10 Game Sequels that Surpassed their Originals
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/16/12 at 12:50 PM CT
Previously, I looked at examples of sequels that went horribly, horribly wrong. But on the reverse side of that coins are sequels that didn’t just meet their originating game in quality and enjoyability, but actually surpassed it in every way. Here are 10 examples of sequels to mediocre-to-poor games that ended up being spectacular.
10. Silent Hill 2
While I am of the opinion that all Survival Horror games can die in a fire, Chris informs me that “Silent Hill 2” is scarier and generally more awesome than “Silent Hill.” I guess we’ll have to take his word for it?
9. 007: Agent Under Fire
This follow-up to the ridiculously-over-hyped “GoldenEye 64” blew away Rare’s crowning achievement in every way. Not only did it look much better and have a much more usable default control layout, it was also a Bond game that wasn’t based on a movie. The entirely original narrative combined with a mission layout that felt like it was designed specifically to be a game …
E3 Impressions 2012
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/08/12 at 04:28 PM CT
After last year’s exciting E3, this year was a significant let down. Just when it seemed E3 was recovering from its near crash-and-burn in 2006, we get another year full of blandness, secrets, and overall malaise. While there were still a few rays of hope in E3 2012, it was a disappointing showing from all the major players.
Microsoft:
Want: Nothing
Not Sure if Want: Nothing
Do Not Want: Everything (SmartGlass, Kinect, new Xbox games)
Microsoft did a great job this year of reinforcing my disdain for the Xbox 360. Between SmartGlass (useless for someone who doesn’t own a smartphone or tablet), a variety of Kinect retardation (the Kinect should be solely used for UI navigation, never for gameplay), and the usual slew of ‘M for Juvenile’ games I am so fond of ignoring, MS may as well have stayed home and continued working on Windows 8.
Sony:
Want: “PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale,” “LittleBigPlanet Karting”
Not Sure if Want: PS3 Wheel, “Ni no …
Backlog: The Embiggening - June, 2012
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/31/12 at 10:51 PM CT
Welcome to a new monthly feature on MeltedJoystick, in which I take a look at the games coming in the next month, then weep at the fact that my backlog just refuses to get any smaller. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, at least for me) this month’s new releases look mostly like uninteresting swill. Let’s get down to it.
It wouldn’t be a month in modern gaming without the release of at least three First-Person Shooters, and June looks like it won’t disappoint with the releases of “Inversion,” a Tom Clancy game, and “Borderlands 2.” For those who like to see their character’s back, there’s also the Third-Person Shooter, “Spec Ops: The Line.” Yawn.
And a month never goes by without huge publishers smearing licensed garbage across every platform capable of running it (or a version of it). This month we’re being graced with the presence of “Madagascar 3: The Video Game,” an iCarly game, “Brave: The Video Game,” “Lego Batman 2,” and “The …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2012
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/28/12 at 02:01 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
The MeltedJoystick staff found ourselves burning through a LOT of multi-player games this quarter… so much so that we’re running out of new things to play! When not playing couch-co-op with the rest of the crew, I found myself playing through a host of abominations. I also got my retro on with both a spiritual successor and a direct sequel to two of my favorite old-school dungeon-crawlers. Sadly, only one of those games rose to the occasion.
“Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One” – 3.5/5
“Castle Crashers” – 3/5
“White Knight Chronicles II” – 2/5
“Rayman Origins” – 4/5
“The Kore Gang” – 2/5
“Castlevania: Harmony of Despair” – 1.5/5
“Rygar: The Legendary Adventure” – 2/5
“Kirby's Return to Dreamland” – 5/5
“Legend of Grimrock” – 4.5/5
“Spore Hero” – 3.5/5
“Stonekeep: …
10 Game Sequels that Pooped on their Originals
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/19/12 at 06:41 PM CT
Sequels: Love them or hate them, they are a fact of life in creative media. There is always another story to tell for a given setting or groups of characters. It’s easier to tell a great story when free to focus on the story, rather than the nuts-and-bolts and stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Sometimes sequels are great, building upon the original and hammering out the bad parts until there is nothing left but burnished gold…
But sometimes sequels go completely astray from what earned their originals enough praise from critics and consumers to warrant said sequel. Here’s a list of the worst offenders, which, instead of honoring their originals and building on what made them great, pulled-down their metaphorical pants and evacuated their bowels in the worst possible way.
10. Duke Nukem Forever
While I am of the opinion that it’s impossible to make poop worse by pooping on it, Chris informs me that “Duke Nukem Forever” completely defiles the original “Duke …
The Dark Side of Indie Game Development
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/13/12 at 03:05 PM CT
Last week, I gushed about independent game development and how Indie was the sole hope for the future of a medium becoming increasingly consumed with and motivated by profit. Yet even such a noble pursuit as Indie development can be corrupted by the desire to turn a quick buck. One need only look at the ‘libraries’ of smartphones and Xbox Live to plainly see that there is an overwhelming amount of crap produced by nobodies hoping to become the next “Angry Birds” Guys. These Indie ‘developers’ are treating game creation like gambling: If they buy enough lottery tickets, they’ll have to win big eventually, right? Wrong: The House (in these instances, Apple and Microsoft) always wins.
Indie developers need to be constantly vigilant, watching themselves to ensure they don’t act like Big Gaming publishers… because they aren’t Big Gaming publishers. Indie developers don’t have the reputations or the venture capital to release trash, market it to death, and get …
Independent Development and the Last Crusade
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/06/12 at 09:03 PM CT
The game industry is at a crossroads. What was once an entirely niche endeavor done by geeks, for geeks, has become a Big Business. What was once an artistic endeavor has become a commodity. What was once made on a shoestring budget now costs millions of dollars. Game development has changed, and in changing has lost everything that it once was.
When I look back at the history of videogames and my relationship with the medium, I recall a time, not so long ago, when game publishers were also developers. Everyone self-published their game software, thus they were only beholden to themselves. During this time, these developer-publishers built-up the reputations they continue to rely on. Good reputations are important in any business, and there were numerous stand-outs in the game industry whose excellent games made me come to trust them to produce great software time after time. I was a loyal customer to Nintendo, Capcom, Konami, Squaresoft, Enix, BioWare, InterPlay, Sierra, and even …
Obscurity Through Obscurity
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/29/12 at 11:23 AM CT
While Apple fanboys may bristle at the notion that the traditionally low market share of their favorite operating system was one of the primary reasons for its lack of viruses and other malware, the newly-increased market penetration of Apple-based OSes has seen a corresponding increase in exploits. It seems that “security through obscurity” was one of the main things preventing malware authors from taking an active interest in Apple’s platforms.
Security through obscurity is the idea that the fewer people know about something, the safer that something will be. In the world of console games, however, fewer people knowing about a platform leads to fewer sales of that platform and, ultimately, the death of the platform. Indeed, up until this 7th Generation of consoles, the primary cause of console failure seems to have been “obscurity through obscurity.”
Think about it: If you were in the market for a game console in 1985, would you buy the NES, the console that was so …
Atari Delenda Est
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/22/12 at 03:08 PM CT
Astute readers of this blog will have noticed that whenever I mention Atari, I follow it shortly with the Latin phrase delenda est. I do this in emulation of the great Roman statesman, Cato the Elder, who, during the Punic Wars, said the same thing about Rome’s enemy, the North African city-state of Carthage. Cato would tack-on this statement to all of his speeches, regardless of whether or not Carthage was even the topic at hand. Cato’s indignity was just, as Carthage was a tenacious enemy that plagued Rome with, not one, not two, but THREE wars, the latter two of which could have been averted had the Romans done the job right the first time.
Atari is much the same way. While the original Atari is, thankfully, dead and buried, the name continues to live-on, painting its stain across modern videogames. While it could be argued that the Atari moniker has endured due to its high name-recognition, naming a game publisher after the company that almost single-handedly destroyed the …
Vaguely Related Review: Steam
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/15/12 at 02:37 PM CT
From November 30, 1998 until December 2, 2003, I was a happy PC gamer. Prior to that, I had tried in vain, over and over again, to play games on my PC, but DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95 all had issues with each other – and my hardware, apparently – which stymied every effort. I had collected a large stack of PC game boxes, some containing 5.25” floppies, some containing 3.5” floppies, some containing CDs, that I had either partially finished but could no longer play because some minor change to my system made the games suddenly decide to stop working, or had been unable to play at all, despite the fact that my $4000 PC (yes, it cost that much at the time) was unable to run them with hardware specs that were double the minimum requirements listed on the game boxes.
When Black Isle and BioWare got their hands on the D&D videogame license, things suddenly got better. All of their products were designed to run in Windows, and they all worked in Windows. Sure, I couldn’t …
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