Top Ten Sequels That Are Better Than The Originals

Sequels are either bad or good. Either they fix their original mistakes or they go a little overboard and change things very drastically. Usually in someones mind the original is the best, BUT in some cases the sequels are a lot better than what the original was capable of. It be story, gameplay, graphics, sounds something had to make it better, even if took 3 to 4 sequels to do so.

Paranerds.com presents:

Top Ten Sequels That Are Better Than The Originals

#10

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
This series got very lucky. At the time Jackass was in and so were eager teenagers waiting to pretend to be jackasses. So they all tried to skateboard and got into the games. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 was the sport game that everyone could pick up and get into. It was fun the soundtrack would really get people into music they would never have tried before, the controls worked wonderfully and the challenges were addicting. Of course things got silly by Tony Hawk’s Underground but that’s another story. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 improved not only the graphics but introduced one of the key elements to any skateboarding game. The manual. Something so small made a huge difference. It also allowed you the option to create a character and to create a park. The unlockable characters were a joy too since at the time Never Soft was working on the Spider-man game for the PSX, so they threw him in the game as well. Skateboarding as Spider-man was fun and since he shoots webs some of his attributes made it into moves in the game, which was a joy.  Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater came out with about 56 sequels but this is the one that changed the game for the better.

#9

Twisted metal 2
Expanding the Twisted Metal series you can now go on “world tour” as the sub tag says. Not only were there different drivers but you also could blow the clothes of the statue of liberty to show her in a rather skimpy bikini…..for some reason. It also introduced character animations to tell more of the story rather than the text that would scroll up in a very awkward fashion.  You have all the original characters, Sweet Tooth, Darkside, Mr. Grimm and some characters are showing up to get revenge for characters from the original Twister Metal such as Outlaw 2. The game looked a lot better than the original and sounded a lot better as well. This is sadly the last great Twisted Metal game until Twisted Metal Black came out in 2001. 989 Studios took over the Twisted Metal franchise and spit out Twisted Metal 3 which wasn’t bad and Twisted Metal 4 which, although was fun as always, TOOK AWAY THE CHARACTERS WE KNOW AND LOVE. For this Twisted Metal 2 is the best sequel out of the franchise.

#8

Super Mario bros 3
Obviously for many reasons this game improved everything about the original. The graphics were more detailed the music was fantastic, controls were spot on and the amount of secrets and suits made this game a lot better than the original. We’ve all seen the famous clip from the god awful movie The Wizard and the hype was too much for our 4 year old minds to take. Super Mario Bros. 3 really went far and beyond when it came to “how much can you do in an NES”. This game is still up there in games to not get sick of. Play it once with only mushrooms, play it again with only power-ups, do it the fastest, get all the secrets, beat the game with/with out the flutes. There is a reason why this game is still being sold very well on the Virtual Console. The reason is World 4. Come on that is the one thing out side of the boot and tail power up that everyone remembers. Go ahead, ask any casual gamer who has played this game and they will bring up World 4, “The one where all the bad guys are big”.

#7

Street Fighter 2

Man if you had an SNES I guarantee you had this game. Street fighter 2 is the king of fighters and it’s so much better than the original because not a lot of people actually heard of the original. Sure there are about a million versions of the same part but the true meaning lies beyond the game, it’s a cult now. Although the original was poop, Street Fighter 2 went on and on and on with its sub-titles.  Street Fighter II- The World Warrior, Street Fighter II- Championship Edition, Street Fighter II- Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II – The New Challenges, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, HYPER Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II – Optional Sunroof. For a game that took the basic elements and tweaked em over and over again, it’s pretty impressive to see how much it succeeded.  They got faster, and prettier. The moves are all well known and the war cries heard from the fighters  are all repeatedly said.  It even spawned a very weird Anime series for a while. Everyone knows who Ryu is and everybody knows about Blanka. Good job Street Fighter II

#6

Spider-man 2: The Movie The Game
Wow a game adaptation of a film adaptation of a comic book is in this list. That’s because it deserves to be. There were many Spider-man games in the past and the best being Maximum Carnage on the Sega Genesis and SNES. There was Spider-man on the PSX that allowed web slinging action on top of roofs only, which pondered the question; “what are your webs sticking to buddy?”.  Spider-man: The Movie The Game was alright but just like the one previously mentioned you were stuck to being on rooftops.There was one problem they didn’t actually make you feel like the web slinger. That is until Spiderman 2 came out on the PS2. For the first time you were able to freely go where you want and do what you want as Spider-man. The swinging around the city was an amazing feeling, sure the battle system sucked the big one, yes the camera felt like it was attached to a running fat cat and sure the story really diverted from the movie by adding Black Cat and Mysterio, but damn the swinging was fun. Ever since this game all the other Spider-man games have relied on the open world aspect as a leaning crutch despite the game being poo …looking at you Spider-man 3. Also this game had amazing side quests like……save a little girls balloon for the fifteenth bloody time in 10 minutes. The game took on a Tony Hawks Underground approach to choosing missions.  If you played this game, you didn’t care about the story, you didn’t care about the city, somehow you were able to ignore Tobey Maguire’s god awful voice-over. All that was ignored for the freedom of web slinging from building to building, it was relaxing and it was done right.

#5

Kingdom Hearts 2
The first Kingdom Hearts was good. The second Kingdom Hearts made Mickey Mouse a bad ass!
Yeah the story got a little ridiculous by adding elements that weren’t really needed, and sure Pirates of the Caribbean should have not been a level, but The Lion King was there and Aladdin and Tron and Steam boat Mickey. It just expanded the universe! There are even parts in the game where you feel sad for Donald and or Goofy. Being a Disney nut I can’t help but say that the sequel really improved the problems from the first game….. Even though the gummi ship is still there and still useless. Kingdom Hearts II did something I didn’t think was possible, it made me care for the story line just a little bit more. To be realistic the whole story could be another Final Fantasy game if you took out the Disney characters, they act more like filler s then important key elements, but that’s not going to stop me from playing it. After playing the original I watched all my Disney movies again, and after playing the second one I watched them again. The way Square Enix managed to make these two worlds combine and somehow make it work is beyond me, I NEVER imagined EVER having Donald Duck speak to Squall from Final Fantasy VII…..but there they are….talking….awkward. Here’s hoping Kingdom Hearts III will have a Brave Little Toaster level, god I love that movie.

#4

Resident evil 4
Zombies and video games are just like Vanilla Ice and white. It belongs together. Oh old pop culture jokes. Unfortunately the Resident Evil series has been running dry since Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Resident Evil:Code Veronica was great but same formula as the previous games. Nothing really has been improved. Resident Evil: Outbreak was a great pre-Left 4 Dead experience but nothing to go nuts about. That is until the 4th instalment. No more slow zombies, actually no more zombies at all. These buggers are fast and there are a lot of them. Speaking about the Nintendo Wii  version, you now have the controllers that are known to make or break a game actually improve the experience. Resident Evil 4 took out the “scare” factor of the series and added the “bang bang your dead” method. Mind you the original games didn’t SCARE you but startle you; I am a man after all.  The odd thing is that if you play Resident Evil 4 after you’re finished you don’t know what you did, nor care why you did it, all you know that you had a hell of time doing it. THAT MEANS IT’S GOOD.  The Resident Evil storyline has been all nutty to begin with, something as simple as “Zombies has taken over the world” turned into the “the government is in on it, and blah blah blah”. Either way this game was the Metal Gear Solid of the Nintendo GameCube, meaning if you had a GameCube it was most likely only for this game. Speaking of Metal Gear Solid….

#3

Metal gear solid 3: Snake Eater

So Metal Gear Solid on the PSX was one of the best games of all time. It was stealthy, looked and sounded great and had an interesting story. Metal gear solid 2 looked even better and really showed what the PS2 was capable of. Besides the fact that this is where the story went nuts they also gave us Raiden instead of our hero Solid Snake. Metal gear solid 3 on the other hand re worked the whole game. Although the irony of this game being a prequel, it didn’t answer any questions but  instead gave us more questions.  Yes I’m also aware that this is a prequel in a sequel list, but since it contains the number 3 at the end….it’s a sequel, but anyways. Since this was a prequel you play as Naked Snake instead of Solid Knake but since they are in fact clones the difference wasn’t off. This gave us the back story and even more stealth elements that the other 2 games didn’t offer. Wearing different clothes that merge seamlessly with your surroundings was brilliant and made sense. The boss battles were epic especially versus The End and we even saw a young Ocelot. The game also had one of the best endings that brought a tear to my manly eye. It also tried new experiences which I want back; having to bandage yourself up, or fix a bone was unique. Having to eat rats or birds was funny and made sense, you’re in the jungle with no food, what else you going to do.  Metal Gear Solid has always been known to poke fun at itself and this one is no exception, because the North American audience said Raiden was to skinny and looked like a girl he was labeled as “gay”, it just so happens in Metal Gear Solid 3 there was a character who just happened to look like Raiden that may or may not have been gay, let the good times role.

#2

Call of duty 4: Modern Warfare
Medal of Honor and Call of Duty kept fighting each other for the number 1 world war first person, our county tis of thee status. I played them all and to me the whole thing is one big blur of world war games. That is until they said “f this let’s do it modern instead” good for you guys. Bring in thousands of people whether it be PC, DS, Wii, Xbox 360 or even the ps3 this game was amazing. Bringing the war to modern society was a fantastic choice. Not only is the game fun but all the new gadgets really did add a new diverse way to play. The story line was, well nothing special but the game was fun. The real reason why this game is one of the best known sequels out there is of course how well they did on the multiplayer on consoles. Sure you have the hiccup here and there where the online sucks, but it is loads and loads of fun. Different maps to choose from and the ability to use perks were just zany. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare really thought outside of the box with its very cinematic, blockbuster like moments, such as the famous scene of being IN a nuclear blast only to see the mushroom cloud in the far distance while your soldier crawls slowly…..alone…..to his death. Good times!

#1

Grand Theft Auto 3
Being a fan of the very underrated Grand Theft Auto on the PSX and Grand Theft Auto 2.  Grand Theft Auto 3 blew everyone’s mind when the game jumped to the third dimension. Not only was the game great looking but it was one of the first of its kind that allowed you to do anything you wanted. Take cars; go on a murder rampage, pick up prostitutes it’s all here kids . Hell the voice acting was one of the best of its kind and the bar just kept on rising. Grand Theft Auto 3 is basically the grand daddy of the open world game play, ever since this every game tried to copy it, and if not copy it then use elements that made it what it is. The Saboteur, Prototype, Infamous, Simpson Hit-And-Run, Saints Row. They exist because Grand Theft Auto 3 exists. Even super heroes have taken a bite out of the open world aspect along with Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk and Superman.

Grand Theft Auto 3 really put video games in the spotlight with the controversy surrounding it, sex murder and rock and roll all elements never heard of in a video game, which caused quite an uproar, even though those elements exist in movies and books, but that’s another topic. GTA 3 would eventually spawn off two more games using the same engine Vice City, a fun goofy version of the serious GTA 3 and San Andreas well known for its hot coffee mod. This is the game everyone wanted to play, and this is the sequel that was definitely better than the original.