Throughout the history we have learned that no matter how great and important your gaming franchise is, there will be a least one game in your franchise that will be considered bad. In the Souls saga you have Dark Souls 2, in the BioShock saga you have BioShock 2 and in the Devil May franchise you have Devil May Cry 2 (because in this house we think that the DMC reboot is very good).
It is funny because there 3 games I mentioned before are very solid games in their own right but let’s get more serious since these are the 10 worst video game sequels
Devil May Cry 2
The first Devil May Cry was amazing and currently is considered one of the best video games ever made, so, how can you go from such an amazing game to a disaster like this? Devil May Cry 2 almost sank the franchise all by itself because it honestly took the best parts from the original Devil May Cry and scrapped them: the difficulty was lowered, and Dante’s personality was changed. Despite all of these, the game was a commercial success and motivated the team to improve their work for future releases.
Mega Man X7
When Mega Man x6 was released, it received averagely good reviews and Capcom was eager to create something new and original for the next installment. The X series was universally known for its standard 2 platform set-up so they decided to change that in Mega Man X7 and go for a more cel-shaded third-person shooter style and, guess what, it was a big mistake.
Mega Man X7 was generic and repetitive, and it had and habit of skipping dialogue so you could miss important information. Thankfully they went back to the platform game style for Mega Man X8, which received a better reception.
Resident Evil 6
The Resident Evil franchise is the reason so many survival horrors exist today. The franchise released a lot of hits that were well-received by both fans and critics until Resident Evil 6 was released.
Capcom decided to take the survival horror, throw it to the trash can and move into a more generic action-oriented game. Resident Evil 6 is considered both the worst and the most hated Resident Evil game as of this writing. Even Resident Evil 5, which featured more action than the previous games, wasn’t hated so much.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
In some cases, a sequel is considered bad because of poor writing, bugs, or other things that create an unplayable game. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a special case because the game itself is somewhat good, but there were a lot of bad decisions during development that made this game a poorly-received one.
Banjo’s series was acclaimed for its platforming style but suddenly Rare decided to redesign the game during production to make it a kart-racing game where you can both upgrade and collect vehicles which made the die-hard Banjo fans angry. It was a very risky decision and it didn’t pay off.
Dino Crisis 3
Some people say that the Dino Crisis franchise is just “Resident Evil but with Dinosaurs” but let’s be honest, it is more than that.
While Dino Crisis 2 focused more on action than the original Dino Crisis, it was both a commercial and critical success, now tell me: Why the heck did they think that a Dino Crisis set in space would be a great idea? But the story is not the only problem, the game literally has the worst camera of all time, and there are only three types of enemies, excluding bosses.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
Tomb Raider fans were waiting for an amazing sixth entry in the original Tomb Raider series. I mean, the game’s title is amazing… But only the title because the game itself is awful.
Instead of uncover secrets through puzzles and… raiding tombs, the game took a new approach in solving a murder in a city. Also, the game was criticized by its camera angles, technical issues, poor controls, and obviously the tone and new shift in gameplay that was hated almost by everybody.
Despite everything I said, the game sold well but damaged the image of the Tomb Raider franchise.
Sonic ’06
Ah yes, I remember the trailer of this one, I was amazed back in the day but I definitely regret buying this one.
Sonic ’06 was considered the return to form of the franchise but rather than that it was an ugly mess. Levels were simple, the controls were terrible, the camera was out of place all the time, and the bugs were endless.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot: a romance between a human and Sonic? That was extremely cringy. The last true good Sonic game was Sonic Heroes, and no truer thing was ever spoken.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was a franchise that made my childhood amazing. It was the supreme skating franchise until Pro Skater 5 was released.
This game is an unfinished mess that was developed in a few months by Robomodo. The graphics looked old at the time that was released, the online mode was unplayable, game-breaking bugs, and dull levels. And one last thing, the game core elements required access to the Tony Hawk’s official servers which have been shut down 5 years ago, which means the game is literally unplayable right now.
Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever is one of the most perfect examples of how you have to not make a sequel.
One of the most well-known problems of this sequel was that the development of the Duke Nukem reboot was so problematic that the game was restarted from scratch multiple times. It is amazing to think that the game was in development for 14 years and even with that the graphics were outdated, the controls were bad, and the levels were extremely basic and boring.
Also, the game’s portrayal of women was so creepy even for Duke Nukem’s standards.
Bomberman: Act Zero
Bomberman always featured a cute cartoon guy running inside a maze trying to not get killed by bombs, right? This charming aesthetic was universally loved, so why, from out of nowhere, developer Hudson Soft decided to scrap all of that and reboot the series with a more dark and serious tone?
We could have accepted it only if the gameplay was half decent. Everything about this game was a mistake; the collision detection was terrible, the AI was unbalanced, and the levels looked exactly the same.
Without a doubt, the worst video game sequel ever made.
