In the midst of all the pre-release hype for the new Saints Row: The Third, a couple of my Twitter friends and industry colleagues brought up an important question: Had we all forgotten that the original Saints Row was originally seen as not much more than a GTA knock-off?
It got me thinking though: What other franchises have mimicked this pattern? Plenty have gone downhill after great beginnings, but how many have gone uphill after disappointing starts? Here is a look at Saint's Row and four more classic franchises that didn't exactly start out that way.





















