The good, the bad, and the ugly gaming sequels...

[Fishyash]

Good: Super mario bros. 3. It was a nice improvement from super mario bros 1 & 2.

Bad: Rayman Raving rabbids 2. The first one was a shock, but since you say sequels, I liked raving rabbids 2 even less.

Ugly: Sonic 06. Okay, maybe it isn't exactly a sequel to anything but when I saw it I was thinking of a sonic adventure 3 of sorts. Can I at least think of it that way?

 

[burningdragoon]

Good sequel: Chrono Cross

By being incredibly dissimilar to the previous game, it struck out on it's own.

Comparing the two games is frivolous, as they share little more than a name.

It doesn't build on the old foundation. It makes a new one.

This is what all sequels should do. Be completely different.


*stuff not about Chrono Cross*


Most wanted sequel: Chrono ________

Just fucking do it, Square. Just fucking do it.

Agree very much on first and last point.

 

[Tohru_Readman]

The Bad: Burnout Paradise, While not terrible, I just don't need a open world for racing games.

The Good: Saints Row, It improved so much from the first one, actually let me create a female character and was just damn fun to play.

The Ugly: Unnecessary sequels in general that no one wants.

 

[Palademon]

Good Sequel: Super Smash Bros. Melee

Bad Sequel: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Ugly Sequel: Most new Sonic games

Messiah Sequel: TimeSplitters 4

 

[Mr. Omega]

The Good: Assassin's Creed 2. It was a drastic improvement over the first one.

The Bad: Shadow the Hedgehog. It's a Sonic game with guns. WHO THOUGH THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

The Ugly: Metal Gear Solid Rising. It might be good. It might be great. But it wasn't needed, especially after 4 and Peace Walker did everything but make MGS 100% sequel-proof. Rising fills in the last little gap of the story. After that, there is nothing left to tell. MGS WILL be 100% sequel-proof.

 

[omicron1]

Good: Age of Empires 2. Took everything about the first one (aside from the setting; medieval Europe is not my personal favorite) and made it better - as close to a revolutionary step as classic RTS ever took.

Extra good: Two Worlds 2. For a sequel to a mediocre-at-best Oblivion clone to be better than its predecessor is a miracle in itself. For it to surpass it in every way imaginable, and turn out to be a really good game in its own right, is nigh on miraculous.

Bad: Medal of Honor. Pretty much a mediocre sequel to what I have on hearsay was a great series of games. It wasn't exceptionally horrible... just horribly unexceptional.

Ugly: Arcania: Gothic 4. JoWood took the Gothic series - an open-world series known for high amounts of realism and natural character interactions - and turned it into a linear corridor-based RPG completely lacking in open-world interactions. They pretty much literally took everything that made the Gothic series Gothic, and inverted it - from people not responding to you taking their possessions right off the table in front of them, to no longer using crafting tables to craft with, to turning the Nameless Hero from the first three games into the evil villain of this one. And it doesn't even have the good grace and decency to run reasonably at any graphical settings above Minimum.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Bad: LittleBigPlanet 2. It just seems irrelivant to bring out a sequel to a game where the main idea is to create your own levels. Perhaps it should have been a DLC update or a single install disc like Undead Nightmare.

LBP2 isn't even out yet...

Indeed it isn't, but the premise of a sequel to a game that is designed to make a game last for ever. LittleBigPlanet isn't bad gameplay-wise by the way.

 

[Leemaster777]

The Good: Marvel vs Capcom 3

Okay, I'm cheating here, but come on, this game looks AMAZING. So looking forward to this, I'm a huge fighting game nut. Unless a midget armed with garden tools pops out of the case and cuts my nuts off, I'm really not seeing how this game is going to be bad.

The Bad: Final Fantasy X-2

I've already talked AT LENGTH in the past about how much I friggin hate this game, I see no need to retread rants. I'll just say that this game is just a big clump of fan-wank.

The Ugly: Bioshock 2

Good game, but didn't need to exist. Yada yada, it's already been brought up in this topic, no need to go into more detail than that.

 

[velcrokidneyz]

Good: Fallout New Vegas, Love it! actually palying it as opposed to getting to rivet city in 3 and just not caring anymore.

Bad: Bioshock 2

Ugly: DoA, any of them

EDIT: I take it back, FF 13 is ugliest

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Good: Kingdom Hearts 2. Made the combat more varied, faster-paced, and generally more awesome.

Bad: Lego Racers 2. A different dev team made what was a decent racer but lacked the simplicity of the first game's build feature and sucked all the joy out of the gameplay.

Ugly: Anything with yearly updates. I may love Pro Evo and Football Manager but thoroughly unnecessary to pay £30 a year or more.

I have to agree with the ugly in this one... Most of those games like FIFA add one tiny thing each year and renew the squads... i say release one every 2 years with the new game modes and just keep updating the squads patch style...

The head of EA has admitted (a while back) that he's considering that business model.

Now if THQ would do the same with it's Smackdown vs Raw series, I could save myself the cost of one game a year.

 

[Magicman10893]

GOOD:
Saints Row 2 - Great fun that established a major difference from the GTA franchise.
Mass Effect 2 - Great story, better combat, characters are more interesting.
Fallout New Vegas - Hardcore mode and iron sights help with the immersion.
Grand Theft Auto 4 - A decent story for once. New physics engine is hilarious fun. Online multiplayer to dick around in the city is GREAT.
Rockband 3 - Addition of keyboard, pro instruments and harmony vocals actually give this sequel a reason to exist rather than be DLC or a install disc for more songs.

BAD:
Crackdown 2 - Just not fun anymore. All the barely held together plot is replaced by unoriginal crap and it just becomes VERY repetitive.
Fable 3 - The game is way too short and the complete lack of menus is more annoying than the menus from Fable 2! Not to mention that stupid touch crap just makes it take longer to make friends with the generic NPCs and becomes an annoying grind fest to make people love you.
Fable 2 - The glitches in the game ruined it and it wasn't anywhere near as long as its predecessor.
Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward basically took a shit on the online multiplayer, but the single player was a bit interesting and I wanted to know what happened to see Captain Price again.
GTA 4 - This may seem strange considering that it is also under the GOOD category, but it is a badly done sequel because it abandons the reckless fun and colorful characters and cities of Vice City and San Andreas for "realism." The only mindless fun from the game comes from the player exploiting things the developers (probably) didn't intend for the player to do.

UGLY:
The Force Unleashed 2 - There was literally no need for a sequel. Bringing him back just raises further questions in a plot that isn't even worth the time it takes to do a speed run, which by my calculations takes around 15 minutes.
Madden series - Years of adding no new features and the same (bad) graphics basically simplifies to being a $60 roster update.
Guitar Hero series - See "Madden" but replace "roster" with "songs we've already played before."

 

[Alex Berry]

Good: Uncharted 2 (surpassed original in every way yadda yadda)
Bad: Fallout New Vegas (fallout 3 was compelling and fresh and new. this is just the same thing with a yellow hud)
Ugly: Bioshock 2 (like a bad taste I can't seem get out of my mouth. It's shaming to say I played this)