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Person after person after person moans about Sequels.
“They’re too similar to the originals”
“We want originality”
“Numbers make me feel sick, take the off games!”
And such nonsense. So, obviously, if a lot of people think that sequels are bad, they must be bad. Aren’t they? Aren’t they....?
I have taken the top 5 games from each genre from Play Magazine, and am going to try and see if there is a genuine problem.
Shoot Em Ups.
TIME CRISIS 2
Police 24/7
Rez
Star Wars Starfighter
GRAdius 3/4
Time Crisis is the only real sequel here, but then again seeing that the original and Project Titan were so good it was inevitable. Although Gradius is on Number 3 and 4, 90% of today’s gamers will have never played the originals back on whatever dead console they came from. Although Star Wars was pretty run of the mill by the Genre’s standards, Police 24/7 offered new style of play (control of character movement) and true originality showed in Sega’s Rez. So, maybe there is some backing for the non-sequels. Note that Time Crisis 2 is top, however..
Sports Games
PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER
ESPN INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD 2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER 2002
TIGER WOODS 2002
LMA MANAGER 2002
Bit of a turn out, this one. Every single one of the best 5 sports games is a sequel. Pro Evolution is a sequel to ISS Pro Evolution 2 on PSone. The rest are sequels and updates. So, does the fact that these are all sequels mean that there is a general lack of quality here? Pro Evo remains one of the best games on PS2, and the rest are all class. So, good backing against the opening statements.
Strategy Adventure
GRAND THEFT AUTO 3
Deus Ex
FINAL FANTASY X
Devil May Cry
METAL GEAR 2
Bit of a pattern here: Sequel, non-sequel, sequel, non-sequel, sequel. Grand Theft Auto 3 is arguably the best ever game on a Sony console, and on any format as well. Final Fantasy 10 was class, but many feel that Metal Gear 2 was a bit of a let-down. Anyhow, some fairly good examples of good sequels. On the other hand, Deus Ex and Devil May Cry were brilliant. Bit of a two-faced genre, but sequel-haters will have to be picky to find faults.
Puzzle/Party
PARAPPA THE RAPPER 2
AQUA AQUA WETRIX
Frequency
SUPER BUST A MOVE
MTV Music Generator 2
The top 2 are both sequels (Aqua being a sequel/re-working to Tetris), but I’d say that Frequency should be at the top and push the top 2 down 1 each. Even though MTV Generator has a 2 on it, I cannot trace the original, but it could be a sequel to the original Music on PSone. Anyway, a fairly mixed genre, but again the sequels aren’t exactly bad.
Racing Games
GRAN TURISMO 3
WIPEOUT FUSION
World Rally Championship
RIDGE RACER V
SSX TRICKY
Ooh, another sequel dominated chart. Okay, so SSX Tricky’s original counterpart was only 8 months old when this came, but the rest are all long running series. World Rally Championship could soon fall under the shadow of Colin McRae 3 as well..
Platformers
Ico
Jak & Daxter
KLONOA 2
CRASH BANDICOOT
RAYMAN REVOLUTION
Maybe one for the people opposed to sequels to rave about. The best 2 are standalone games, and the bottom 2 are only there because of no other real challenge. Klonoa 2 was great, but is the anti-sequel point surfacing here?
Beat Em Ups
VIRTUA FIGHTER 4
TEKKEN 4
CAPCOM VS SNK 2
DEAD OR ALIVE 2
READY TO RUMBLE 2
All sequels again, and damn fine ones as well. This genre is mainly all sequels however, new titles get little to no attention and die before they are born. Anyway, possibly the strongest genre for sequels.
First-Person Shooters
MEDAL OF HONOR FRONTLINE
Red Faction
Agent Under Fire
Timesplitters
Half-Life
Arguably, Medal of Honor was complete tripe, so this is another anti-sequel strong genre. The other 4 are all their own game (at the moment). And the 4 non-sequels are very good.
PSone
Out of Play’s overall top 100 PSone games:
60 games were sequels. This is a fair amount more than the 40, so maybe sequels really are good.
Elsewhere...
The entire Gamecube ‘ooh, you should get a GC for...’ is comprised out of sequels: Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Super Smash Bros, Perfect Dark; the whole lot is sequels. GC has some class new games, like Pikmin, but they aren’t the killer apps. Sequels dominate today’s GC ‘look out for’ games.
In conclusion, it seems that many sequels are actually pretty dang fine, it’s not just lack of games. We have originality, and it doesn’t work 99% of the time. Sequels will never go away ever. And be thankful for it.
“They’re too similar to the originals”
“We want originality”
“Numbers make me feel sick, take the off games!”
And such nonsense. So, obviously, if a lot of people think that sequels are bad, they must be bad. Aren’t they? Aren’t they....?
I have taken the top 5 games from each genre from Play Magazine, and am going to try and see if there is a genuine problem.
Shoot Em Ups.
TIME CRISIS 2
Police 24/7
Rez
Star Wars Starfighter
GRAdius 3/4
Time Crisis is the only real sequel here, but then again seeing that the original and Project Titan were so good it was inevitable. Although Gradius is on Number 3 and 4, 90% of today’s gamers will have never played the originals back on whatever dead console they came from. Although Star Wars was pretty run of the mill by the Genre’s standards, Police 24/7 offered new style of play (control of character movement) and true originality showed in Sega’s Rez. So, maybe there is some backing for the non-sequels. Note that Time Crisis 2 is top, however..
Sports Games
PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER
ESPN INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD 2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER 2002
TIGER WOODS 2002
LMA MANAGER 2002
Bit of a turn out, this one. Every single one of the best 5 sports games is a sequel. Pro Evolution is a sequel to ISS Pro Evolution 2 on PSone. The rest are sequels and updates. So, does the fact that these are all sequels mean that there is a general lack of quality here? Pro Evo remains one of the best games on PS2, and the rest are all class. So, good backing against the opening statements.
Strategy Adventure
GRAND THEFT AUTO 3
Deus Ex
FINAL FANTASY X
Devil May Cry
METAL GEAR 2
Bit of a pattern here: Sequel, non-sequel, sequel, non-sequel, sequel. Grand Theft Auto 3 is arguably the best ever game on a Sony console, and on any format as well. Final Fantasy 10 was class, but many feel that Metal Gear 2 was a bit of a let-down. Anyhow, some fairly good examples of good sequels. On the other hand, Deus Ex and Devil May Cry were brilliant. Bit of a two-faced genre, but sequel-haters will have to be picky to find faults.
Puzzle/Party
PARAPPA THE RAPPER 2
AQUA AQUA WETRIX
Frequency
SUPER BUST A MOVE
MTV Music Generator 2
The top 2 are both sequels (Aqua being a sequel/re-working to Tetris), but I’d say that Frequency should be at the top and push the top 2 down 1 each. Even though MTV Generator has a 2 on it, I cannot trace the original, but it could be a sequel to the original Music on PSone. Anyway, a fairly mixed genre, but again the sequels aren’t exactly bad.
Racing Games
GRAN TURISMO 3
WIPEOUT FUSION
World Rally Championship
RIDGE RACER V
SSX TRICKY
Ooh, another sequel dominated chart. Okay, so SSX Tricky’s original counterpart was only 8 months old when this came, but the rest are all long running series. World Rally Championship could soon fall under the shadow of Colin McRae 3 as well..
Platformers
Ico
Jak & Daxter
KLONOA 2
CRASH BANDICOOT
RAYMAN REVOLUTION
Maybe one for the people opposed to sequels to rave about. The best 2 are standalone games, and the bottom 2 are only there because of no other real challenge. Klonoa 2 was great, but is the anti-sequel point surfacing here?
Beat Em Ups
VIRTUA FIGHTER 4
TEKKEN 4
CAPCOM VS SNK 2
DEAD OR ALIVE 2
READY TO RUMBLE 2
All sequels again, and damn fine ones as well. This genre is mainly all sequels however, new titles get little to no attention and die before they are born. Anyway, possibly the strongest genre for sequels.
First-Person Shooters
MEDAL OF HONOR FRONTLINE
Red Faction
Agent Under Fire
Timesplitters
Half-Life
Arguably, Medal of Honor was complete tripe, so this is another anti-sequel strong genre. The other 4 are all their own game (at the moment). And the 4 non-sequels are very good.
PSone
Out of Play’s overall top 100 PSone games:
60 games were sequels. This is a fair amount more than the 40, so maybe sequels really are good.
Elsewhere...
The entire Gamecube ‘ooh, you should get a GC for...’ is comprised out of sequels: Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Super Smash Bros, Perfect Dark; the whole lot is sequels. GC has some class new games, like Pikmin, but they aren’t the killer apps. Sequels dominate today’s GC ‘look out for’ games.
In conclusion, it seems that many sequels are actually pretty dang fine, it’s not just lack of games. We have originality, and it doesn’t work 99% of the time. Sequels will never go away ever. And be thankful for it.
You see, I knew that.
I sensed it, you see.
I thought, 'Starlight is working his behind off doing this... Guess I'll beat him to it'.
And thankyou kind sir. I'm sure now yours will only seem half as good :-D
I sensed it, you see.
I thought, 'Starlight is working his behind off doing this... Guess I'll beat him to it'.
And thankyou kind sir. I'm sure now yours will only seem half as good :-D
Heh, I was thinking this just the other day, in fact Iv'e written the majority of a post I was doing on the same subject.
I liked yours though, it's a lot more fact based than mine a point I stressed was that Tony Hawks, Aggressive Inline, Matt Hoffman, Dave Mirra etc use the exact same formlae every time but happen to be some of the most damn playable and popular games going!
Nice post.
I liked yours though, it's a lot more fact based than mine a point I stressed was that Tony Hawks, Aggressive Inline, Matt Hoffman, Dave Mirra etc use the exact same formlae every time but happen to be some of the most damn playable and popular games going!
Nice post.
Person after person after person moans about Sequels.
“They’re too similar to the originals”
“We want originality”
“Numbers make me feel sick, take the off games!”
And such nonsense. So, obviously, if a lot of people think that sequels are bad, they must be bad. Aren’t they? Aren’t they....?
I have taken the top 5 games from each genre from Play Magazine, and am going to try and see if there is a genuine problem.
Shoot Em Ups.
TIME CRISIS 2
Police 24/7
Rez
Star Wars Starfighter
GRAdius 3/4
Time Crisis is the only real sequel here, but then again seeing that the original and Project Titan were so good it was inevitable. Although Gradius is on Number 3 and 4, 90% of today’s gamers will have never played the originals back on whatever dead console they came from. Although Star Wars was pretty run of the mill by the Genre’s standards, Police 24/7 offered new style of play (control of character movement) and true originality showed in Sega’s Rez. So, maybe there is some backing for the non-sequels. Note that Time Crisis 2 is top, however..
Sports Games
PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER
ESPN INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD 2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER 2002
TIGER WOODS 2002
LMA MANAGER 2002
Bit of a turn out, this one. Every single one of the best 5 sports games is a sequel. Pro Evolution is a sequel to ISS Pro Evolution 2 on PSone. The rest are sequels and updates. So, does the fact that these are all sequels mean that there is a general lack of quality here? Pro Evo remains one of the best games on PS2, and the rest are all class. So, good backing against the opening statements.
Strategy Adventure
GRAND THEFT AUTO 3
Deus Ex
FINAL FANTASY X
Devil May Cry
METAL GEAR 2
Bit of a pattern here: Sequel, non-sequel, sequel, non-sequel, sequel. Grand Theft Auto 3 is arguably the best ever game on a Sony console, and on any format as well. Final Fantasy 10 was class, but many feel that Metal Gear 2 was a bit of a let-down. Anyhow, some fairly good examples of good sequels. On the other hand, Deus Ex and Devil May Cry were brilliant. Bit of a two-faced genre, but sequel-haters will have to be picky to find faults.
Puzzle/Party
PARAPPA THE RAPPER 2
AQUA AQUA WETRIX
Frequency
SUPER BUST A MOVE
MTV Music Generator 2
The top 2 are both sequels (Aqua being a sequel/re-working to Tetris), but I’d say that Frequency should be at the top and push the top 2 down 1 each. Even though MTV Generator has a 2 on it, I cannot trace the original, but it could be a sequel to the original Music on PSone. Anyway, a fairly mixed genre, but again the sequels aren’t exactly bad.
Racing Games
GRAN TURISMO 3
WIPEOUT FUSION
World Rally Championship
RIDGE RACER V
SSX TRICKY
Ooh, another sequel dominated chart. Okay, so SSX Tricky’s original counterpart was only 8 months old when this came, but the rest are all long running series. World Rally Championship could soon fall under the shadow of Colin McRae 3 as well..
Platformers
Ico
Jak & Daxter
KLONOA 2
CRASH BANDICOOT
RAYMAN REVOLUTION
Maybe one for the people opposed to sequels to rave about. The best 2 are standalone games, and the bottom 2 are only there because of no other real challenge. Klonoa 2 was great, but is the anti-sequel point surfacing here?
Beat Em Ups
VIRTUA FIGHTER 4
TEKKEN 4
CAPCOM VS SNK 2
DEAD OR ALIVE 2
READY TO RUMBLE 2
All sequels again, and damn fine ones as well. This genre is mainly all sequels however, new titles get little to no attention and die before they are born. Anyway, possibly the strongest genre for sequels.
First-Person Shooters
MEDAL OF HONOR FRONTLINE
Red Faction
Agent Under Fire
Timesplitters
Half-Life
Arguably, Medal of Honor was complete tripe, so this is another anti-sequel strong genre. The other 4 are all their own game (at the moment). And the 4 non-sequels are very good.
PSone
Out of Play’s overall top 100 PSone games:
60 games were sequels. This is a fair amount more than the 40, so maybe sequels really are good.
Elsewhere...
The entire Gamecube ‘ooh, you should get a GC for...’ is comprised out of sequels: Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Super Smash Bros, Perfect Dark; the whole lot is sequels. GC has some class new games, like Pikmin, but they aren’t the killer apps. Sequels dominate today’s GC ‘look out for’ games.
In conclusion, it seems that many sequels are actually pretty dang fine, it’s not just lack of games. We have originality, and it doesn’t work 99% of the time. Sequels will never go away ever. And be thankful for it.
“They’re too similar to the originals”
“We want originality”
“Numbers make me feel sick, take the off games!”
And such nonsense. So, obviously, if a lot of people think that sequels are bad, they must be bad. Aren’t they? Aren’t they....?
I have taken the top 5 games from each genre from Play Magazine, and am going to try and see if there is a genuine problem.
Shoot Em Ups.
TIME CRISIS 2
Police 24/7
Rez
Star Wars Starfighter
GRAdius 3/4
Time Crisis is the only real sequel here, but then again seeing that the original and Project Titan were so good it was inevitable. Although Gradius is on Number 3 and 4, 90% of today’s gamers will have never played the originals back on whatever dead console they came from. Although Star Wars was pretty run of the mill by the Genre’s standards, Police 24/7 offered new style of play (control of character movement) and true originality showed in Sega’s Rez. So, maybe there is some backing for the non-sequels. Note that Time Crisis 2 is top, however..
Sports Games
PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER
ESPN INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD 2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER 2002
TIGER WOODS 2002
LMA MANAGER 2002
Bit of a turn out, this one. Every single one of the best 5 sports games is a sequel. Pro Evolution is a sequel to ISS Pro Evolution 2 on PSone. The rest are sequels and updates. So, does the fact that these are all sequels mean that there is a general lack of quality here? Pro Evo remains one of the best games on PS2, and the rest are all class. So, good backing against the opening statements.
Strategy Adventure
GRAND THEFT AUTO 3
Deus Ex
FINAL FANTASY X
Devil May Cry
METAL GEAR 2
Bit of a pattern here: Sequel, non-sequel, sequel, non-sequel, sequel. Grand Theft Auto 3 is arguably the best ever game on a Sony console, and on any format as well. Final Fantasy 10 was class, but many feel that Metal Gear 2 was a bit of a let-down. Anyhow, some fairly good examples of good sequels. On the other hand, Deus Ex and Devil May Cry were brilliant. Bit of a two-faced genre, but sequel-haters will have to be picky to find faults.
Puzzle/Party
PARAPPA THE RAPPER 2
AQUA AQUA WETRIX
Frequency
SUPER BUST A MOVE
MTV Music Generator 2
The top 2 are both sequels (Aqua being a sequel/re-working to Tetris), but I’d say that Frequency should be at the top and push the top 2 down 1 each. Even though MTV Generator has a 2 on it, I cannot trace the original, but it could be a sequel to the original Music on PSone. Anyway, a fairly mixed genre, but again the sequels aren’t exactly bad.
Racing Games
GRAN TURISMO 3
WIPEOUT FUSION
World Rally Championship
RIDGE RACER V
SSX TRICKY
Ooh, another sequel dominated chart. Okay, so SSX Tricky’s original counterpart was only 8 months old when this came, but the rest are all long running series. World Rally Championship could soon fall under the shadow of Colin McRae 3 as well..
Platformers
Ico
Jak & Daxter
KLONOA 2
CRASH BANDICOOT
RAYMAN REVOLUTION
Maybe one for the people opposed to sequels to rave about. The best 2 are standalone games, and the bottom 2 are only there because of no other real challenge. Klonoa 2 was great, but is the anti-sequel point surfacing here?
Beat Em Ups
VIRTUA FIGHTER 4
TEKKEN 4
CAPCOM VS SNK 2
DEAD OR ALIVE 2
READY TO RUMBLE 2
All sequels again, and damn fine ones as well. This genre is mainly all sequels however, new titles get little to no attention and die before they are born. Anyway, possibly the strongest genre for sequels.
First-Person Shooters
MEDAL OF HONOR FRONTLINE
Red Faction
Agent Under Fire
Timesplitters
Half-Life
Arguably, Medal of Honor was complete tripe, so this is another anti-sequel strong genre. The other 4 are all their own game (at the moment). And the 4 non-sequels are very good.
PSone
Out of Play’s overall top 100 PSone games:
60 games were sequels. This is a fair amount more than the 40, so maybe sequels really are good.
Elsewhere...
The entire Gamecube ‘ooh, you should get a GC for...’ is comprised out of sequels: Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Super Smash Bros, Perfect Dark; the whole lot is sequels. GC has some class new games, like Pikmin, but they aren’t the killer apps. Sequels dominate today’s GC ‘look out for’ games.
In conclusion, it seems that many sequels are actually pretty dang fine, it’s not just lack of games. We have originality, and it doesn’t work 99% of the time. Sequels will never go away ever. And be thankful for it.