A Defense of Sequels

Sequels are never as good or at least as exciting as the original, right? Wrong, and it's time to give them the respect they deserve.

[IMissJimRyan]

He has a point and has good arguments.

I'm just wondering if he would keep those words about Activision, EA, Sony, Microsoft, Konami as well.

[SNESMasterKI]

I've actually said in the past that Sony needs to make more sequels, there are a lot of series they abandoned or gave to B-teams just because they had released a trilogy of games.

[DryBoneKoopa85]

One game I would love for Sony to return to is Legend Of Dragoon. One of my favorite PS1 games. Will it happen? Most likely not, but it's nice to dream I guess.

[DanManDantheMan]

I'm sure the only reason he neglected the talk about those other companies is because TNE is predominantly a Nintendo site. The few times they do talk about the other companies, they're surprisingly fair. They've even got one article that speaks highly of the Vita (small reference).

Would love to see what they could publish if they became all-platforms gaming site. They do have gamingenthusiast, but not with the same editors.

[WeAreLegion]

I still don't understand why developers should care. Musicians shouldn't change their music to pander to an audience. Artists shouldn't change styles because it would be more appealing. Make the games you want to make. Both Super Mario 3D World and DKC:TF are incredible games.

[Adolph Fitler]

Sequels are great, but at some point they need to evolve, & DK has hit that point where it should be made into a fully fledged 3D platformer. I would own it for my Wii-U already if that were the case. But, I really can't justify paying full prices all the time for these 20yr old nostalgia throwback 2D things, that should be sold for quarter the price of proper 2013-2014 games like GTA5, Titanfall, Infamous, Zombi-U, etc, etc.

And YES dammit, Sony have MASSES of PS1 & PS2 games that I would LOVE desperately to make a return, Medievil 3 for PS4 is one such dream game, along with Syphon Filter 4, both those were awesome, successful PS1 games that have almost been completely ignored by Sony since, apart from putting them up on the classics store, it is criminal that these games haven't been given the PS3 & PS4 treatment, also PS2 classics that I loved & wanted to see sequel-zed were The Mark Of Kri & Primal, along with others, but these 2 games were very underated & missed by many gamers, but they were that impressive that they should have had sequels made that ACTUALLY GAVE THEN SOME MARKETING, to create hype, as that was Sony's downfall with these games, & MANY others, such as Resistance 3 & such...After PS1's & PS2's success, Sony stopped marketing there machines, & games properly......& when I say they lacked marketing, I mean they dropped the ball big time, just expecting people would buy there stuff & would know all there games, even though they were new IP's...It was a very dumb move.

Sony also really should have kept the Crash Bandicoot IP, buying it from ND if need be, or just buying BOTH instead of just ND....they could have insisted ND make sequels, BUT, make them like Jak & Daxter in 3D... So, just imagine, Crash as the central character in all of the Jak games.. Also would have been EPIC to get new Crash Karts on PS2, PS3, & PS4. This would help to ensure brand recognition of a very predominant & Sony central (in his PS1 heyday) family friendly character & high quality platformer game.

I love how Sony don't do the Nintendo thing, & attach 1 or 2 characters to every 2nd one of there games...But it would be nice for a few staples to last the test of time, instead of being given the flick by Sony

I mean, how awesome would it be doubling around Diddy Kong on the rhino in fully 3D world.

[SpiralTear]

A great game is a great game. Price shouldn't be a big factor if you like it enough. If you don't want to pay $60 for a game of DKC: Tropical Freeze's quality, that's your choice, but that doesn't make it any less valuable in terms of quality to others. There's a LOT to do in Tropical Freeze and it's not easy by any means.

If your argument is that it should be cheaper just because it's a 2D platformer, then your views on quality gaming are clearly off-kilter.

And for the record, Donkey Kong was in a 3D platformer called Donkey Kong 64 and that had its share of mixed opinions. I for one liked it a lot, though.

[deafdani]

Well said. Also, Tropical Freeze's official price is already $50, not $60, so that dude's complaint is a moot point anyway.

[McScroggz]

The problem is becoming overly reliant on sequels. That's one of Nintendo's biggest issues, at least with the home console market. Because Nintendo predominantly relies on the same IP's, they don't have growth in its fanbase. It's clearly shown if you look at the history of its home console sales.

It's not that Nintendo should stop making sequels altogether, Nintendo still makes great games and it's a good source of software sales. But Nintendo must, at some, start to create more new IP's - and not just one every few years or some smaller games.

This is a problem Microsoft might face as well. Their four pillars (Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Fable) account for a large mindshare of exclusives. Microsoft has stated the intent to create more new IP's this generation, so we will see how it plays out.

In short, it's not that sequels are bad. Sequels are bad if it's almost entirely what you produce.