Games That Didn't Deserve Their Sequels

Sometimes there are games that seem like the beginning of completely bankable franchises. They have interesting settings and characters, amazing gameplay, and outstanding visuals. Often these don't get turned into full fledged series for one reason or another. On the other hand, there are some games that seem so uninspired and poorly executed that it's a wonder they even got published at all. Worse still, these games get sequels and sometimes whole franchises that follow their first entry's release. This list is about those games; the ones that's continued existence is a wonder since their initial efforts were so poorly received, so here are five games that didn't deserve their (sometimes amazing) sequels. 

Red Steel

Why it didn't deserve a sequel: Red Steel seemed like the perfect idea for a Wii launch title. To be able to swing a Katana and shoot a 9 mm pistol with the same control scheme seemed like it would be the hardcore game that hardcore gamers could use to proudly show off their shiny new Wii in a more mature (read: teenage boy) way. What gamers got was a big pile of uninteresting shooting and muddy visuals. The premise of being a Yakuza exacting bloody revenge sounds like a great time, and it’s exactly what Ubisoft promised with Red Steel, but none of its premise was delivered. Many who played the game were still enamored with the Wii's new control setup but have since agreed that it was one of the system's worst early titles. 

Hold it sideways, that'll help.

Swords were no more fun than the guns in the game.

Why it got one: Ubisoft has publicly stated that the only reason Red Steel 2 exists was so that consumers would recognize the name. Their logic was simply that new IPs tend to have a harder time succeeding in the current game market, so they put a familiar name on the title in the hopes of making this entry a success. The games have literally nothing to do with each other, and as a result, Red Steel 2 is one of the Wii’s best titles. Trading the overused backdrop of organized crime for the sequel’s sci-fi western setting, the developers shed the first game’s stigma and made a much more interesting game. Not only was the game more aesthetically pleasing, but it was also a deeper experience, offering combo driven combat and memorable boss battles.

Ubisoft made the right choice by completely changing the sequel.

Area 51

Why it didn’t deserve a sequel: Area 51 was a cash-in on the sustained popularity of the sci-fi shooter after Halo had stormed the console scene in 2001. Its visual design and story were both relatively uninteresting; although, the inclusion of David Duchovny and Marilyn Manson as two of the main characters and a few nods to conspiracy theories gave the game a bit more personality. Its final act was truly uninspired with the player fighting floating gold orbs and a final boss that was literally a giant disc. It didn't help that the multiplayer was just as mediocre, with small maps and boring weapons. There was nothing in the game to merit a sequel let alone a next gen console release.

See? You can duel wield in this game too! Who needs Halo?

Why it got one: Area 51 most likely only saw a continuation because Midway needed recognizable franchises in dependable genres, and Blacksite: Area 51 checked that particular box for the publisher. This was probably another case of a publisher wanting a recognizable name rather than risking a new IP, evinced by the fact that Blacksite is only tangentially related to the 2005 release. This wasn't a franchise that Midway would be able to count on, however, since the company didn't do much else with the property in the 2 years before shutting its doors in 2009.

Such graphics.

Killzone

Why it didn't deserve a sequel: Killzone was billed by Sony as being a “Halo killer”, but the final product was anything but. While a competent shooter for its time, Killzone was hardly revolutionary and was limited by what the PS2 was capable of. Developer Guerrilla games attempted to push high end visuals with somewhat mixed results. Certain areas of the game were (and still are) truly impressive to look at, but others looked bland even upon the game’s initial release. The gameplay itself was also problematic with very little to break up the constant shooting gallery. Killzone had an unfair amount of pressure put on it before its release and just couldn't live up to the hype.

MUDDY TEXTURES FOR THE ISA SCUM!

Why it got one: Killzone has become a franchise simply because Sony needed to fill the first person shooter void in its catalog. This isn't to say that Guerrilla hasn't risen to the challenge; the first sequel in the series was a fantastic game, but the two follow ups have been solid albeit less impressive. Offshoots of the main series have also been pretty deft as well (Killzone: Mercenary being a prime example). However, the series mainly exists to give Sony a graphical showcase to release every few years, and as a result, the series has never reached the “Halo killer” status that Sony has been trumpeting from the start.

Mortal Kombat 4

Why it didn’t deserve a sequel: Everything that made Mortal Kombat the series that people loved was lost with the fourth installment in the franchise. The digitized graphics were replaced with polygonal visuals that somehow looked worse than the dated designs of the previous installments in the series. However, where Midway tried to push the series forward with that visual overhaul, they left far too much of the tired gameplay intact. The game simply needed to be deeper to compete with Capcom’s continued success in the genre, and even Capcom was having trouble sustaining their popularity with the masses at this point as the fighting genre began to decline. On top of all this, the game attempted a complete story with cringe inducing voiceoverswith hilarious results. The entire game was a bit of a mess. With the decline of the fighting genre and the poor reception of MK 4, many thought this would be the final nail in the franchise’s coffin.

No, Quan Chi. No one wins in Mortal Kombat 4.

Why it got one: The series was simply too big for Midway not to try again. The publisher/developer had spent too much time building the brand to let what was possibly their biggest franchise die. Midway needed a stable blockbuster back, and the creators of the series had too much invested in the series’s success to let it go.  In the end, the developers decided to go back to the drawing board and ended up giving gamers some of the best 3D fighters of the sixth generation of game consoles even if they did stumble a few more times before getting it right. 

What am I even looking at here?

Grand Theft Auto

Why it didn't deserve a sequel: The original GTA was an ambitious but directionless early effort by DMA Design (who would later become Rockstar North). The early games looked bad, even for their time, and handled as poorly as they looked. An open world was still an interesting novelty at the time, but since there was no real story to either of the first two entries in the series, the missions ended up feeling meaningless and often boiled down to a simple high score challenge. The gameplay felt as if the creators were struggling to create something totally new while being stuck firmly in the past. Eventually, Rockstar would take the lessons learned from the early GTA series and Body Harvest, one of their other early efforts, to make something much more special, but until then gamers only had a glimpse through a muddy window of what was to come. 

Missions would usually come from random pay phones with no explanation.

Piling as many cars as possible and blowing them all up was always an important task.

Why it got one: The biggest hurdle that DMA Designs had to overcome in order to fully realize Grand Theft Auto was a technical one. When the premise was finally met with the hardware to match it, the result was Grand Theft Auto III. Since the release of the third numbered entry, the series has led the industry in so many ways and hasn't looked back since. There were many recognizable facets in the first two GTA games, but none of them shined as brightly as they would eventually go on to. It’s obviously fortunate that the series continued, and it's all the more impressive that Rockstar was able to fine tune its vision from the franchise's rough start.

The series would eventually be remembered for games released later.

So there you have it: five games that didn't show much promise, but ended up getting sequels anyway. Some turned out better than others, but these definitely aren't the only examples in the industry. What are some games that you’re surprised got sequels or even ended up becoming full fledged franchises?