10 Famous Video Game Franchises That Haven't Made Anything Good In Years

10. Contra

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Contra was just a relic of the past. The arcade series has never really left the public consciousness, being synonymous with the glory days of arcades and gathering around an NES with your friends to blast some space aliens, but you'd be hard-pressed to name any of the games after the mid-90s sequels.

That's mostly because Contra pretty much came out the gate swinging, with its brand of non-stop action and 1980s movie pastiches starting out at the top, and not really leaving the franchise with anywhere to go but down.

As a result, most of the sequels amounted to being simply "more Contra". A couple attempts at a re-brand in the 2000s with the grittier Contra: Shattered Soldier and weird futurism of Neo Contra were admirable but nothing special, while a full-on resurgence after Contra 4 was short lived.

The most recent release, Rogue Corps, is the lowest the franchise has sunk yet, and after decades slugging out okay-at-best titles, maybe it's time Contra finally put its guns down.