10 Disappointing Video Game Followups

Duke Nukem Forever was one of the longest running jokes in the history of PC gaming. The game went through so many versions over a dozen plus years of development that fans figure the subtitle of "Forever" was how long we'd have to wait for the sequel to release. Then the game actually came out and it probably should have stayed in development hell. The game looked outdated upon release and the crude comedy just didn't seem to work in modern times. Instead of feeling fresh and pushing boundaries like Duke Nukem 3D, Forever showed just how far Duke had fallen. You'd be best sticking to the original and pretending Forever was all just a bad dream.

There is a reason that Nintendo hasn't even mentioned the Metroid brand in a number of years, and Metroid: Other M is to blame. The Prime series that came before was a fantastic take on the character that not only moved Metroid into 3D, but also turned it into the best FPS on a Nintendo system. Other M should have been a winner from everything that Nintendo told us. Gone was the FPS, and instead the game was going to be more traditional experience. Only problem was that it sucked --Hard. The story was a joke and pushed Samus into the background where she became subservient to a commanding officer, even though she's a damn bounty hunter. You needed permission to do anything or use the equipment you had from the start of the game (you have bombs but can't use them unless your not-captain says you can) and the story had enough plot-holes and underdeveloped plot-lines that it was laughable.

Driv-three-r was supposed to be a game changer for the games industry. The Driver series was much-loved and was a sort of GTA 3 before that game was a thing. Driv-three-r ended up coming out far later than intended, was horribly over budget, was buggy as hell and even was marred with the first major video game scandal with inflated reviews that were paid for in major magazines. Everything about the game was an absolute mess and it took so long to develop that Rockstar managed to announce and release GTA San Andreas before Driv-three-r hit store shelves. The team even had such a long development cycle that the team had to release Stuntman (a glorifed tech demo for Driv-three-r) during development. You should only give the game a try to see if the 9/10 it earned (was paid for) was merited.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is another game that isn't the worst, but it's not the game that fans of the series wanted and was in fact a terrible Banjo Kazooie game. What's worse is that if you do play the game you can see that there are so many elements that hinted that Rare initially was looking to make a traditional 3rd-person adventure game. What we got instead was this weird racing title that fans weren't expecting. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts looked and played great for what it was, but Rare would have struck gold if they only kept to the series' roots. Who knows what happened, but after Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts Rare was never the same again.

The only reason this game exists is to push out something before the Tony Hawk licence expired. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is so terrible that if you bought a physical copy of the game you don't actually get the full game. You see, the game was borked that the day one update was larger than the actual game itself! And if you don't have an internet connection you wouldn't get access to the game you just purchased fir full price. Later copies of the game weren't fixed, so when the update servers go down nobody will ever be able to play the game, even if they by it used. Then again, this could be for the best. It's all a shame as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 back in 2003 (twelve years earlier) was such a good end to the series with far more content than part 5.

To be fair, as a Bomberman game, Bomberman: Act Zero isn't a completly terrible Bomberman game. It keeps the classic action of the originals, instead of following up with the last US release of Generation, while offering up a life-bar and third-person mode that all help make the game fresh. This was a big change as most Bomberman games had been doing the Mario 64 style adventure thing. The real problem is with the really creepy style the game uses. Gone is the color scheme of every other game in the series. Instead, what we get is this dark, gritty game about weird robots in gimp suits. This is the sort of thing that happens to a cute and fun series when you ask your younger emo brother to redesign it. Less Bomberman and more early 2000s Hot Topic, the game was panned by just about everyone. Thankful the series never went back to this really terrible style.

The sad thing about Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 is that it really didn't have to be such a bad followup. As an evolution of the Adventure series, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 should have been a bonafide hit. But this was a case of biting off more than the studio could chew, and after splitting up the development team to also work on a new Sonic title for the Nintendo Wii, the writing was on the wall. Nothing in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 feels finished and the story is more disturbing than anything. Soinc and his friends are fine as characters, but tossing in a ton of humans just feels, well, wrong. The last thing we want is to picture Sonic the Hedgehog having sex with a human woman. Fan fiction would never be the same and I blame this game for killing Sonic on so many, many levels. While Sonic Adventure 2 isn't all that great, it looks like Ocarina of Time compared to this one...

The second Rare game on this list and the one the hurts the most. While Nuts & Bolts was a huge departure for the Banjo Kazooie series, Perfect Dark Zero was supposed to be the evolution of the venerated N64 FPS original. Instead gamers were treated to a terrible mess of a game and showed that Rare was overtaxed with pushing our multiple launch titles for the Xbox 360. Dark was nothing like her former self, instead opting for this Disney afternoon teen style, with bright red hair and a severe lack of spy qualities. The game was so bad that Rare had to implement an arrow system that displayed on the ground to guide you along through the game thanks to terrible level design.

When compared to the rest of the Zelda series, and even the entry before it, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is a pretty bad game. To be fair, we are talking about the early days of Nintendo and nobody there really knew what the future held. This meant that there were a lot of sequels from lots of companies that mixed up the gameplay in an attempt to keep their games fresh. But it does say something that Nintendo never revisited this side-scrolling style in the dozens of Zelda games that have released throughout the years. Oh, and the game can also be pretty damn brutal!

The Bubsy series was never one to match the likes of Mario or Sonic, but they were colorful sidescrollers that were just sort of middle of the road when it came to gameplay. Each game showed minor improvement and the games were harmless enough. After the third installment (of which most people don't even remember) on the Atari Jaguar, Bubsy made the jump to the world of polygons on the Sony PlayStation. Well, the once harmless game series managed to turn into the perfect example of how not to do a 3D platformer. Everything about the game was so bad that it routinely makes top 10 lists of the worst video games ever. The games cover even claimed it won some PlayStation best of the year award, but nobody has ever been able to confirm the award even existed.