club: Street Racing, Midnight Club II, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, Midnight Club: Los Angeles
I think the first Midnight Club was our first ever PS2 game. Dude, what a fun ride. You progress through the ranks in the street-racing game, getting better and better cars along the way. It was always one of my favorite racing games ever (my favorite racing game ever is Burnout: Paradise. I have bought the game 4 times for 3 different consoles over the years. It is awesome but doesn't make my list because it's the only Burnout game I ever played) because it wasn't on a closed course. You were in among the common rabble. There was a chaos element with unsuspecting cars getting in the way and getting mad at you. Hilarious! (again, only within the context of the game. Not cool in the real world). In later editions, you could make real specific modifications to your car that affected not only the way it drove but the way it looked. Sick! While traditional racing games (Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer, etc.) seem to strive for authenticity, that's not what I'm looking for from a game. I want a game that gives me something that doesn't exist in the real world. That's the escapism we seek in a game.
Final Thoughts
Playing video games is so much fun. For me, it's always more fun with others. Lately, the games I've played the most with others is OverCooked and Rocket League. Those are fantastic games. Whatever you're playing, make sure you do it with great people and have fun. Don't be one of those toxic humans that says and does mean stuff to complete strangers online. Life is too short to harbor hate for any length of time. Be the love you want to see in the world. As always, if you feel my list has been botched in any significant way, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!
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