10 Risky Sequels That Saved Dying Video Game Franchises

8. Mortal Kombat

Like a lot of the franchises on this list, Mortal Kombat eventually buckled under its own weight. The PS2 era was a prolific time for the fighting series, with the developers churning out increasingly larger games every few years, throwing in features like conquest, chess, and expanding on the already-confusing plot to the point where it had become virtually incomprehensible.

It all cumulated in Armageddon, an ambitious title, but one which was practically bursting at the seams as it struggled to fit all of the content bloat the devs had amassed over the past couple of sequels into one neat package. The next game was Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a title which epitomised just how far the series had come from its roots.

Following that title, the franchise's publisher went bankrupt, and the IP was picked up by Warner Bros. The future was up in the air, but fortunately, the originally developers were picked up as well, and they got to work on righting the wrongs of the prior releases. They opted for a hard reset, turning back time in the narrative to go back to basics in an effort to re-embrace the gory, 2.5D arcade roots of the original titles.

It worked, and MK (and NetherRealm as a whole) have gone from strength to strength ever since.