Guinness Hall of Shame

Folks, I apologize for not having a new report up due to lack of interest in video game news. But recently, something caught my attention and that was the Guinness Top 50 Game Franchises. GameSpy has the article up and the list. But since I prefer the lazy look, here it is, the Top 50 franchises according to Guinness

1. Halo
2. Call of Duty
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Guitar Hero
5. Metal Gear
6. Super Mario Bros.
7. World of Warcraft
8. Gears of War
9. Super Smash Bros.
10. Grand Theft Auto
11. Pokemon
12. Resident Evil
13. Fallout
14. Half-Life
15. Sonic the Hedgehog
16. Counter-Strike
17. Runescape
18. FIFA
19. Kingdom Hearts
20. Final Fantasy
21. Pac-Man
22. Madden NFL
23. The Sims
24. Tomb Raider
25. WWE Smackdown vs. RAW
26. Rock Band
27. LittleBigPlanet
28. Saints Row
29. The Elder Scrolls
30. God of War
31. GoldenEye 007
32. BioShock
33. KillZone
34. Skate
35. Left 4 Dead
36. Need for Speed
37. Chrono Trigger
38. Gran Turismo
39. StarCraft
40. Ratchet & Clank
41. Pong
42. Tom Clancy's
43. Star Wars: Battlefront
44. Battlefield
45. Diablo
46. Lego Batman
47. Mario Kart
48. Burnout
49. Crash Bandicoot
50. Pro Evolution Soccer

Now as you all know, Halo is number 1 on the list. Microsoft and Bungie's lovechild(Before the divorce) has dominated the list. Right behind is Call of Duty by Activision(Rumor has it that Bungie will be working on a future Call of Duty game). The highest ranked Nintendo game is the Legend of Zelda itself with Guitar Hero and Metal Gear right behind. Snugged at number 6 is the Super Mario Bros, just one step ahead of the popular MMO World of Warcraft. Epic's GoW(Gears of War) is number 8, followed by Super Smash Bros and Grand Theft Auto.

But something has caught my eye. At number 15 is Sonic the Hedgehog. Now many have questioned Sonic's quality as of late. But according to Guinness, Sonic is more popular than the following popular franchises.

Counter-Strike
Kingdom Hearts
Final Fantasy
The Sims
Rock Band
Elder Scrolls
God of War
Goldeneye 007
BioShock
Chrono Trigger
Starcraft
Ratchet and Clank
Diablo
Mario Kart(How did this get up there)
Crash Bandicoot

You mean to tell me, All of these franchises below Sonic dropped in quality even further than the Blue Hedgehog? Are you saying that there was some gameplay changes in Kingdom Hearts that made the game unplayable? Or that Chrono Trigger had some bad unplayable character? Or that Ratchet and Clank introduced two stereotypical twins ala Skids and Mudflap?

Wait. Skids and Mudflap aren't Sonic characters. They're Transformers characters.

Missing on this list includes Mega Man, Metroid, Katamari Damacy, Street Fighter(Ironically since Street Fighter IV came out), Mortal Kombat, Phantasy Star, Super Monkey Ball, No More Heroes, Mass Effect, Batman: Arkham Asylum, DooM, Unreal, Disgaea, Dragon Quest, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, Pitfall, Castlevania, Portal, etc. Guinness, I dunno why you forgot some of those franchises, but shame on you for not remembering them.

Works Cited: GameSpy