One of the main reasons for Nintendo’s continued success year after year is the popularity of their library of IPs. Heavy hitters such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon and Super Smash Bros. drive the sales of their consoles consistently.
However, while many of their franchises are huge, they also have the B-tier, the C-tier, and the Chibi Robo-tier. There are a few franchises that just don’t move the needle as much, and thus, sometimes they stop receiving entries. Today, we’re taking a look at ten of those franchises that seem to be dead in the water, with no new entries coming that we know of.
10 Golden Sun
While developer Camelot is currently busy making pretty good and/or horrendous Mario Sports titles, they actually had something all their own previously. In the 2000s, the RPG series Golden Sun had three Nintendo exclusive entries before going dark completely. The final entry, Dark Dawn, was released on the original DS in 2010.
With the protagonist Isaac becoming an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, maybe a series revival is coming at some point soon?
9 F-Zero
Does anyone even know who exactly Captain Falcon is anymore? With a series mascot more known for being in Smash than his home series, it’s no surprise that F-Zero has been dead in the water for quite some time.
The final game in the series was released on the Game Boy Advance in Japan only. Nintendo claims that the reason the series is on hold currently is due to a lack of interesting ideas or new hooks that would justify a new entry. Sure, but have fun releasing your 87th entry of Picross this year alone.
8 Kid Icarus
While Kid Icarus originally received a two-decade drought before receiving a new title on the 3DS, it’s now in a slump again. Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai directed the new title, with it seemingly spawning from the main character Pit’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
The newest title was released over seven years ago at this point, with no new plans for a sequel being announced as of yet.
7 Mother
It’s not happening, but y’all keep on yelling about it. The Mother series, or EarthBound as it is known stateside, has been dormant since the GBA days. No matter how much fans protest and clamor for a new entry in the series (or the localization of the third game into English), Nintendo seemingly won’t budge from its decision to keep the series dormant.
The series creator has reaffirmed time and time again that there won’t be a Mother 4 (prompting fan games to be released instead), and the first title only finally received an English localization in 2015. As of now, the series seems completely dead in the water.
6 Rhythm Heaven
The Rhythm Heaven franchise is definitely an odd one. It very well might not be dead, as every once in a while the series will receive a new entry out of nowhere. The series of rhythm games last received a new entry in 2016, which was mainly comprised of reused minigames, and hasn’t had any new news since.
With other entries on the Wii and DS, it would fit onto the Switch easily. For now, we just have to wait and see if Nintendo decides that the franchise is worth revisiting for a brand new sequel.
5 Wars
With Nintendo having no interest in reviving the Wars (or Advance Wars) series as of now, other franchises such as Wargroove has stepped in to take its place. The series was beloved, taking on a new name usually depending upon the system the game was made for.
The final game was made for the DS in 2008, and since then, there hasn’t been any mention of a new title in the series from Nintendo. As previously noted, Wargroove is essentially a Nintendo Switch entry of this series.
4 NES Remix
NES Remix is a much smaller franchise that only had entries on the 3DS and Wii U. The series centered around taking NES titles and remixing them.
Would you ever have guessed? The game would remix the old titles into different scenarios and minigames that would make players think outside the box to complete. There were three games in the series released, with the final game being released in holiday 2014.
3 Nintendogs
The Nintendogs series centers around you adopting and playing with your virtual puppy for a week before forgetting about him for 15 years until you clean out your closet years later and give him 20 more minutes of your life. Generally. Also cats!
The game was a massive seller and received one 3DS sequel before the series went dormant, as it still is to this day.
2 Wii Sports
This series is dead, and will likely stay dead until the end of time. But hey, it was fun watching ur legless abomination running around a baseball diamond or chopping a watermelon in half, huh?
Yeah, a game solely centered on motion controlled Miis playing sports, this phenomenon of a game helped propel the Wii past the 100 million units sold mark. While there was a Wii U sequel, no one knows it exists because it was on the Wii U.
1 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
This franchise certainly isn’t as dead as the rest of the list, but the chances of it making a return seem slimmer as every day goes by. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a procedurally generated dungeon crawler Pokémon spin-off, all held together with a cute story about a human somehow transforming into a Pokémon and a very angry Wigglytuff that we all love to the ends of the earth.
Developed by Spike Chunsoft, the cadence in which the titles were usually released is certainly longer than it ever has been, leading fans to wonder if the series is on some sort of hiatus or has ended altogether. With this being the most beloved Pokémon spin-off, fans can only hope Nintendo brings it back soon.