What are the best and worst sequels of all time?

In your view what is the best and worst sequels also it doesn't matter if it's past the second game in a series here's my list.

Best

• Mortal Kombat 2
• Grand Theft Auto 3
• FarCry 3
• Max Payne 2
• Mass Effect 2
• Batman Arkham City
• Portal 2
• Resident evil 4
• Street Fighter 2

Worst

• Crysis 2
• F.E.A.R. 2
• Battlefield 3
• Resident evil 6
• FarCry 2
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Mortal Kombat 4

Worst: Devil May Cry 2

Best: Devil May Cry 3

Mass Effect 2 for both

Best:

Dead Space 2

Metal Gear Solid 2

Crash Bandicoot 2

Ratchet and Clank 3

Resident Evil 4

Uncharted 2

GTA V

Assassin's Creed 2

Saint's Row The Third

COD: MW2

Smash Bros. Melee

Worst:

Dead Space 3

Assassin's Creed 3

COD: MW3

COD: Ghosts

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness

Sonic 06

Mortal Kombat Armegeddeon

Funny, I was thinking this as well. Better combat, worse EVERYTHING ELSE. "Oh look, we got rid of the long elevator rides you all complained about where your party would talk to eachother or a radio show would play... and replaced them with loading screens." Worst part? Everyone was happy with the change.

Yes, I am still sore about that. People suck.

Best: F Zero GX

Worst: Hotline Miami 2

Given Ubisoft's obsession with driving franchises into the ground it might not be a popular opinion, but when viewed from when it came out, Assassin's Creed II was an amazing sequel fixing a lot of issues people had with the first AC (which among gameplay stuff includes having a better story and a likeable protagonist), and even though it added it's own share of problems (majorly too much "stuff" and one of the most shameless ways to advertise DLC content in the history of gaming), i was pretty amazed how much of an improved sequel it was.

Speaking of shameless microtransactions: Would EA's mobile Dungeon Keeper as one of the worst?

(Also, i gotta say i liked Crysis 2. Sure, it did away with a lot of freedom Crysis 1 offered and it had a baffingly nonsensical story, but i still liked the gameplay in it's own terms and was positively reminded of Half-Life 2 regarding the pacing and the variety of the campaign.)

Best: GTA3, Diablo 2, Jak 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Just Cause 2, Far Cry 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Portal 2.

Worst: Metal Gear Solid 2, Dance Central Spotlight, Red Faction Guerrilla 2, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and all the Sonic games (including the second half of the original).

Dragon Age 2 needs to in the Worst.

Rushed to all hell, and destroyed all of the promise Origins brought.

By my money, you can't really come up with a better answer than Street Fighter II. They took a pretty average Yie Ar Kung Fu knock off and spun it into something that was basically a whole new genre. Things like Karate Champ existed, but SFII took it so many levels beyond that and they did such a great job of foreseeing and solving all these different issues that the answers that they came up with are still largely the guts of the genre today. It's so impressive to me that with next-to-no blueprint to work off or precedent to examine, they basically crafted the DNA of the Fighting Game from scratch and they fucking nailed it. And then you take that and tack on some of the most iconic character design, music etc in video games.

Others I'd put in the best category? Metal Gear Solid was a ridiculous way to follow up those old MSX games. Curse Of Monkey Island took the charm of the old games, updated the interface and packaged it all in some absolutely top shelf presentation. There's one game that I'd love to see get a HD remaster, if they still have any high res versions of the original art assets etc in a vault somewhere. Wolfenstein 3D. Might be stretching it a bit to call this a sequel, but super important. Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver. Blood Omen was really good, but I love the direction they took with Soul Reaver, even if the game was too ambitious for its own good and wasn't really finished!

Worst sequels, hm... Sonic Adventure as a portent of things to come and Sonic 06 as being rock bottom? Those CDi Zelda games, I guess.

When it comes to best, my first pick would probably be Might & Magic III: Isles of Terra, that was the first game in the series that I felt had a cohesive world, and I absolutely loved it. I'd also like to say Descent II, despite it being a very iterative sequel, all the minor changes were for the better, and the addition of the CD soundtrack which remains my all time favorite just made it an amazing game.

The worst sequel ever is without hesitation Command & Conquer 4.

Best

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: the first Indiana Jones adventure game was flat-out garbage; it basically does everything terrible an adventure game can do. Fate of Atlantis, on the other hand, is one of the best adventure games I've played.

Worst

Master of Orion 3: I really enjoyed both MoO 2 and MoO 1 (but especially MoO 2). I recently tried playing MoO 3, but I didn't get very far, the game is a wild mess.

Best:

• TIE Fighter - Easily my top answer. X-Wing was an amazing game already, but TIE Fighter is an unequivocally better game and a legit contender for best game ever made.
• Civilization II
• Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Final Fantasy VI
• Super Metroid
• Diablo II
• Heroes of Might and Magic II
• Mass Effect 2
• Uncharted 2
• Red Dead Redemption
• Saints Row the Third
• Resident Evil 4
• Street Fighter II
• GTA III
• Fallout II
• Honorable Mention - XCom 2: I hesitate to put it here already, but holy hell is it good outside the bugs.

Worst:

• Mass Effect 3
• Dead Space 3
• Assassin's Creed Unity
• Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5
• Dragon Age 2
• Duke Nukem Forever
• Resident Evil 6
• Metroid: Other M
• Devil May Cry 2
• Deus Ex: The Invisible War
• Silent Hill: Homecoming (Or insert any Silent Hill past 4 really)
• Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
• Perfect Dark Zero

I agree completely. Mass Effect 1 was the best Star Trek game ever made. Mass Effect 2 lost a lot of that feel and I was one of the few people who was sorely disappointed.

I still enjoyed it - I certainly don't think it's a bad game. I just really, really liked Mass Effect 1.

There is a new Master of Orion in the works. I didn't hear about it until yesterday, apparently it's in Early Access on Steam from today. Surprisingly it's from the World of Tanks/World of Warships guys. I have heard good things about it too.

Best:

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor

Dead Rising 2

Final Fantasy III was a big step-up from II. (Although III is bullshit hard.)

Super Metroid

Worst:

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5

Final Fantasy II

Perfect Dark Zero

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Pokemon Gold and Silver as the best sequels. They should absolutely be considered, as they perfected Pokemon.

One I would certainly put down for best sequel is Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. The first game was a very fun DOOM-ish game but the sequel became a really big 3D game that worked in force powers and full lightsaber combat. There was a lot of scale to it. That game just really blew me away.

Max Payne 2 is definitely on my list. Really liked the first game a lot but the sequel became probably my second favorite game ever. Have played it a lot of times. Really enjoy the story. They made smart mechanical changes from the first game, where you were just always dodging.

Witcher 2. Enjoyed the first game at times but it was not easy for me to get through. The second is one of my favorite games. Really strong improvement in every area. I would also nominate Witcher III for being awesome and different.

I also put up MGSV. I really loved 4 and V is different and daring and plays so damn well. I do agree with some criticisms on this game but overall they did something very different and still amazing.

.....

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a great one for being a bummer of a sequel. The first game is my favorite game and that was a giant let down playing through.

I think every Fight Night game since Round 3 is up for worst sequel. You only had to fix everything around the basic gameplay in that game and they messed with that and everything else in a crazy way. I think they just really ruined that one. I still just play 3 even though all the modes in it are garbage.

Dead Rising 2 is up for worst sequel to me. I think they could've done a lot better coming off that first game, which really frustrated me but had promise.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced games. Just make another FFT-ish game Square. Just do it. Stop messing with the formula in these ways or just now not making any kind of SRPG when they would do well on PC and consoles if you would just try. Maybe Japanese games getting out more on the PC will eventually get there. Disgaea is on PC now after all.

KOTOR 2 is on my worst sequel list. I don't enjoy that game in the ways I see it celebrated and I don't think it does Star Wars well. What it does in a grey area did not do much for me and parts of the game are really boring in a way KOTOR never was for me. I'm not saying it is a bad game but it isn't close to the first.

I agree. There was promise and the ways you could tell it was rushed were so obvious. Huge mistake for them to rush that game.

Also "the areas are all smaller". Maybe that wasn't why, but just another problem I had with that one, whatever the cause was. I really enjoy the party in ME 2 and the "suicide mission" vibe and idea but I have a lot of issues with that one. I think a lot was lost from the first game that I really liked. For me it is unfortunately a disappointing sequel that way.

I'm right with you @qlanth.

I know I'm going out on a limb here guys, but I think Silent Hill 2 is a pretty good sequel.

Obscure 2 is a horrible sequel, not that the first game was insanely great or popular, but it had a great charm and fun game play and wore it's teen horror movie vibe on it's sleeve.
The second was poo pressed into the shape of a disc.

Best:

Mass Effect 2

Gears of War 2 - dat horde mode!

Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn - More of a reboot than a sequel but it continues from the events of OG 14.

Worst:

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII - As much as I loathe 7 this game doesn't do anything to advance the universe at all.

F.E.A.R. 3

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - I loved 13 and platinumed 13-2 but good god this game takes anime bullshit to a whole new level. Thankfully the combat is still great.

Best: Mass Effect 2

Worst: Crackdown 2

Best:

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Star Control II

Resident Evil 2

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Team Fortress 2

Mega Man 2

Worst

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Dragon Age II

Mass Effect 3

Military Madness: Nectaris

There's more, but I'd have to give it some thought so here's what popped into my mind right away as the ones I was looking forward to, but ended up surprising me, for better or for worse

Best: Uncharted 2

Worst: Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

Best: Uncharted 3, Gears of War 3, Rayman Legends, Hitman Blood Money, Max Payne 3, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Black Ops, Halo 3, Dark Souls 2

Worst. Gears of War Judgement, Metal Gear Solid 4, TLoZ Spirit Tracks, Arkham Origins, Halo Reach, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5

The range of emotions this response made me go through, means you are absolutely 100% correct.

WORST OF ALL TIME: Xenosaga Episode II

I also loved 13 and really liked 13-2. I liked 13 more than 13-2 but platinumed them both. However LR: FFXIII was complete garbage aside from the combat. And even then, the combat seemed more like an after thought in terms of actually making it an integral part of the game. Most of the character progression was done outside of combat which really bugged. It just didn't seem right having combat mean almost nothing. I played through it once with a guide (something I NEVER do on a first playthrough) and never looked back. Fuck that game.

For me,

Best: Assassins Creed II

Worst: Crysis 2

I LOVED Crysis, it's one of, if not my favorite games. The second felt very limited in scope, and everything about the way it controlled felt super chunky in comparison to the first. Assassins Creed 2 for obvious reasons. It took an awesome concept and improved on it in every way.

IT KILLED THE SERIES! I like Episode 3 a lot tho, which is even more of a shame.

Best:

Metal Gear Solid 3, Mass Effect 2, Shadow Hearts 2, Saints Row The Third, heck I'll put Xenosaga 3 here why not.

Worst:

Devil May Cry 2, Twisted Metal 3

One of the worst that comes to mind is Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars on the Sega Master System. The first was an innovative (for its time) platformer with interesting mechanics that rivaled Super Mario Bros as some of the best platforming of the era. The Lost Stars was mostly auto-scrolling bullshit that actually repeated itself verbatim for the second half like a piss-poor Ghosts and Goblins ripoff with zero of the appeal of either game it mimicked.

Phantasy Star 1, 2 and 4 are some of the best JRPGs of the past century. Three is an abomination best forgotten.

Ratchet & Clank has so many (mostly) great and (thankfully few) awful sequels at this point, it's impossible to quantify them.

Jak & Daxter 2 wasn't exactly a bad game, but it was such a different thing from its predecessor, it probably qualifies. Despite absolutely loving 1, the difficulty of 2 turned me off from ever tackling 3 which I'd heard was even harder.

Shadow of the Colossus is an improvement in almost every way on Ico, and both are some of the best story telling the medium has ever accomplished. Video games do show-don't-tell better than any other medium, and I really wish more developers would take the hint.

Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels have really put a huge dent in my enthusiasm for the franchise, and I'm one of the few that thinks XII is one of the best.

I can't think of a better example than Dead Space 2 & 3 and Assassin's Creed 2 & 3. Both sequels to the original game were absolutely incredibly and built upon the foundation of the first, while the sequels to the sequels didn't seem like they understood what made the sequels great.

Done.

Best:

Mass Effect 2

Assassins Creed 2/Brotherhood

Batman Arkham City

Blood Omen 2

Uncharted 2

Double Dragon 2

Xcom 2(despite glitches and performance problems)

Bioshock Infinite (improved on the original gameplay and story IMO)

Saints Row the Third (Ok i never played the first two but this game was awesome)

Metal Gear Solid V (Best playing Metal gear of all time)

Metal Gear Solid 4 (Wrapped up the solid snake story extremely well and was one of the most enjoyable times i had with a game at the time)

Street Fighter 2

Tekken 3

Devil May Cry 3

Darksiders 2 ( i really enjoyed this game)

Worst :

Dragon Age 2 (Just boring and repetitive especially compared to the first. Honestly Orgins is the only Dragon age i could get all the way through)

Final Fantasy 13

Metroid Prime (these games sucked)

Devil May Cry 2 (man this game was garbage)

I thought Pokemon Gold and Silver were amazing sequels to those original Pokemon games. That first batch of brand-new Pokemon was the most exciting thing in the world to me at the time, and then the games came out and surprised you by having the entirety of the original game, reworked and adjusted for a higher difficulty, inside it.

Paper Mario was a great game and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is one of the best games I've ever played in my life.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a game that made me miserable, so I'd stick that on my worst sequels list.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, one of the few direct sequels in the Tales franchise, was a terrible game that didn't do the characters from the original justice. It was so awful to me that I just pretend it didn't happen and that the story ends at the end of the first game.

@anund said:

I thought the combat in ME2 was a total snoozefest so everything is worse for me. ME1 Assault rifle is a thing of beauty.

Dragon Age 2 is the correct answer for worst sequel ever. Even after playing it last year again, I'm still a bit bitter about that piece of diappointment, almost 5 years now.

FarCry 2 is awesome.

I nominate We Love Katamari as one of the best. Probably because Keita Takahashi actually worked on that one! Bayonetta 2 also deserves a mention, but I never got through it because I swapped my Wii U for a PS4 like a third of the way in. I refuse to spoil myself on the game until I get back to it some day.

As for the worst, that's a tough one since I don't find myself playing a lot of terrible games, but like... honestly... Street Fighter 4. Maybe it was cool at first but at the tail end of that thing's lifespan I just could not stand looking at it or playing it.

Best :

Witcher 3

Assassin's Creed 2

DMC 3

Half-Life 2

Dead Space 2

NFSU 2

Worst:

Splinter Cell Conviction

Dead Space 3

Resident Evil 6

Arkham Knight

MGS 5

GTA 4

Majora's Mask is probably the best video game sequel ever because it doesn't just do what the previous one did at all. It takes mountains of risks.

Watch Dogs 2 I'm praying will be an vast improvement over the original. Not that I didn't like it, just it could be better.

I was going to say the same. Gold and Silver are perfect sequels. Expanded and improved on the originals in every way. And then when you were done, you unlocked the map of the original game to adventure in. I was a kid when I played it, so it hit at the right time, but even know looking back that is hugely impressive. Thanks Iwata! In fact, that reveal is probably one of the best moments in gaming ever for me.

Best:

Mass Effect 2

Worst:

Devil May Cry 2...what a stinker :/

BEST:

• Dead Space 2
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat
• Gran Turismo 6
• Duke Nukem 3D (This is really an anomaly. Duke games are mostly garbage)
• Metro: Last Light
• Zeno Clash 2
• Serious Sam 3: BFE

WORST: (Not necessarily awful but perhaps a step or two hundred back compared to what came before them)

• Dead Space 3
• Half-life 2
• X-COM: Enforcer
• BLOOD 2
• God of War: Ascension
• Killzone: Shadow Fall
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
• No One Lives Forever 2

NEED A SEQUEL:

• Warhammer 40000: Space Marine
• Outcast
• Ghost Master

Super Mario Bros 3 was one of the best sequels of all time, as well as Super Mario World

Best

• Assassins Creed II
• Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2

Both games that built upon some fairly barebones openers. Smash Court 1 was an expensive arcade experience with a limited roster but the sequel felt like a proper tennis game, complete with a World Tour with 250 other dudes.

I think I actually remembered the correct answer to worst sequel ever. This is a game I had largely forgotten about even existing until I started work on a blog entry for the site this week. And I haven't seen anyone else mention it, so my guess is others have tried to black this one out from their memories as well.

Ultima IX: Ascension

I am by no means the biggest Ultima fan out there, but the sheer vitriol fans of that series had at the time and probably still have for that game makes the hate toward Mass Effect 3 seem nitpicky. It was buggy as all hell and the system requirements were pretty steep. The company never bothered to go back and fix most of the bugs either. The plot was awful and contained numerous inconsistencies with previously established lore. From top to bottom, it was a total mess. For my money, I can't think of another sequel that combines so many terrible elements while also being historically important as it concluded an extremely popular video game series that had been going for eighteen years at that point. The real kick in the junk is remembering that it was also the last game Origin ever released.

For more about that game, here are a few links:

Greg Kasavin's review

Spoony's two-part look at the game

The worst sequel I've ever stumbled upon is COD MW3. While the series had certainly gone downhill after BO1, the titles that came out after MW3 was at least playable. MW3 is an abomination of a shooter.