Part D'oh!

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Link To Article

Can you get too much of a good thing? According to these shameless sequels, oh yes, you can.

By Ben Silverman

What do Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Grand Theft Auto IV have in common? For one thing, they're all sequels, and for another, they're all awesome. And they're not alone. From Super Mario Galaxy to critically-acclaimed shooter Bioshock (a spirited sequel to System Shock 2, which, clearly, is itself a sequel), high-profile follow-ups are still gaming's most dependable earners.

But for every glorious copy of Half-Life 2 sit a dozen misfires, mishaps and straight up mistakes, great ideas gone bad or bad ideas gone worse. In no particular order, we not-so-proudly present ten of the worst video game sequels ever made.

Driv3r

SEE GAME PAGE

Bad spelling isn't the only thing wrong with this woefully misguided sequel. The once-proud Driver franchise's epic fall from grace actually began with the rickety Driver 2, but where that game was simply marred by technical glitches, 2004's Driv3r was a wreck from start to finish. Starring stereotypical tough guy Michael Madsen as the stereotypical tough cop Tanner, Driv3r told a confusing tale of double-crosses that mostly involved driving places, wandering around aimlessly, and trying to shoot people. While that's worked out just fine in plenty of games, unfinished graphics, sluggish control and infuriating mission design towed this jalopy straight to the junkyard.

Bomberman: Act Zero

SEE GAME PAGE

Remember when clean-cut country superstar Garth Brooks tried to expand his creative horizon by donning cheap sunglasses, dying his hair black and warbling into a mic as a fictitious alternative rocker named Chris Gaines? Bomberman: Act Zero is just like that, only less melodic. From its embarrassing Master Chief-meets-your-goth-cousin character design to its excruciating load times to its inconceivable lack of offline multiplayer modes, this stinker incited waves of backlash and some of the lowest review scores in recorded history (currently it's at 33% on gamerankings.com). Eventually Hudson would come to their senses and release the solid throwback Bomberman Live!, but none who were there will ever forget the day this bomb went off.

Rampage: World Tour

SEE GAME PAGE

Like band-aids, bacon, and chocolate syrup, giant monsters make everything better. At least that was Midway's thinking when they decided to craft a sequel to their coin-op hit Rampage a whopping ten years after it first terrorized arcades. You'd think the game's gargantuan stars would have learned a thing or two in that time - breath weapons, maybe? - but alas, Rampage: World Tour was just a building-punching (and kicking) bore. No new monsters and no notable gameplay changes gave gamers no reason to mess with this monstrous letdown.

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

SEE GAME PAGE

Looking for a great fart joke? Then keep on looking, because while this tasteless trip through a frathouse bathroom was filled with wisecracks, none of them were funny. LSL: Magna Cum Laude missed the boat completely by forgetting what made the Lesiure Suit Larry games fun to begin with: good puzzles and clever writing. You won't find either of those here, though you will find plenty of broken mini-games, an earful of irritating dialogue and enough poorly-rendered cleavage to make Girls Gone Wild look like Gone With The Wind. Apparently, though, even a critical drubbing can't stop this sex-starved bachelor from procreating, as another sequel, Box Office Bust, is due out later this year.

Ultima IX: Ascension

READ REVIEW

Brainchild of famed game designer Richard Garriot, the Ultima franchise ruled computer role-playing for nearly two decades. Things started to go awry in the mediocre Ultima VIII: Pagan, but no one was prepared for the onslaught of awful that was Ascension. Fans had waited five years for the franchise finale, during which time developer Origin and publisher EA had launched the hugely successful MMO Ultima Online. To keep up with their new smash, they promptly shifted most of their attention (and staff) away from Ascension. Internal conflicts ensued, and by the time the game finally saw the light of day some years after development first began, it was a buggy, convoluted mess and a bona fide flop.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

SEE GAME PAGE

The Little Purple Dragon That Could came out of nowhere to become one of the brightest stars in Sony's galaxy, enjoying three successful outings on the original Playstation. But when ace developer Insomniac bailed out, Sony sold the rights to Universal, who very nearly slayed the good-hearted dragon by foisting this abysmal effort onto an unsuspecting public. Horrendous frame rate problems, laughable sound glitches, game-ending crash bugs and a nigh-incomprehensible plot ruined both Spyro's PS2 debut and his chances at becoming a lifelong Sony mascot. Burned.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Next-Gen)

SEE GAME PAGE

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The blue blur's been spiraling downward for so long, it's getting hard to believe that Sonic once legitimately challenged Mario to the mascot throne. Singling out just one of his post-Genesis flops isn't easy (Sonic Riders? Sonic Shuffle?), but we're going with the most recent foray on the 360 and PS3 because we actually had high hopes going in. A bad camera, glitchy visuals and insufferably bland gameplay shattered those pretty quickly, slamming yet another nail into this platforming pariah's coffin.

Twisted Metal III

The game that put auto combat on the map almost wiped it right off it when Twisted Metal III crashed into consoles in the winter of 1998. A contract dispute between original Twisted Metal developer Singletrac and publisher Sony put development duties into the not-so-capable hands of 989 Studios, an in-house team best known for putting out questionable sequels to established brands. Calling Twisted Metal III merely questionable, however, is to vastly understate its ineptitude: the graphics sucked, the gameplay sucked, and the reviews - wait for it - sucked. The game was so bad, in fact, that fans petitioned against 989 and Sony and didn't let up until Singletrac (now known as Incognito) was put back on the case with the PS2 game, Twisted Metal: Black.

Turok: Evolution

SEE GAME PAGE

Seriously, haven't Native Americans suffered enough? Not according to oft-troubled publisher Acclaim, who, just prior to filing for bankruptcy, set race relations back a few million years in this dreadful affront to both man- and lizard-kind. Turok: Evolution's shoddy design and dated graphics were bad enough, but the game's primary villain, a nefarious frontiersman named Tobias Bruckner, spewed enough hatred toward Native Americans to make General Custer look like The Pope. How lame was the dino-riding dolt? Lame enough to become the namesake of respected gaming print publication Electronic Gaming Monthly's annual worst of the year awards.

Duke Nukem Forever

WATCH VIDEO TRAILER

Officially announced: April 28, 1997. Today's date: May 7, 2008. The developers claim it's "coming out soon." Need we say more?

[Slept with ghost]

Save for sonic this list is full of sequels to games that weren't good to begin with. Plus even if duke nukem forever has taken over 10 years to come out it shouldn't be on the list for one simple reason. It never came out so it can't be labeled as good or bad.

[Morbid Side]

Hey! I happen to like Twisted Metal III.

[EnViOuSPoPpEt]

I would have to say Evil Dead Resurrection.. It was just not as fun as the 1st one for me.. that little guy was quite annoying.