14 Video Game Franchises That Will Never Die

14. Tomb Raider

Prior to 2012, many people, myself included, may have counted the Tomb Raider franchises as dead and buried. After all, while the series had blossomed on the Playstation, producing five popular entries in the main series alone, Lara Croft never really found her feet on the console's successor the PS2.

The Angel of Darkness was an unmitigated disaster. It was Core Design's last attempt with Lara Croft as development was handed over to Crystal Dynamics, and whilst Tomb Raider Legends and the TR1 remake Tomb Raider Anniversary were met with faint praise, the series had lost much of its lustre.

Tomb Raider Underworld, Crystal Dynamic's first PS3 entry, failed to meet commercial expectations, and with Naughty Dog's Uncharted series steadily growing in popularity it may have seemed that the time was approaching for Lara Croft to be quietly taken out back and mercifully put to sleep. This wasn't that case. Five years after its last release, Square Enix resuscitated the series with the appropriately titled, Tomb Raider in 2013.

The game was an unexpected success, and now Lara Croft looks better than ever. She's been completely reinvented for the twenty-first century, and her new design as well as the newly established maturity of the series will ensure that she remains relevant for the foreseeable future. Nathan Drake, be warned.