It's a rare experience to have grown up alongside an art medium, to watch it change and adapt just as my preferences do. A lot of early game series have shaped the industry and continued to grow and thrive in recent years, continuing to produce meaningful content that I still enjoy. A lot of game series haven't. This list is about those ones.

9. Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons

Who knew farming could be so fun? Anyone who's played a Harvest Moon game, that's who. Sure, the tasks were slightly repetitive, but the atmosphere was too good to pass up, and it felt rewarding working your way up to a profitable farm from a cheap hand-me-down. Now the gameplay is slower, the tasks more tedious, and Harvest Moon isn't even called Harvest Moon since the publisher was changed.

The series went from being the top dog of farming simulators to a name that almost no one has heard of: Story of Seasons. Some would say the enormous success of Stardew Valley played a role in taking Harvest Moon down a peg, massively upstaging the series and utilizing Harvest Moon's old simplicity and style to boot.

Highlight of the Series: Harvest Moon: Magical Melody

8. Banjo-Kazooie

Video games were just starting to define themselves beyond "finish the end of the level" when Banjo-Kazooie rolled up to the party. These games were a completionist's dream come true, filled with vibrant worlds and tons of collectibles spread across innovative tasks. Things started looking grim after years of radio-silence since Banjo-Tooie, but then, hope! Rare announced a sequel! And it was... a racing game? The jumbled mess that was Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts left a sour mark on fans of the old series, and a bad sendoff to the series as a whole.

Highlight of the Series: Banjo-Tooie

7. Mario Party

If there's one game that is guaranteed to break friendships, it's Mario Party. This series remained fairly strong up until recent years when the developers decided to basically scratch almost every game mechanic that made the game so great.

Now, instead of traveling separately around the board, all of the players move together in a car, and coins and stars have been replaced by these little star bits that turn into fully fledged stars at the end. And the iconic minigames? Boiled down to "shake a Wii remote every once in a while." Once again, Nintendo decides to "improve" a series by implementing changes that literally no one asked for. Thanks, Ninty.

Highlight of the Series: Mario Party 3

6. Call of Duty

I've never been a huge fan of FPS games, but I can't deny CoD's immense popularity. It was pretty much the shooter game to beat for nearly a decade, but it's fallen from grace since then. The problem with formulaic games is that there are only so many improvements that can be made without completely disrupting the game's fanbase, because at some point those changes are going to leak into the core gameplay.

And that's what's starting to happen with Call of Duty. The franchise is currently between a rock and a hard place, because the changes it's implementing are both not attracting new players and isolating old ones. And now that games like Overwatch are dominating the FPS market, Call of Duty is going to need a lot more focus if it wants to get back on top.

Highlight of the Series: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

5. Spyro the Dragon

Spyro was the textbook example of a 3D platformer with multiple worlds--Hell, he and Crash Bandicoot were almost synonymous with the Playstation and good platforming. Then of course the new developers decided they needed some new gimmicks to spice things up, and well, you can see where that landed him. Here's hoping he'll one day break out of Skylanders hell and join Crash on the new consoles.

Highlight of the Series: Spyro: Year of the Dragon

4. Digimon

Let's face it: Digimon was never going to be as popular as Pokemon. But it did try. The original game distinguished by giving you just one partner to raise and fight with, as well as a quaint village home world that really felt as if you grew alongside it. Then the next one was a little bit more like a knockoff Pokemon. And the next one. And the--well, there's a reason they're not even ported to the West anymore.

Highlight of the Series: Digimon World

3. Duke Nukem

If there was ever a game equivalent to a flaming train wreck, it would be Duke Nukem Forever. This game was in development for fifteen years and switched developers after fourteen, which is comparable to a hardcore rock band working on a song for fourteen years before suddenly giving it to an Elvis-Presley cover band to finish. 2K games was handed a steaming pile of garbage with bad graphics and janky controls, and it didn't get much better before launch.

Highlight of the Series: Duke Nukem

2. Paper Mario

Paper Mario is an example of a series that had a near-perfect formula--a turn-based Mario RPG with an enthralling story and a variety of unique, charming characters that populated the world and even fought alongside Mario. Nobody could ask for anything different.

So, of course, Nintendo made it different. Following the epic story of Super Paper Mario, Sticker Star's storyline seemed like something a five-year-old threw together with some crayons. The sad part is that the newest game isn't event that bad, it's just a far cry from the glory of the old games.

Highlight of the Series:Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

1. Sonic the Hedgehog

Remember the flaming train wreck that was Duke Nukem Forever? Now douse it in gasoline and send a few more trains down the track for good measure. That's Sonic the Hedgehog. He used to run beside Mario back in the day--now his speed is basically equivalent to a dead turtle. Sega's trying, I guess, but when people play your games just because they're hilariously awful, you should probably reconsider your approach.

Highlight of the Series: Sonic the Hedgehog 2