Recently, I started to think about old games, specifically how some of them will get another shot at life after a few years away and it made me think about all those series that have not had that.

To be clear when I say another shot at life, I don’t mean via a remaster or a remake, but I mean a from the ground up, original entry in that series. A prime example is F-Zero, that series saw a number of games released over the first 14 years of its life, with F-Zero: GP Legend being the last one to release in the West. But then it went 19 years before it got a new game, or really any game.

So with that in mind, I wanted to have a look through the big publishers to see what series they are leaving behind. There are a few conditions for this list:

There must be at least 2 games in the series, so one off titles are not included.
There must be at least 2 console generations between the last game and now, so if a game was released on PlayStation 4, but there is no entry on PlayStation 5, that does not count.
We are not including Game of the Year, Deluxe, Complete or any other word used to describe a re-issue of the game with DLC or other extra content.
Finally, remakes and remasters do not count, they must be original.

So let us take a look at Ubisoft, a company that while they tend to stick to a few series these days, have quite the back catalogue that is ripe for the revival.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

First Release: March 2009 | Last Release: September 2010 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

There was a long time where it seemed Ubisoft were diving into the world of Tom Clancy in multiple ways, End War was one example and H.A.W.K. was another example and it was the one that got two entries, two decent flight games at that.

Much like other Tom Clancy games of the time, the series was set in the near future, which gave the developers a bit of free will to create some more fantastic planes, which is what drew a lot of folks in. There is very little way to get around it, the series played very much like Ace Combat series, but it had a few differences, including using actual images of the Earth for its terrain. Both games were well received, the sequel slightly less so as it removed some of core functions. Wii owners got the sequel game, which was also quite different, but still decent, just not looking as pretty.

Driver

First Release: June 1999 | Last Release: September 2011 | Total Number of Games Released: 7

The original Driver was known for its opening level, you had to complete a series of tests in order to be allowed to play the full game, the sequel was slightly less demanding, but combined the two games gained a legacy that still lives on today.

The series third entry tried to expand the series out of driving and players did not like it, so Parallel Lines returned to the familiarity of the first games. The series took a lot of inspiration from 70s action movies, one of which was The Driver, but the PlayStation Portable exclusive game was exclusively set within that period. The last game to release was actually for the Nintendo 3DS and the next racing game the studio was The Crew, as they assisted with its development. While the series slowly lost fans, the San Francisco release did to some acclaim, which gave hope for the series to keep on driving.

Red Steel

First Release: November 2006 | Last Release: March 2010 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

When the Wii was first revealed, it gave hints at what games players might get to play, one such game had players wielding a katana and Red Steel was that game, but it was a little misleading.

The sequel however corrected most of what was wrong with the first, the addition of the Wii MotionPlus certainly helped that out. While the first game tried to be realistic in its visuals and story, the sequel went for a western approach with cel-shaded graphics, basically whatever was in the first game, was gone in the sequel, only the sword and gunplay remained. The sequel was well received, I myself loved the sword play, but it was not the most technically stable, which did turn some folks away. Given the unique premise of the series, most modern platforms couldn’t support the game, but if a third entry was coming, I would pick up the sword for another go.

Zombi

First Release: 1986 | Last Release: November 2012 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

Hands up if you knew that Ubisoft had a game called Zombi that released in the 80s, no one. Well don’t worry I am there with you and while there is some debate about the Wii U entry being a sequel, New Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros U follows the same naming scheme and its part of the same series.

The 1986 release put you in the first person perspective of four survivors, as you attempted to escape a mall, it took inspiration for a movie that everything takes inspiration from. The Wii U (and later Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release) kept that first person perspective, but rather than focus on a group of survivors, had you play as random people and when your character joined the other team, you started again as someone else. Given the port of the Wii U release, this is one of those titles that could keep going on new hardware, I mean there is always a little life left in the undead game genre

Gunfighter

First Release: December 2001 | Last Release: March 2003 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

What do you get when you take the gameplay of Time Crisis, but the setting of a Western and then let players play as a notorious outlaw? You get the Gunfighter series, which delivered exactly that over the pair of games that released.

Now we are technically cheating here as the game is not technically owned by Ubisoft, they are just the publisher, but it would be great to see them work again with Rebellion (now known for the Sniper Elite series) to make a modern entry. The games let you play with the controller, but if you had a supported gun controller, you could live out your western shooting fantasies. As an on-rails shooter there wasn’t much you had to do apart from shoot, but that was plenty.

B.A.T.

First Release: 1989 | Last Release: 1992 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

In the late 80s and early 90s, point and click games were all the rage, Indiana Jones got a number and so Ubisoft jumped in with Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters or B.A.T.

While the games are considered to fall within the point and click genre, they are very much early versions of the genre, which means in the first game there is a lot of text to read. The sequel managed to bring in some nice touches like being able to select which hand you wanted to interact with. It also got praise for basically taking everything from the first game and making it better, including updates to the combat. Sadly as the games were released more than 30 years ago, there is very little on how well they sold, which I doubt was very well if we never got another entry.

Chessmaster

First Release: November 1986 | Last Release: January 2008 | Total Number of Games Released: 22

It is a chess game, I don’t really need to say anything more. Basically as the years went on the games got more advanced and prettier, which is odd to say about a game about chess.

As the games released, more features were added like online play, multiple chess set looks, more tutorials and advanced AI, but again its chess. The series did get a specialised game engine, called The King and was used in most of the games after it was introduced.

CSI

First Release: May 2003 | Last Release: November 2010 | Total Number of Games Released: 9

The original CSI tv series was so popular, it got a videogame and not many tv series did back then. The first release was in 2003 and then over the next 7.5 years another 8 games were released and after than some bland mobile games were released.

The games were mostly the same, you had a number of cases to solve, your work followed the same process as the tv series. An event would happen, you would then look for clues, speak with the police, medical examiner and even a witness or two and then ideally, catch the culprit. What made the games a little special is that in most all of them, the cast from the various shows reprised their roles, essentially slotting you into it. Sadly the series quality went downhill with the developers changing quite a bit and as such fans quickly no longer cared who dunit.

Shaun White Snowboarding

First Release: November 2008 | Last Release: November 2009 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

In a bizarre move, Ubisoft entered into the sports game market with a series of games featuring Shaun White, with the first game hitting most platforms and the sequel being a Wii exclusive.

What makes the series interesting is that the Wii release of the first game was given a subtitle, which usually implies a port, but no it just had a subtitle. It also used the motion control from the Wii Remote and even had Wii Balance Board support, but while that might make it weird, it was received as the best version of the game. Like many other snowboarding games, players would venture to different locations and as players progressed to the new locations, they would unlock new abilities to help them out. In a weird twist when Shaun White himself started to skateboard, the series dropped the snow and kept on going, but it was not as radical.

Racing Simulation

First Release: December 1997 | Last Release: December 2002 | Total Number of Games Released: 3

Long before The Crew, Ubisoft were making racing games, but the Racing Simulator series was exactly that, a simulation game. While the first game was exclusively for PC, the sequel hit most platforms of the time and the final game was PC and PlayStation 2.

Given the series connection to F1, you might think it had everything and it really depended on the game. The first had the drivers and tracks, the sequel had the tracks but the teams were not the real ones. Sadly the final game dropped almost everything that was official and instead focused on being close enough, with tracks being the right layout, but not location. Across the releases, the series was well received, but was often lapped by other officially licenced racing games of the time.

Blazing Angels

First Release: March 2006 | Last Release: September 2007 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

When the Xbox 360 launched in Australia, there were not a lot of games on day one, but a week later Blazing Angles took flight on the console and delivered something different, not great but different.

The first game told a story about a fictional group of pilots who were all over World War 2, but what was interesting is that the story on the Xbox 360 and PC release was different to the one Wii and PlayStation 3 players got a year later. The main points are there, but there was more context to events and characters in the later release. The sequel had players take off as a different character, with an allied force coming together to stop the Axis. The series is one of the rare games that also got an arcade port, at least of the first game, so that was nice.

Rayman Raving Rabbids

First Release: November 2006 | Last Release: December 2011 | Total Number of Games Released: 5

Now just to be clear for this one, we are counting the Raving Rabbids series, not Rabbids games in their entirety, so for this series there were 5 games, with it kicking off on the Wii.

The series was mostly connected to Nintendo for the earliest releases, but the series did start hitting other platforms eventually, with the final one hitting Xbox 360. Now the games varied quite a bit, but for the most part they were minigame focused, having players complete actions using whatever weird mechanic the developers thought up. The series of course was a spin-off of Rayman, which makes it sad when you consider that there are now more than 20 games with these Rabbids and only 5 games with Rayman as the star. Ubisoft could do with a little more raving in their line up, so maybe it is time for the Rabbids to party again.

Silent Hunter

First Release: March 1996 | Last Release: March 2010 | Total Number of Games Released: 5

If there was ever a series that took a massive u-turn in what it offered players, Silent Hunter would be in the running to take first place. The first game had control an American submarine in World War 2, the sequel made you a German U-boat captain.

The series actually bounced back and fourth, quite literally as the fourth game had you back as a yank, but three and five were German lead, heck even the fourth game had a DLC called The U-Boat Missions. The actual gameplay had you taking up various positions within the boats, and completing the tasks assigned to that station, manning the periscope had you scoping for enemies. There was an online game in development, but it never left its beta stage and was cancelled in 2016.

Imagine

First Release: October 2007 | Last Release: February 2013 | Total Number of Games Released: 46

Imagine if there was a series of games that let you be anything, then this would be the series. When we say anything, we mean it as there were 46 titles released within a period of 7 years.

Happy Cooking was the first title, but within the same month three more titles were also released and the series never really slowed down. The problem with the series is that the quality ranged from ok to horrible and due to the sheer number of them, there were very few reviews of many of them, which meant players didn’t find out if a game was bad until they bought it. While the target audience was young girls, that was never an excuse in my mind for bad games, but for quite a while that didn’t see to bother Ubisoft.

Petz

First Release: November 1995 | Last Release: October 2014 | Total Number of Games Released: 18

Basically for the Petz series, take what I said above and repeat it here, the only blessing is that the number of games was much smaller and spread out over quite a number of years, so it wasn’t so egregious.

For the first 10 years of the series life, Ubisoft was not involved but they got the rights in 2005 and while the first game as the owners kept the series traditional look and gameplay, the series would take a 3 years break before coming back with the look that many folks know. The gameplay on offer in each game stayed pretty similar, you were given an animal to take care of and that involved feeding, walking and all the rest you might expect. Across the series you could take care of lions, tigers and panda bears, oh my.

Combat of Giants

First Release: October 2008 | Last Release: March 2011 | Total Number of Games Released: 8

So another series of games where we got a number of them within a few years, thankfully no where near the amount above, but still a good amount. The series gameplay varied with each release, but the core revolved around giant animals either fighting or exploring.

Many of the games let you customise your creature, from skin colour and even some traits, giving you a sense of impact, but depending on the game you either got a bit of an exploratory adventure or the lamest street fighter ever created. Many of the games were on the Nintendo DS, so there was a lot of use of the touch screen for controls, which means the series could make the jump to mobile devices fairly easily. A fun piece of trivia, the series was called Battle of Giants in North America, until the final game on the Nintendo 3DS.

NCIS

First Release: October 2011 | Last Release: September 2016 | Total Number of Games Released: 2

This one falls into the cheat group again, as there is technically only one game but the Nintendo 3DS version had a bunch of extra cases for the game and didn’t include the actors voicing their characters like the other version.

Much like the CSI games above, each game contain a series of cases that you had to solve and you needed to use the various skills of the team to discover the truth. The only real bad thing about the game, almost everything as the game was panned by almost everyone, unless of course you were a die hard NCIS fan.

And there we go, that wraps up the Ubisoft list. While part of me wanted to include Rainbow Six, given Ubisoft haven’t made a game from that series since 2008. While Siege and Extraction exist, they are not proper Rainbow Six titles, but as they have the name they technically count.