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What's the First Game to Prove to You that Sequels aren't Always Better?

Ragnorok64

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,955
I can still remember how hyped I was to play Yoshi's Story when it came out. Yoshi's island was such a great game, I was expecting more of the same. I even remember hooking up my N64 to the big screen TV in the community room of my Grandmother's highrise.

What I proceeded to play, though, was so amazingly lackluster in comparison to Yoshi's Island, I still remember beating the game and being totally underwhelmed and slightly confused as I was expecting there to be more game to the game.

Up until that point I'd pretty much always assumed that sequels build on thier previous iterations and would always be better. I didn't know anything about how creative teams could come and go, and sometimes the magic of a moment that lead to a game being awesome might never be recaptured.

So what are the earliest sequels you can remember that just totally disappointed and/or shattered your perception of sequels always being better?
 
onpoint

onpoint

Neon Deity Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
14,964
716
Zelda 2 was the game that did it to me.
Castlevania 2 is the bigger offender in hindsight.
 
Etrian Darkness

Etrian Darkness

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,515
UK
Maybe I never realised that sequels could be worse. Every time I played a sequel it was always better?

Then I remembered Devil May Cry 2.
 
ckareset

ckareset

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt account
Banned
Feb 2, 2018
4,977
If the first game is a masterpiece like Yoshi Island or Super Mario Mario Bros, it's hard to improve. Although Mario Bros 2 probably shouldn't count
 
Samaritan

Samaritan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,696
Tacoma, Washington
Halo 2. Might be a bit controversial to say the game that introduced online multiplayer was a step-back, but that's how I felt back in 2004 and that's definitely feel today.
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
I think it was Starcraft 2. What a mess that game was when it was released, both in balance and story. At least the former could be fixed, but the story, it got worse each expansion.
 
OP
OP

Ragnorok64

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,955
ckareset said:
If the first game is a masterpiece like Yoshi Island or Super Mario Mario Bros, it's hard to improve. Although Mario Bros 2 probably shouldn't count
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The 64 generation had already delivered Mario 64, Starfox 64 and was about to drop Ocarina of Time on an unsuspecting world. Yoshi's Story had no business being that bad.
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
The Fallen
Jul 14, 2018
23,580
I loved Sonic Adventure, so naturally Sonic Adventure 2 had to be better? Nope, the open world is gone, you're forced to play as characters I don't care to play as, the locations are a million times less interesting, etc.

And then Heroes with its 20 minute-long levels came. And then Shadow. And then 06
 
LAA

LAA

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,336
DMC 2 I think is the best example ha.
Another one I was thinking was Bioshock 2. (I am someone who did enjoy the game still actually, but I feel BS1 was better)
 
Hippopuncher12

Hippopuncher12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,287
Cincinnati
Castlevania 2 I guess. I loved a lot of the 2nd games though around that time. Zelda 2, Mario 2, Double Dragon 2, Mega Man 2, TMNT 2. Really Castlevania 2 was the only one that in my opinion was worse than the original, and after having just played it again on the collection I didn't think it was that bad.
 
c0Zm1c

c0Zm1c

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,206
Thinking back, Streets of Rage 3 seems to be the earliest sequel I remember disliking. There was probably not anything wrong with it, I just remember not liking it nearly as much as 1 and 2 (I never finished it, unlike the first two games).
 
Transistor

Transistor

Hollowly Brittle
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,167
Washington, D.C.
Hard to say. I'm actually going to ignore a lot from when i was a kid because I simply thought all games were awesome back then, even the bad ones. Then, growing up when I was more self aware in the PS1 era, I couldn't afford many games so I didn't play many bad ones. It probably wasn't until the GBA with Final Fantasy Tactics advance that I really truly realized that a sequel could be bad
 
MilesQ

MilesQ

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,490
Definitely MGS2.

Shit went off the rails. Fast. Saying that, I don't know if we'd have gotten Snake Eater (still the best MGS, fight me) without it.
 
TransEuropaExpress

TransEuropaExpress

Member
Dec 6, 2017
10,991
US
Shit, honestly for me it was Street Fighter II Turbo on SNES purely in concept.

As far as I was concerned, that shit was the next SF game and imagine my surprise when my big birthday present, and like one out of two games per year, turned out to be a bullshit facelift to a game I had already played to death.
 

Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,467
Heretic 2 for sure. It wasn't a bad game at all, it was a very solid game, but turning one of the best FPS games of the 90's into a sequel which is basically a third person action game with magic always felt odd to me.
 

PrimeBeef

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,840
Seen enough movies to know sequels aren't always better. But for games specifically, FF5. Up until that point I had only played 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8. 4 was better than 1, and 6 was better than 4 for the old school games. 8 was better than 7 for the new school games. I had played a bootleg English translation import on PC of 5 and thought man this looks bad and the story was not as good as 4 IMO. Rhought it may be just the PC emulation.Then I played the official version and it was exactly the same.
 
tommyv2

tommyv2

Member
Nov 6, 2017
1,425
Objectively, Chrono Cross might be the worst sequel. From the highest highs to... well... yikes. Worst battle system (slow, why not on the main map like the original?), worst battle music and weak, countless characters.
 
AtomicShroom

AtomicShroom

Tools & Automation
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
3,079
Super Mario Bros. 2, obviously. It wasn't a bad game by any means, but it didn't have that something special that made Super Mario Bros., well, Super Mario Bros. It explains why I breathed such a sigh of relief and was in pure awe the moment I saw that Super Mario Bros. 3 went back to the original style.
 
Yautja_Warrior

Yautja_Warrior

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,707
United Kingdom
Devil May Cry 2

Halo 2, while it was still technically a good game, I just didn't like the campaign as much as the original and that cliffhanger ending, so it felt very disappointing to me.
 
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