從馬里奧到WOW：史上最受歡迎的十大游戲

The video game industry is bigger than ever and everyone has their favourite games that they look forward to buying. There will always be great individual games, but certain franchises keep us coming back for more. They repeatedly hit us with great game after great game after great game, gaining massive audiences around the world.

The following top 10 is a list of the greatest video game franchises of all time. But ultimately only you know who would be in your top 10 list, so do you agree that these are the top 10 video game franchises of all time?

This MMORPG by Blizzard Entertainment was first released in 1994. The World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth where players can take on the role of a fantasy character of their choice and develop them to a high level. A fully online game, players can interact, co-operate and go on quests with their friends to gain experience and gold. Millions of players worldwide are hooked on this game and can’t get enough of it. The franchise has grown a massive following and gained cultural recognition, often appearing in many parodies on television. More installments and expansions are expected to be released in the future, with increasing numbers of players ready to get questing online.

Capcom’s hugely popular survival horror title game ‘Resident Evil‘ began in 1996 with the first installment. Following the evil Umbrella Corperation, players uncover the story that led up to the release of a deadly virus that turns the dead into flesh eating zombies. Dark eerie tentative tones combined with sequences that make you jump and action packed parts where you are fighting for your life against a seemingly endless amount of zombies, marry well together for a roller coaster ride experience. Loyal fans flock to buy the new releases in the series and a series of popular Hollywood films have been made. Resident Evil is the best horror game series that has ever been made and has been the inspiration for many other imitations.

You must have been living under a rock for the last 15 years if you haven’t heard of Pokemon. A truly massive franchise that has huge following and cultural impact on all corners of the globe. Pokemon was first introduced in 1996 as a pair of linkable Gameboy RPG games. Since then it has grown to become one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world, with huge amounts of merchandising including, anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, films, TV shows and countless others. The video games allow players to search for and catch different varieties of Pokemon to use in battles. A big part of the game is to try to “catch them all” and collect every type of Pokemon in the game including the iconic ‘Pikachu’ character. Pokemon have shown itself to be a hugely popular series that continues to gain fans of all ages.

One of Nintendo’s flagship title series, Zelda is a high fantasy, action adventure game following the infamous central character ‘Link’. Players are often given the task of using Link to rescue the Princess Zelda from the clutches of evil. The 15 official games and several spin-offs of the series have a huge fan following from around the world and continue to impress countless more. Link is often referred to as one of the most iconic video gaming characters of all time. The Legend of Zelda series has produced many great games, with notable mentions to ‘The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past’, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess’ and the hugely popular ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’. The Legend of Zelda has proven to be one of the greatest franchises of all time.

The hugely popular and highly acclaimed racing game ‘Gran Turismo‘ has entertained millions of gamers over the years. Since Polyphony Digital first introduced the series in 1997, over 63 million units have been sold worldwide on the variety of Sony Playstation consoles. Stunning graphics and the ability to race some of the most iconic vehicles of all time make the game so appealing to gamers. Branded as “the real driving simulator” meticulous detail has been given to the way the cars react, which have been modelled on the real life cars. Real race tracks that are world famous have also been fully modelled allowing players to race their favourite cars around the circuits at Monaco, Nurburgring, Laguna Seca and many more. If you are a fan of racing games or even just cars in general, you will appreciate that Gran Turismo is a great series.?

‘Konami’ first introduced us to ‘Metal Gear Solid‘ in 1998 and since then gamers have been hooked. Following the story of the iconic character ‘Solid Snake’, players take on the role of sneakily infiltrating and neutralising terrorist threats and ultimately facing off against the latest incarnation of the super-weapon “Metal Gear”. The game series is proclaimed as the one that made the stealth genre popular, which has since resulted in many imitations. More instalments are set to be released on several different platforms, ensuring that Solid Snake will continue to entertain fans across the globe for a long time to come.

A first-person and third-person shooter game, Call of Duty has emerged in recent years to be one of the most popular game series ever. Games have been primarily based in a World War II era, but recently have branched off with modern games in the form of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’ and the cold war era in the form of ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’. This series also holds the world record for the fastest selling game of all time, with ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′ making ￡242.4 million ($401.6 million) on it’s release date. The series continues to entertain audiences with action packed gaming and detailed graphics that make it stand apart from many others. No doubt we will see more successful releases from this series as the franchise continues to grow.

‘Rockstar Games’ multi-award-winning series Grand Theft Auto has been setting the gaming world alight since it was first introduced in 1997. An often contrivetial game, players take the form of an up and coming criminal that takes to the streets of a fictional city, which is heavily based on American cities. A huge open world game that fuses elements of action, driving, role-playing, stealth, shooting and racing into a massive landscape that players can get lost in. GTA is a massive series that will no doubt get bigger and gain even more followers by building on its successful games of GTA IV, San Andreas and Vice City. It continues to make being bad extremely fun to play.

Famously starting in 1987 as the company’s last project before they shut down, Final Fantasy was a huge success and has since grown to be the greatest RPG series of all time. It is continuously pushing boundaries and reinventing itself, often becoming one of the first to introduce new techniques to gaming, including switching from 2d to 3d rendering and using voice acting and lip syncing. Final Fantasy sets the bar so high that it is always at the forefront in the gaming world. It is credited as having made rpg games popular outside of Japan and has spawned countless imitations since. A unique element to the series is that the majority of the games have completely unrelated stories and features to other games in the series. Each installment has different levels of success, but some of it’s most popular titles include FFX, FFVIII and one of the greatest games ever made FFVII.

The Godfather of gaming! Easily THE most iconic and recognisable video game character of all time, Mario has been bouncing around our screens since 1981 and charming millions of people along the way. Despite his charm, it is because he has featured in so many great games over the years, continually reinventing himself as video game technology has improved, that he is loved by so many. Who has not played a Mario game at some point in their life, be it Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy or one or the many other great games that he has featured in. Mario will definitely be on our screens for a long time to come, and the video game industry would not be the same without him.