Game Sequels that–Surprisingly–Don’t Suck

Like most people in the world, I watched the Dark Knight in a pure and unholy awe. I had two 32 ounce beers on each side of me, and I was prepared to be planted in my seat for the whole movie. (Or course, midway through the 2nd brew I had to pee like a damn race horse.) The Dark Knight is one of those rare movies that lived up to its hype. And it did one of the few things I could never imagine a sequel doing, it was better than the original. So, being a long time gamer, this got me thinking about all the games that had better sequels than their predecessors. And, like the cinema, it was rather difficult to find superior sequels, but I have managed to think up a few blowouts.

Maybe I feel this way because I was 10 years old at the time, but Double Dragon II is way friggin’ sweeter than the original Double Dragon for the NES. I spent hours mastering that game. I would cyclone kick the hell out of those butch babes, take their metal whip, and use it to beat the hell out of dynamite Ropers. Double Dragon II was at least 10x better than the original… according to scientists that study that sort of thing. Oft-cited reasons: all moves were available to you right from the start of the game, you could beat people with a friggin’ metal whip, and it had a two-player mode where you could beat the hell out of your buddy on screen… of course he’d do it to you for real right after you took his last life. Man, I can still hear that theme song. The original suffered from a lack of developed technology for the NES. But even that disadvantage doesn’t explain why the developer decided to have a level up system in the 1st game so you’d have to earn the better moves. The arcade version didn’t do that! It was so much of an annoyance that I refused to play through the game again after I beat it. The basic moves sucked!

Another of my favorite sequels: Mega Man X. Granted, this was really the 10th or so sequel in the Mega Man series, but it is a sequel to the series that amped up the gameplay and story of a classic NES series. Early versions of Mega Man left something to be desired. In fact, the story for the games was secondary to the gameplay in the first few games. But Mega Man X revitalized the Mega Man series. In essence, Mega Man X reset the storyline by having a new main character, X, and pushing the chronology to 100 years after the previous game. The hybridization of the story with the game made Mega Man X the first time I actually felt excited playing a Mega Man game. Platformers generally don’t get me riled up, but this sequel had a badass Reploid called Zero that would show up and kick ass. And who could forget the huge mech-suits with jet boosters and spiky hands you could punch bad guys in the face with? Oh, and have you seen the box-art to the original Mega Man recently? Yeah, that’s definitely why X was better than the original.

The last on my brief list of “sequels that didn’t suck,” is the the Legend of Zelda series. I remember playing the original game for months on end. I’d place bombs on every wall on every screen looking for all the hidden caves. I knew by heart how to get out of the Lost Woods. But as most NES games went, the storyline was really not necessary. Then, games were more about fun, kinda like computer versions of board games. Link 2 sucked so bad, I don’t even wanna talk about it. I had a theory that if it didn’t say “Legend of Zelda” in the title, it was not a real sequel. Being the nerd that I am, I read everything I could about and could not wait to try A Link to the Past. And this true sequel did not fail me. A Link to the Past provided me with a narrative and awesome weapons. I remember getting that last pendant, and then realizing that I hadn’t even gotten close to beating the game. It was like a whole new world to me… well, wait, I guess it was a whole new dark world. This Zelda had towns and people to talk with. The Master Sword was friggin’ glorious sitting in that stone pedestal. I didn’t think Nintendo would ever have another Zelda that would be better… until I played Ocarina of Time. That game was so amazing, I can’t even talk about it. It’s sacred.

I have a few more games here on my list of not-so sucky sequels, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Mario 64, but the three I mentioned are the first to my mind. Are they on the caliber of Dark Knight? Zelda: Ocarina of Time… that’s all I can say.