Things Can’t Only Get Better – 5 Games That Were Better Than Their Sequels

Video game perfection takes a long time to achieve. Some games go through sequel after sequel with no avail, Dynasty Warriors that was aimed at you…

Look at games like Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2. All contenders for game of the year and what do they all have in common?

They are sequels that eclipse there predecessors. In the world of films, the first film in a franchise is usually the best then it goes downhill from there, with a few exceptions obviously. The complete opposite can be said about video games. But like the film industry, there are a few exceptions.

Halo

There once was a time when Sony’s main rival was, well nothing really. Then along came the Kings of Windows and put their foot in the ring. It was a brave move and like all Kings they had warriors or should I say a warrior.

Halo was one of those games that revolutionized the gaming industry. It had everything; amazing graphics, solid gameplay, tight controls and a multiplayer system that is still used to this day. It was an instant seller and propelled Microsoft into the console wars. A sequel was sure to follow.

Now Halo 2 wasn’t that bad of game. It had everything that made the first Halo great and you got to play as an alien, what more could you ask for? A good story or maybe an ending that wasn’t the worse ending to a game ever? It didn’t bring anything new to the table either; it could have been Halo 1.5 – Master Chief’s deja vu. As I said it’s not a bad game just not as good as the first Halo.

Halo 3 on the other hand is a travesty. On reflection this is obvious but at the time, the hype train was that going so crazy that the whole game could have been Master Chief picking an outfit, taking one of the Covenant to a ballroom dance, pressing buttons to make sure you dance correctly to impress the alien then go home and have some hot coffee with him and the game would have still got amazing reviews. At a maximum playtime of 6 hours, the single player campaign was horrible with a very weak story and the multiplayer was more or less unchanged. Yes it did have nice graphics but nice isn’t amazing, nice is average. This game should not have been average. Halo Wars and Halo ODST are good games but nothing compares to the original system seller that was Halo.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0kHiEME0Vk

Streets of Rage

Ok, hear me out on this one because a lot of you are going to be saying Streets of Rage 2 had better music, better graphics, more characters and is all out a better game. But Streets of Rage had something so amazing, so awesome, so unbelievable cool, which most of you have forgotten about, that it makes the sequel look like a next gen remake of Golden Axe. The insane car driving bazooka wielding cop makes everything blow up on the screen and all enemies dissolve into little piles off ash after napalm comes falling down on their heads button. Remember it?

One press of this button and all hell broke loose on the unfortunate enemies that were on the screen. Not only did this add depth to the game but it also looked awesome. Nothing sticks in my mind more than when I first wondered “what does this button do?” and just like magic, the screen erupted in a path of fire. It was a technique that you had to master in order to complete the game, knowing when to use it and knowing when to not use it. Even when you are in a lift, high above the ground, the insane car driving bazooka wielding cop makes everything blow up on the screen and all enemies dissolve into little piles off ash after napalm comes falling down on their heads button would work, how’s that for amazing aiming?

If you want more proof then all you need to do is simply play the game and press that button. As for Streets of Rage 3, rollerblades and kangaroos do not work in side scrolling beat em’ ups. Nuff said.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA1vV5HZxFo

Pokemon

The original, and still the best, Pokemon will always be the best for one straight reason, the catchphrase. Pokemon’s catchphrase has always been, “gotta catch em’ all“. When you are faced with catching 151 Pokemon, this is feasible. But when you are faced with catching 493 of those cute critters you need to start asking yourself, do I really need to catch em’ all?

The first Pokemon worked because it didn’t have too many or too less. 151 was a very good round number. Then with Pokemon Gold and Silver, the numbers started to creep up; 251 then 386 and now we have 493 of the little buggers to catch. Granted there have been advancements in the battle system and a lot of the new Pokemon are awesome but there is to darn many of them. If you applied the same logic Pokemon has to other games, it would mean in Super Mario Galaxy 2 you would have to collect 400 stars to ace the game.

Now I’m not saying they shouldn’t add new Pokemon, as it does bring new freshness to the series but couldn’t they have gotten rid of some of the old ones in the process?

In the animal world if a species didn’t evolve it got eaten, well can’t the same be true for Pokemon as well.?All 493 of them should meet in the Coliseum, have a great big brawl and the last 151 Pokemon get to be in the next game. Problem solved.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QeiH70AUU4

Tomb Raider

Post-1996, the greatest females in games were bratty princesses who got captured every second of the day or cross dressers; Mrs Pacman was just Mr Pacman with a bow on his head and everyone thought Samuel was a dude.

There just wasn’t any sexy, strong and dual-gun-wielding females in video games.

Then, backfliping onto the scene came the original gaming pin-up…

Lara Croft was simply every guys dream girl and the game wasn’t half bad either. The original Tomb Raider was a turning point for third person adventure games. Granted, the controls haven’t really stood the test of time and the graphics could have been a lot better but what it lacked in those areas, it more than made up for in story and level design.

What ’s more fun than trying to shoot crocodiles and discovering sunken cities?

It was simply an outstanding game however, like I said the graphics weren’t the best. So roll on sequels, and with them better graphics and tweaked gameplay. Oh how wrong we where.

Sequel after sequel after sequel and none of them could measure up to the original. Eidos even remade the first game exactly the same but using the newer game engine that powered Tomb Raider Legend, which funnily enough had amazing graphics but lacked the gameplay. How bad does a series have to be to make a games company revert back to the original 11 year old game?

The only thing that has improved over the years is Lara’s appearance. 13 years and the only improvement we have seen is Lara’s rear-end getting tighter and tighter. Not that I’m complaining or anything but it would have been nice to see that a little improvement in the games as well.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2PtLMKpOwQ

Driver

The PS1 launched with two amazing racing games; Wipeout and Destruction Derby. Then in 1997, the excellent Gran Turismo came along and everyone was blown away by the graphics and the physics engine.

However, it wasn’t until 1999 that the people behind Destruction Derby; Reflections Interactive, would unleash the behemoth racer that was Driver.

It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. When your car ran into another car, both of them took damage. I know that’s nothing new today but back then it was a very big deal. Driver was a trendsetter and paved the way for games like Grand Theft Auto 3. The gameplay was second to none and it even had an amazing feature called Director Mode, where you could shoot and edit films on the levels that you have completed.

The whole package was simply astounding. The game went on to sell millions.

Obviously, there would be a sequel. Driver 2 got very mixed reviews, with some reviewers even admitting they where actually shocked at how bad it was. Still though, mixed reviews isn’t that bad. It’s not like the game got bad reviews all round, mixed still means that the game had merit.

Driver 3 took that merit, ran over it repeatedly until the car was squeaking it’s last exhaust fume, then took the car and used it as the building block for all the other cars in the game.

It was simply disgusting how bad this game was. The main problem was that it was buggier than a Terminator powered by Vista. There was pop-in everywhere, which was acceptable in 1999, but in 2004, you really should have the amount of pop-in reduced.

Overall it was slated by reviewers and rightly so. The franchise almost got back on its feet with Driver: Parallel lines but it was too little too late. These days the Driver franchise is no more but to put the icing on the cake, the original Driver is available on PSN. A very strong ending to a franchise that just couldn’t improve on perfection.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVuhvPrrhyI