The 10 Greatest Videogame Trilogies of All Time

When you look at the incredible amount of video games that come out every year, a very small percentage can be called good, let alone great. Therefore it’s always a pleasant surprise when three games in the franchise come out in a row, creating a beautiful trilogy of greatness. With Gears of War 3 coming out this week and the third installments in the Uncharted and Mass Effect franchises appearing in the next few months, it’s a good time to check out the 10 greatest video game trilogies of all time.

[MrSpace]

Fable...LOL

Let's wait untill November the 1st and add Uncharted in there, hell they could of added Gears instead

[DarkCharizard__]

I'm surprised no DKC trilogy on the list and also halo is rated way too low!

[omi25p]

Halo 3
Gears of War 3
Fallout 3
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Metal Gear Solid 3
Elderscrolls: Morrowind
Grand Theft Auto 3
Assassins Creed

[Iroquois_Pliskin]

god why is Mgs so good!? now i feel like poping in MGS3 and Mgs2

[agentace]

Jak & daxter should be on that easily.
I would say R&C aswell but thats more than a trilogy, like most of the stuff on that list lol

[meetajhu]

MGS and God of War 3. /end of topic

[Tony P]

A very loose definition of trilogy.

[TheLastGuardian]

I would have the Sly Cooper trilogy on my list.

[RedDead]

It's a pretty good list, if I could add two and take away one then gears, Uncharted and take out Fable(I mean really? First was good, other 2...fu** no)

[iamnsuperman]

Not sure how gta can be counted as a triology. A triology suggests a countinous story/world

[NukaCola]

Not one these games are a trilogy. Every title has well more than 3 game, and most aren't even in a trilogy. RE is working on 6 mainline games, and mortal kombat is well over 10, hell MGS has 4 main and 7 other titles.

[morganfell]

Agreed except Metal Gear has 7 main (canon) titles:

Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

EDIT: We already know that Uncharted will be at least a quadrilogy with Uncharted Golden Abyss being a canon title as well.

[NukaCola]

There is also Rising. Snake's Revenege(non claimed obviously...lol), MGS Acid, MGS3D 3DS version, numerous directors cuts and a title for the Gameboy Color.

I think a great example of a series with only 3 games that are truly sequels to each other are Gears of War, Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper(I know now there is a 4th coming) and even Star Wars Jedi Knight. I mean something that is legitimate.

GTA Vice and San Andreas aren't even in the line up, it's 2 GTAs for Pc/PS1/Dreamcast and the third is for PS2, plus there's the 4th..lol and a DS/PSP game about the same city, and a PSP Stories title.

Silly article...not much thought put in.

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

Probably most of you won't agree, but this retro love is gotta stop.

Mario..no 1..unbelievable!

That's like putting Blade of Steel or NHL 94 in no 1 for top 10hockey simulation.

Mario and Sonic have been really good in their times, but they can in no way be ahead of stuff like God of War.

[jacksonmichael]

... Seriously? You have an out with the old, in with the new attitude on video games? That's as moronic as saying the new episodes of the Simpsons are the best ones yet. C'mon.

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

I guess this is why Hollywood gives us so much remakes, people loves old stuff much more than new things.

Nostalgia to me is bad because it makes people pretend old crap is great...

[ShaunCameron]

Yeah. And you probably the same person who thinks Justin Bieber is greater than Michael Jackson just because he was "good for his time."

But anyways, I'm not that bothered by Mario and Sonic ranking higher than God Of War. Maybe it's because they both contributed more to the platforming genre and video games in general than God Of War contributed to the hack-and-slash action genre.

[ChickenOfTheCaveMan]

Bad creations have been made and some new one these days are also bad. But the great new ones are way better than Mario/Sonic...

Graphics are amazing, and so are gameplay and storylines.

Mario's story was that he wanted to free the princess but kept on searching in the wrong castle, hum, great.

Yes they contributed, but that shouldn't place them first.

[Tony P]

I think it's pretty ignorant to ignore the wealth of retro games that are still as viable as any modern game.

Maybe you didn't get to play many?

[Laxman216]

Michael Jackson sucks.

[Matpan]

What´s wrong with the "retro love"?... I mean, You have to meassure and consider a game for what it was at it´s time to make a fair comparisson and both sonic and mario games, specially the first ones where outstanding examples of game design, art direction and great music score for their time. In that aspect, they easily hold a candle to titles like God of War III... heck! they even got quite much more replay value than MANY of the so cold new classics...

It´s one thing not to jump into the golden years wagon and love ahything for the sake of nostalgia, there were lots of shitty games back in the 8 and 16 bit era. But those titles that still hold their name and were flagship for their respective platforms, made their place for a reason. And there should be no reason (unless the article specifies so) to cut off games from certain era out of these rankings.

Mario (and Sonic in it´s way) refined and defined a gameplay style that was the norm for over ten years and were both a landmark of their time (and all that with little cosmetic change)

I´d like to see how many people would have jumped into GOD of war III (a fun game, don´t get me wrong, played it and enjoyed the ride for the time it lasted) had it not been the technical showcase it was. And the series is relatively new, to be honest...

Now had Uncharted made it into that list, or even Gears...Those would have been better contenders against Sonic or Mario as (in my opinion) hold more of the spirit of this generation than a game like GoW.

[SuperStrokey1123]

But Blades of Stell IS the best hockey game of all time, only ice hockey comes close.

[telekineticmantis]

is not better than MGS3 or MGS1, where does this notion come from?

[Kos-Mos]

You didn`t understand the complex story in 2, thus stating it`s not better?

[MWH]

complex story?! you must've been on crack when you played MGS2, but i guess it was a good company since MGS2 was on crack too.

don't be a fanboy menace Kos-Mos, 2 IS inferior to 1 and 3. but if 2 was your first then i understand then again i understand it's a waste arguing with you with all due respect.

[telekineticmantis]

The way MGS3 revealed the backstory in that game was much better, than anything related to raiden... smh. The introduction and story of Sorrow and Boss was amazing are you serious.

[Tony P]

When it comes to MGS story, I'm like this:

MGS and MGS3 were much better at storytelling precisely because they had surface narratives that *didn't* require multiple playthoughs to understand. But if you analyzed subplots, you were rewarded with a wealth of new information.

MGS2 by contrast had the kitchen sink approach to storytelling. And I don't think that helped it one bit.

[Tokyo_reject]

HAHAHA um dude...you need to do something else then write articles...first off you said Trilogies...Trilogies means 3...second ...you choose Mortal Kombat and no Street Fighter....Street Fighter has done SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more...do you see MK at EVO...???? no because its nothing to SF...and three....HAHAHAHAHA FABLE REEEAAALLLLLY.....no my friend....no....just no

[Sidewinder-]

Cus GTA 3, Vice city and San Andreas is a Trillogy...

This is mostly just a (best games in a series) list.

[Kos-Mos]

Metal Gear Solid and Xenosaga.

[smashcrashbash]

GOW definitely earned its spot as an awesome trilogy. BTW taking about GOW on the consoles as a trilogy, ignoring all side stories and prequels

[gypsygib]

Take fable off the list - it is not a classic, the devs totally botched it up.

Replace with Gears.

[ssb3173]

replace fable with the metroid prime series

[Khordchange]

The lack of metroid prime concerns me

[Sidewinder-]

Be concerned hombré!

[MrKingofVideoGames]

Yup, the first thing that would come to me if someone said "videogame trilogy" would be Metroid Prime... Obvious choice for the best because it is a real trilogy fer cryin out loud (and the games rule)..

[Matpan]

true.

[abczby]

Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Sonic, Grand Theft Auto, and Mortal Kombat are not - and were never intended to be - trilogies.

Pathetic website puts out a pathetic article. What a surprise.

[Rob946]

Fable? 1st one was great but 2nd and 3rd weren't very good. Ever hear of a series called The Elder Scrolls? you might want to put that in somewhere. Overall fairly good list but Mario shouldn't be first in my opinion. If your gonna put a Nintendo series high up pick something like Legend Of Zelda.

[DeadIIIRed]

"The 10 Greatest Videogame Sagas of All Time"

fixed

[Relientk77]

I would have added Grandia (Grandia 1-3)
and Spyro the Dragon series (1-3, on PlayStation)

[ATi_Elite]

STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl
STALKER Clear Sky
STALKER Call of Pripyat

Metroid Prime Trilogy? Elder Scrolls Series? Doom Trilogy?

[dredgewalker]

Lol, I haven't played Clear Sky yet but SOC and COP were great games. It's a pity that this game is so underrated when it offers a lot more than most games.

[ATi_Elite]

my favorite series of all time neck and neck with Half Life.

anyway Clear Sky...you gotta play it and use the reloaded or complete mod cause it adds extra textures to make the game look awesome!

warning.....make sure you exercise your trigger finger cause Clear Sky is pure warfare!! It has the faction feature and once you join a faction it's a lot of "pew pew" going on. Great game.

[dredgewalker]

I absolutely love the mods for Stalkers. The Complete mod for COP made it a lot more enjoyable to play. I might as well try Clear Sky to complete my Stalker games hehe. I'm a bit worried about the blood suckers in Clear Sky since I've heard they were invincible while they are invisible there.

[SuperStrokey1123]

They are on Elder Scrolls 5 right now and Doom 4 is in the works so thats not a Trilogy either, of course that doesnt seem to have stopped them so far...

[Sidology]

>"Trilogy"
>Not a single series on that list can be considered one
>Nice fail, bro.

[MrKingofVideoGames]

and Metroid Prime trilogy should have been #1

[Venoxn4g]

Put that fable out, please..

Metal gear
Silent Hill
Fatal frame
metroid prime
maaaaaario! :)

[Chuk5]

C'mon how is gears not there? It's fantastic and the third was even better than first two which were already great.

[WooHooAlex]

A trilogy is a series of three. I don't think any of the games on that list really qualify as a "trilogy".

[Snowii]

i think they only included main storyline games

like god of war

[SuperStrokey1123]

This makes no sense to me... they have games that obviously are not Trilogies.

[Hicken]

I thought about a good number of those games before I actually looked at the list, then dismissed them all because not one of them is an actual trilogy. You can't just stop at the third game because it suits you.

That said, Xenosaga (forgive the second entry, please) is my favorite trilogy THAT REALLY IS A TRILOGY. It'd be different if they made the other three games, and I wouldn't be able to say that. BUT THEY WERE ALL DIRECT SEQUELS, AND THERE WERE ONLY THREE GAMES, SO THEY'RE A TRILOGY.

Rant over.