10 Great Video Game Franchises People Simply Abandoned

This one hurts on a personal level, as I love Kojima's big, silly robot series. But it would be fair to say it only got traction initially by bundling a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2 with it. No harm in that, if that sells your game. Kojima's done weirder.

It was short, but it paved the way for something much, much better. That came in the form of The 2nd Runner. Whilst the visuals of the first game were okay-ish, 2nd Runner went for a more hybrid style of cel-shading, anime and particle effects.

So, it looked pretty, but that wasn't all. It also had a story that whilst not hard to work out, was told over a surprisingly lengthy game. Then there was the combat, which was balletic and beautiful when you got into it.

Sadly, hyper-fighty-robot action didn't translate into "will sell millions". It was very far down in Japan's top sellers that year, and even a port and remaster on later generations hasn't seen the series hit a fresh stride.

What with Kojima and Konami's split, we'll probably never see any more Orbital Frames in action again. Shame.