By Nelson Schneider - 08/14/11 at 09:08 PM CT
Crafting an ongoing game franchise requires a delicate balance between conforming to the core elements of the first title in the series, incremental gameplay improvements, and subtle innovation. Straying too far from a franchise’s roots can alienate fans and risks losing touch with what made the original game popular in the first place. But being too conservative is fraught with risk as well. So here’s a list of 5 franchises that I used to enjoy, but have stopped caring about because the sequels have become more and more like blurry photocopies of the original.
5. Pokemon
This series started out with a lot of ingenuity: A turn-based RPG that focuses on one-on-one battles, local multi-player, and collectable characters. The first game, “Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow,” was pretty broken, as some of the Pokemon types had a huge advantage and no real weakness (Psychic) while others served as nothing but a burden, making a huge swath of the character roster worthless (Poison). These problems with the core gameplay were straightened out in the first sequel, “Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal,” which was further boosted by the innovative addition of the real-time clock and two-on-two battles. Subsequent entries in the series haven’t added anything substantial aside from online trading. Sure there are 100+ new additions to the Pokedex each time, but these new monsters are almost entirely redundant. But the real crime committed by this franchise is the fact that the story is identical in each iteration! Becoming a Pokemon Master and saving the world from Team Whatever is fun the first couple times; not so much the 5th or 6th time.
4. Street Fighter
When “Street Fighter 2” hit the market, one-on-one fighting games were new and novel. The concept of guiding a character with a diverse stable of special moves through a gauntlet of one-on-one battles with other unique characters made quite the splash in a world dominated by samey 2D platformers. The 2-player VS mode made things even more interesting. But that’s where the innovation stopped. Instead of introducing new gameplay modes (such as what the “Soul Calibur” series has done), Capcom has been content to release the same exact game over and over with slight tweaks (such as the addition of combos and supers) and increasingly-appellation-amended titles. There have been no improvements to the plot, and the character roster features mostly the same old characters (with a few ‘WTF is that?’ additions). The last “Street Fighter” game I bought was “Street Fighter Alpha 3” on the PS1… and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.
3. Armored Core
The early games in the “Armored Core” series were personal favorites of mine. Something about the ability to fully customize and directly pilot a giant humanoid robot appeals to me. The fact that the first two sequels (“Project Phantasma” and “Master of Arena”) were full-sized add-on packs for the original game instead of stand-alone sequels just made things that much better, as I enjoyed importing my collected arsenal of weapons and robot components. Yet for some reason From Software decided that breaking import compatibility with earlier games in subsequent sequels was a good idea. In actuality, breaking compatibility with older games just allowed lazy designers to re-use existing weapons and parts… as well as missions and storylines! After “Armored Core 2+Another Age” and “Armored Core 3+Silent Line” had me replaying the same scenarios and collecting the same robot parts again and again, I have no longer felt compelled to seek out the subsequent sequels.
2. Mega Man
For a series that peaked with the first sequel, “Mega Man” certainly has legs. After “Mega Man 2,” the series added 4 unimpressive rehashes on the NES before making vague attempts at remaining relevant through graphical upgrades on the SNES (“Mega Man 7”) and PS1 (“Mega Man 8”). It looked like the series was down for the count, content to live on in spin-offs… until Capcom revived it for two more rounds via digital distribution. By this point, we all know that there will be 8 robot masters, a castle, and 2 fights with Dr. Wily (one fake, one real). Do we really need to keep going through the motions?
1. Mega Man X
The first three “Mega Man X” games on the SNES provided a much-needed infusion of innovation to the incredibly tired “Mega Man” franchise. New moves, hidden armor upgrades, and a new storyline with new allies and a new villain served to drag the Blue Bomber out of the muck in true SNES style. Yet by the 4th game it seemed like Dr. Light should have run out of armor capsules to hide and Sigma should have had the decency to stay dead and let a new threat take center stage. Instead, Capcom toughed it out for 4 more sequels, each more soap operatic and rehashed than the last.
So the lesson for game developers to take away from these cases is to stop making sequels just for the sake of making sequels. If you have told your story, stop trying to add to it. If your game relies entirely on gameplay, don’t release more than one sequel per hardware generation. Milking franchises for name recognition will only get you so far and, in the case of Capcom, can easily backfire and give you a negative reputation. There is a reason most successful forms of media stop at trilogies.
