I'm talking about genres which are no longer being made by AAA developers because anything that isn't a QuickTimeEvent-ridden interactive movie with bangable aliens doesn't sell.
Mine would be the beat'em'up genre. I started out my video game journey as a wee lad playing Double Dragon on the NES, but it wasn't until my friend lent me Streets of Rage for the SEGA GENESIS that my love for dispensing street justice grew to full bloom.
Some might say that Streets of Rage was just a Final Fight clone but, honestly, Capcom's beat'em'up had a completely different tone and style. Sure, the idea was for SEGA to develop a competitor to Capcom's (then in Nintendo's pocket) already impressive gallery of button-mashers, but Hiroaki Chino came up with something that was so much more than just a side-scroller - Streets of Rage was art, man. You were swinging those fists (and legs) with a purpose.
I'm of the opinion that Beat'em'ups should be about more than just supplexing punks - they should be gritty, bloody and dark but also retain a certain sense of humor. That's why Streets of Rage is still the king to this day.
Indeed, Twenty-five years later, the original trilogy still has a pretty active fandom dedicated to modding, reminiscing and such. If this piques your interest then I recommend starting your journey back into retro fistpumping with the following article:
http://segabits.com/blog/2016/08/06/...-up-greatness/
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Now some of the above poll options might be considered controversial - I too sometimes find it hard to admit that the RTS genre is dead - but, you know what? That's perfectly fine because once a genre is considered "dead" to the mainstream, that opens up a niche for smaller developers to take advantage of. With any luck, a star will rise above the ranks and we will get another game on the same level as Command & Conquer, Dune or Starcraft... and then twelves years later the franchise can be acquired by a megalomaniac publisher which will split the sequel into multiple DLCs and the cycle can then begin anew.
I love videogames.