I'm sure we've all experienced it. You see a game that looks pretty cool, you play it, enjoy it and think to yourself after you've beaten it "I hope they make a sequel, that game was awesome!" Then they announce a sequel, you feel the excitement and anticipation, the sequel comes out, you play it...and it absolutely fucking sucks.
Or maybe it's one in a long line of games you've played, you've enjoyed the first three entries and you're loving the series, and then the fourth game comes out and you wonder what the hell happened, because this fourth game is complete trash compared to the previous three and only tarnishes the series.
In any case, here's the place to talk about those games that were great themselves, but their sequels really, really weren't.
5. Final Fantasy X-2 I honestly thought was a hoax when it was first announced, I mean the name alone sounded ridiculous for one thing. Also, the way Final Fantasy X ended wrapped up every plot thread in existence so tight that the idea of a sequel seemed inconceivable from a plot perspective. The fact that they tried at all was surprising, the fact that they ultimately failed shouldn't have been surprising at all. I say "shouldn't" because I still bought this game for full price. The reason why this is only No.5 is because while it disappointed me greatly (I loved FFX when I first played it,) as stated there wasn't really any way for them to extend FFX's plot in a way that wouldn't just feel like a stapled-on extension, and ultimately what we got was a stapled-on extension that came almost right the fuck out of nowhere and was buried under about 10+ subplots involving most of the characters you met in the previous game, assuming they survived. Problem there was that there was so many subplots that they all but choked the life out of the one main plot since you couldn't avoid said subplots without losing out on good items and being horribly underlevelled. The game came up with many great ideas such as the Dressphere mechanic and the lighter, more humourous tone which is an interesting variation to the usual grim, dark plots FF is known for, but I've said it before and I'll say it again: This game would have been great if it had nothing to do with FFX. The fact that it's a sequel at all is ironically what makes it a sequel that sucks.
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl YEAH I WENT THERE AND WHAT!? Seriously, the amount of people who blindly defend this game is infuriating because apparently no-one is allowed to say anything bad about the holy SSBB without being considered an evil, bile-spewing heretic. The point is that SSBB was a fun game, and I won't deny that. Problem is that being fun does not equate to being well-designed, and if you're not convinced look no further than Super Metroid; brilliantly fun game no doubt, but it was released in 1994 and you could write a book about how many glitches there are in that game and people are still discovering glitches in it now, almost 20 years after its release! Anyway, SSBB was a fun and very glitchy game with some serious balance issues once you dug down deep into the game. Problem was, SSBM was more fun and less glitchy and far more well-balanced, therefore SSBM is superior. What bugs me is the fact that SSBM was brilliant as it was and the formula was bang-on, all SSBB needed to do was add more characters, more music, more stages, polish up the graphics and perfecto. Instead, they overhauled the entire physics system and all the mechanics, slowed down the speed of the fighting (which to me is stupid because Smash's insanely fast pace is what makes it fun and what makes it stand out, why take away from that?) and the game was far worse off for it. End result: I played Melee right up until Brawl's release. I stopped playing Brawl ages ago. Moral of the story: Don't fix something that ain't broken. Brawl is fourth since it was still fun and would have been good in its own right if Melee hadn't existed or hadn't been as good as it was, the problem was that Melee did exist and Brawl naturally will be compared to it... and not in a favourable way for me.
3. Devil May Cry 2 is probably a game that'd appear on most lists about bad sequels, and lo and behold. You've probably heard or experienced the story before, so here's the cliff notes: Bought Devil May Cry 1, loved it, couldn't wait for Devil May Cry 2, bought Devil May Cry 2, hated it because it sucked ass. Why? Well, first off DMC2 was way too easy. Almost all the bosses had some stupid trick or glitch that let you beat them without even breaking a sweat, and the regular enemies were just punching bags to give you something to do as Dante roamed around the mostly bland levels. Secondly, DMC1 had an interesting if simple variety of weapons that at least felt a little different, such as the swords, fiery gauntlets, and a variety of projectile weapons. In DMC2 you get: Short fat sword, regular sword, long thin sword, all of which control the same. Then you get a pair of submachine guns in the second game that are far more powerful than any other projectile weapon in the game (even the god-damned rocket launcher!) thus rendering all other projectile weapons obsolete. Finally, if you somehow did find yourself near-death despite how easy this game is, guess what? Majin Devil Trigger, which basically turns you into an unkillable machine of death for a limited duration that allows you to utterly decimate whatever hurt you in the first place, even if it was the final boss. Overall DMC2 is not challenging, it's not rewarding and it's definitely not fun, which is a shame because its prequel DMC1 was all of those things. At least DMC3 made it all better again, but I doubt anyone will forget DMC2 for how much of a disappointment it was.
2. Hexen 2 is one most people probably won't have heard of. Basically, Hexen 1 was made in 1995 by id Software using the same engine as Doom 1. Hexen 1 was unique at the time compared to other first-person shooters for providing multiple character classes to choose from each with unique characteristics and weapons as well as having more of a focus on exploration and puzzle-solving rather than combat, although combat was still very prevalent. The non-linear level hubs all had a great and dark atmosphere, and while the final two level hubs were a bit lacking compared to the first three Hexen 1 was still a game I greatly enjoyed. Then I got Hexen 2... and my GOD did Hexen 2 suck. It's hard to emphasize on one point with Hexen 2, because every aspect of it is worse than Hexen 1. Hexen 2 used the Quake engine instead of the Doom engine, and the end result is a hideously ugly game that has none of the environmental immersion of the previous game. Hexen 1 has great music, Hexen 2 doesn't have music at all as far as I know. Hexen 1's hubs and combat are fun, fighting through ogre-like reptile soldiers, demon serpents and gargoyles. In Hexen 2 you're beating up on spiders and archers. What the hell happened? It's unthinkable that a sequel to a good game could somehow manage to do absolutely everything worse than its prequel did when the building blocks were right there to expand upon, but Hexen 2 did exactly that, and as a result it absolutely sucks not just as a sequel to Hexen 1, but as a standalone game as well. Fuck. This. Game.
1. METROID OTHER M. You knew this would be No.1, it's me, it was bound to happen. After all, not only does it manage to be an absolutely horrible sequel to Super Metroid, but also an absolutely horrible prequel to Metroid Fusion that in an attempt to close the plotholes Fusion created ended up making its own plotholes due to Yoshio Sakamoto's staggering inability to write a story. This game has the single-worst story writing I've ever seen in a video game and possibly ever in my life, Samus's internal monologues take up an offensively large amount of the game and despite how much she yammers on about the events in the game, she somehow manages to explain absolutely nothing the player would have questions about, instead choosing to talk about things the player already saw happen and about how Adam Malkovich is such a kind, caring and talented general... all of which we see none of throughout the entire game as Adam instead comes off as an incompetent asshole. Combine that with extremely forced symbolism about motherhood and babies that gets very annoying very fast, horrible cliche'd plot twists (betrayer in the military squad, government is secretly evil etc.) the overwhelming stupidity of the characters in the story (sure, let's try and assassinate the bounty hunter who wipes out entire armies and destroys planets for a living, that's a good idea) and just as a final, brutal kick in the balls the game seems to feel like it's building up to an awesome climax, the end of said buildup seemingly being the confrontation with the Metroid Queen, the final boss from Metroid 2... and then you realize the Metroid Queen was the final boss and the buildup was for a 40 minute long ending cutscene showing the single-worst ending of any video game I've ever had to endure in my entire life. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, beating the game unlocks THEATRE MODE. Yes, they were so proud of this fucking abomination of a story that you can watch all the cutscenes over again in the form of a feature-length movie! Bottom line, Metroid Other M is the single-worst game I've ever played in my entire life. The story completely and utterly ruins every single aspect of the game in such a way that it harms every single other game in the series as well, and may very well have killed the series dead due to its poor reception. Well fucking done.
...it felt good to get that all off my chest. If you have any sequels that made your brain break from the horrors and disappointment, then you can post them here too and let out all your frustration and rage at these horrible games.
Or maybe it's one in a long line of games you've played, you've enjoyed the first three entries and you're loving the series, and then the fourth game comes out and you wonder what the hell happened, because this fourth game is complete trash compared to the previous three and only tarnishes the series.
In any case, here's the place to talk about those games that were great themselves, but their sequels really, really weren't.
5. Final Fantasy X-2 I honestly thought was a hoax when it was first announced, I mean the name alone sounded ridiculous for one thing. Also, the way Final Fantasy X ended wrapped up every plot thread in existence so tight that the idea of a sequel seemed inconceivable from a plot perspective. The fact that they tried at all was surprising, the fact that they ultimately failed shouldn't have been surprising at all. I say "shouldn't" because I still bought this game for full price. The reason why this is only No.5 is because while it disappointed me greatly (I loved FFX when I first played it,) as stated there wasn't really any way for them to extend FFX's plot in a way that wouldn't just feel like a stapled-on extension, and ultimately what we got was a stapled-on extension that came almost right the fuck out of nowhere and was buried under about 10+ subplots involving most of the characters you met in the previous game, assuming they survived. Problem there was that there was so many subplots that they all but choked the life out of the one main plot since you couldn't avoid said subplots without losing out on good items and being horribly underlevelled. The game came up with many great ideas such as the Dressphere mechanic and the lighter, more humourous tone which is an interesting variation to the usual grim, dark plots FF is known for, but I've said it before and I'll say it again: This game would have been great if it had nothing to do with FFX. The fact that it's a sequel at all is ironically what makes it a sequel that sucks.
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl YEAH I WENT THERE AND WHAT!? Seriously, the amount of people who blindly defend this game is infuriating because apparently no-one is allowed to say anything bad about the holy SSBB without being considered an evil, bile-spewing heretic. The point is that SSBB was a fun game, and I won't deny that. Problem is that being fun does not equate to being well-designed, and if you're not convinced look no further than Super Metroid; brilliantly fun game no doubt, but it was released in 1994 and you could write a book about how many glitches there are in that game and people are still discovering glitches in it now, almost 20 years after its release! Anyway, SSBB was a fun and very glitchy game with some serious balance issues once you dug down deep into the game. Problem was, SSBM was more fun and less glitchy and far more well-balanced, therefore SSBM is superior. What bugs me is the fact that SSBM was brilliant as it was and the formula was bang-on, all SSBB needed to do was add more characters, more music, more stages, polish up the graphics and perfecto. Instead, they overhauled the entire physics system and all the mechanics, slowed down the speed of the fighting (which to me is stupid because Smash's insanely fast pace is what makes it fun and what makes it stand out, why take away from that?) and the game was far worse off for it. End result: I played Melee right up until Brawl's release. I stopped playing Brawl ages ago. Moral of the story: Don't fix something that ain't broken. Brawl is fourth since it was still fun and would have been good in its own right if Melee hadn't existed or hadn't been as good as it was, the problem was that Melee did exist and Brawl naturally will be compared to it... and not in a favourable way for me.
3. Devil May Cry 2 is probably a game that'd appear on most lists about bad sequels, and lo and behold. You've probably heard or experienced the story before, so here's the cliff notes: Bought Devil May Cry 1, loved it, couldn't wait for Devil May Cry 2, bought Devil May Cry 2, hated it because it sucked ass. Why? Well, first off DMC2 was way too easy. Almost all the bosses had some stupid trick or glitch that let you beat them without even breaking a sweat, and the regular enemies were just punching bags to give you something to do as Dante roamed around the mostly bland levels. Secondly, DMC1 had an interesting if simple variety of weapons that at least felt a little different, such as the swords, fiery gauntlets, and a variety of projectile weapons. In DMC2 you get: Short fat sword, regular sword, long thin sword, all of which control the same. Then you get a pair of submachine guns in the second game that are far more powerful than any other projectile weapon in the game (even the god-damned rocket launcher!) thus rendering all other projectile weapons obsolete. Finally, if you somehow did find yourself near-death despite how easy this game is, guess what? Majin Devil Trigger, which basically turns you into an unkillable machine of death for a limited duration that allows you to utterly decimate whatever hurt you in the first place, even if it was the final boss. Overall DMC2 is not challenging, it's not rewarding and it's definitely not fun, which is a shame because its prequel DMC1 was all of those things. At least DMC3 made it all better again, but I doubt anyone will forget DMC2 for how much of a disappointment it was.
2. Hexen 2 is one most people probably won't have heard of. Basically, Hexen 1 was made in 1995 by id Software using the same engine as Doom 1. Hexen 1 was unique at the time compared to other first-person shooters for providing multiple character classes to choose from each with unique characteristics and weapons as well as having more of a focus on exploration and puzzle-solving rather than combat, although combat was still very prevalent. The non-linear level hubs all had a great and dark atmosphere, and while the final two level hubs were a bit lacking compared to the first three Hexen 1 was still a game I greatly enjoyed. Then I got Hexen 2... and my GOD did Hexen 2 suck. It's hard to emphasize on one point with Hexen 2, because every aspect of it is worse than Hexen 1. Hexen 2 used the Quake engine instead of the Doom engine, and the end result is a hideously ugly game that has none of the environmental immersion of the previous game. Hexen 1 has great music, Hexen 2 doesn't have music at all as far as I know. Hexen 1's hubs and combat are fun, fighting through ogre-like reptile soldiers, demon serpents and gargoyles. In Hexen 2 you're beating up on spiders and archers. What the hell happened? It's unthinkable that a sequel to a good game could somehow manage to do absolutely everything worse than its prequel did when the building blocks were right there to expand upon, but Hexen 2 did exactly that, and as a result it absolutely sucks not just as a sequel to Hexen 1, but as a standalone game as well. Fuck. This. Game.
1. METROID OTHER M. You knew this would be No.1, it's me, it was bound to happen. After all, not only does it manage to be an absolutely horrible sequel to Super Metroid, but also an absolutely horrible prequel to Metroid Fusion that in an attempt to close the plotholes Fusion created ended up making its own plotholes due to Yoshio Sakamoto's staggering inability to write a story. This game has the single-worst story writing I've ever seen in a video game and possibly ever in my life, Samus's internal monologues take up an offensively large amount of the game and despite how much she yammers on about the events in the game, she somehow manages to explain absolutely nothing the player would have questions about, instead choosing to talk about things the player already saw happen and about how Adam Malkovich is such a kind, caring and talented general... all of which we see none of throughout the entire game as Adam instead comes off as an incompetent asshole. Combine that with extremely forced symbolism about motherhood and babies that gets very annoying very fast, horrible cliche'd plot twists (betrayer in the military squad, government is secretly evil etc.) the overwhelming stupidity of the characters in the story (sure, let's try and assassinate the bounty hunter who wipes out entire armies and destroys planets for a living, that's a good idea) and just as a final, brutal kick in the balls the game seems to feel like it's building up to an awesome climax, the end of said buildup seemingly being the confrontation with the Metroid Queen, the final boss from Metroid 2... and then you realize the Metroid Queen was the final boss and the buildup was for a 40 minute long ending cutscene showing the single-worst ending of any video game I've ever had to endure in my entire life. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, beating the game unlocks THEATRE MODE. Yes, they were so proud of this fucking abomination of a story that you can watch all the cutscenes over again in the form of a feature-length movie! Bottom line, Metroid Other M is the single-worst game I've ever played in my entire life. The story completely and utterly ruins every single aspect of the game in such a way that it harms every single other game in the series as well, and may very well have killed the series dead due to its poor reception. Well fucking done.
...it felt good to get that all off my chest. If you have any sequels that made your brain break from the horrors and disappointment, then you can post them here too and let out all your frustration and rage at these horrible games.
. I gave it a fair chance, because how much can you screw up a well-developed game when you add new content, but Activision ruined it. The stupid, compulsory "guitar battles" in GH3 - ARGH! GH4 and its various spin-offs are even worse because of the "stupid purple lines" when you play bass, which I always do. Not content with the standard 5 buttons, they added "open strumming". But the purple lines strobe horribly in my field of vision as the notes scroll down the screen, leaving me dizzy and nauseated. They even affect me if I play guitar while someone else plays bass. It's very frustrating, because I really like some of the songs in Guitar Hero: World Tour, and the Guitar Hero: Metallica games.