[Multiplatform] Game Series you just stopped playing. Sonic is the correct answer, by the way.

Mega Man

Actually, I should have stopped playing the series a lot earlier than I did, but I kept convincing myself that THIS time they wouldn't fuck it up. If I'd been smarter, I would have told Capcom to screw off after Megaman X5, but I went on through X8 (skipping 7, at least).

What happened? Capcom stopped giving a shit. The storyline was actually going in an interesting direction in X5, building on the concept of Zero being Dr. Wily's robot, and then they dropped it entirely in favor of X6's non sequitor of a storyline, and fucking Axl from then on. Everything from X5 on was, at best, a half effort. The graphics were terrible, the levels poorly designed, and when the game jumped to PS2 they introduced all this terrible 3D bullshit that was barely playable at all.

They started fresh, after a fashion, when they jumped to the Mega Man Zero series on Gameboy. Only problem was that the Zero games were punch-you-in-the-balls hard, where you weren't allowed to have the boss' special weapons if you so much as took a single point of damage during the level, counting the boss fight. They were essentially using Devil May Cry's rating system, except tying vital power-ups to ludicrous performance standards. The last two weren't quite so bad, but the tiny GBA screen kind of hurt things.

No, I didn't buy any of the Zero series. I played them through alternate means. I'm glad I did, too. The hell with doing these without save states.

The ZX games on the DS are actually good, without qualifications, but I'm not surprised that nobody cares after the crap Capcom's been shoveling for the last several years.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Minish Cap was all right, but it felt like half a Zelda game. To me it seemed like it was wrapping up about the time Link to the Past was getting to its midpoint.

I think we're getting to that point where Nintendo is just throwing the same old stuff at the wall trying to make lightning strike twice, instead of coming up with something new. I didn't realize until I recently replayed Ocarina of Time just how much Twilight Princess swipes from that game. It's like they spent more time prostrating at the feet of OoT and trying to hurredly rewire the controls to work with the Wiimote than they did making a game that could stand on its own two feet.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I dunno if the Mutant League games count. I didn't stop playing the series by choice, the games just stopped existing. I'd buy a new Mutant League Football in a heartbeat if someone would actually make the damn game.

It's another case of my amazement at video game companies refusing to print money. Do they really think there's no market for this? It's not the mid 90s anymore but there's ample room to update the game's sensibilities.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.