Can a bad game have a good sequel?

Welcome to Episode 54 of the best game show ever: The best games are sequels to the bad ones.

Because we live in the age of meritocracy, there will never be a sequel to crap. Unless we’re not living in a meritocracy, we’re living in hell, so the crap stuff usually gets nine sequels and one spin-off TV show while the good stuff keeps getting rejected in the boardroom. this is life.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because every now and then, sequels far outshine their forebears. This is a phenomenon that happens most often in the world of video games, where sequels often build upon the basic framework of games that may have a good idea but leave a lot to be desired in the execution. The old Hollywood adage that “a sequel is never worse than the original” simply doesn’t apply to our medium. In fact, quite the opposite.

Consider, for two completely random examples taken from the sky, Assassin’s Creed 2 and watchdog 2. Both games were considered great in their own right, and they were both sequels to games that were considered underwhelming at the time. But when you take it seriously, they’re not all that different from the games they follow: the mechanics, mission design, visual style are all there: it’s generally true in the first Assassin’s Creed it’s in the first Watch_Dogs. Execution, however, has been vastly improved.

This is a medium for iteration and experimentation. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t, but in general technology and game design evolve towards better ways of doing things. I think. Maybe not always. It’s like each episode of this podcast builds on the last as we discover more of our best. To find out which sequels our panelists think are significantly better than the originals, you need to watch or listen to Episode 54 of the Best Game Shows of All Time. Fortunately, there are a bewildering number of ways to do it below.

Watch the video version here:

If you’re the kind of person who skips to the last page of a book (wrong people, fallen people, bad seeds), you can also simply read the summary below.

tom

tom picks Football Manager 2009 The reason was that a store gave it a bad review and they retracted it. The same outlet then gave glowing reviews for next year’s edition.

Kelsey

Borderlands 2 Much better than the first game, but can you say that the first game was not good?

connor

connor went Tony Hawk’s Pro Skateboarder 2because it’s better than Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, arguably one of the most revered sports games of all time.

Well.

“What’s the best game of all time?” you ask? Well, it’s essentially a 30 minute panel show where people (Jim Trinca and co) decide the best game in a certain category. That’s it. very good. listen to this.