For fans of any video game series, hearing that their favorite is getting a sequel is a moment of joy. But that can quickly turn to sadness or even anger when those sequels turn out to be rubbish. For every success like God of War Ragnarok, there is unfortunately bound to be a disappointing entry in a franchise like Mass Effect: Andromeda.
There are any number of things that can cause a game to flop, be it glitches so bad the game is unplayable to problems behind the scenes with the developers. Some games attempt to reinvent or reboot the series, as seen with Mass Effect. However, if not done properly, instead of adding to a franchise's lore or sticking to the tried-and-true formula that made them beloved by fans, all they make is a mess. Then there are these games that have the honor of going down in history as the worst video game sequels.
10 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Sometimes a sequel is bad because of bugs, poor writing, or other combination of factors that create an unplayable mess. However, sometimes game sequels flop because of design decisions made during development, and it is for this reason that Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was a terrible sequel. The game itself is quite good; there is lots of fun to be had as Banjo and Kazooie build vehicles and compete in races.
However, it was the gameplay changes that made this sequel less than popular. Instead of Banjo-Kazooie’s game developer Rare sticking to the classic platforming of the previous installments, Nuts & Bolts is completely redesigned and becomes a kart-racing game with a focus on upgrading and collecting vehicles. The result was a game that felt nothing like the rest of the series that fans had come to love.
9 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
The Force Unleashed is still considered to be one of the best Star Wars games, even 15 years later. Boasting a well-written plot, great characters, and interesting combat mechanics, fans were thrilled to hear it would be getting a sequel. However, when Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 was released two years later, in 2010, players were immediately disappointed.
The plot was a confused mess, and the new Force Unleashes 2’s version of Starkiller was more boring than his characterization in the first game. While players and critics acknowledged that combat was still fun, and Starkiller's powers made a player really feel like a powerful Force , boring level design, repetitive animation, and uninspired boss fights made The Force Unleashed 2 lose a lot of what had made the first game so enjoyable.
8 Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 2 is infamous among the franchise fanbase for just how terrible it truly is. When it was released, Devil May Cry was revolutionary, wowing players with its combat, characters, and concept. Then along came DMC2 and almost sank the franchise.
Devil May Cry 2 took some of the best parts of its predecessor and essentially scrapped them. The funny, cocky Dante was suddenly painfully boring, while combat in Devil May Cry 2 now offered no real challenge. The fluidity and intuitive combos were gone in favor of something that felt far more static and unsatisfying overall, creating a bland sequel players hated.
7 Resident Evil 6
The Resident Evil franchise changed horror survival games when it first was released and went on to have a string of hits with its many sequels - that is, until Resident Evil 6. Capcom attempted to take the sixth game in the series in a new direction, with interweaving storylines taking place on many different continents. Fans of the series pretty much universally agree that RE6 is the worst and most hated Resident Evil game.
Unfortunately, this meant that RE6 lost the survival horror feel that players loved about the franchise, instead feeling more like a generic shooter. The plots were overly complicated, with too many characters and storylines that ultimately went nowhere, and the game overall felt directionless. While Resident Evil 6 does have its fans, most would agree that the shift in tone was a mistake.
6 Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness was the sixth installment in the original Tomb Raider series. What should have been another surefire hit for Core Design ended up failing so badly that it cost the developer the Tomb Raider IP. Straying from the idea of tombs and uncovering secrets through puzzle solving, Angel of Darkness took a bold new approach to Lara's next adventure setting the story in cities and solving a murder mystery.
Fans of the series were understandably confused and annoyed by this shift in classic Tomb Raider gameplay, locations, and tone. Combining this with the terrible controls, janky camera movement, and poor AI, Angel of Darkness was a bug-filled, unfinished mess at release. The game still sold well but hurt the Tomb Raider franchise due to the radical change in creative direction and the numerous gameplay and technical issues.
5 Sonic ‘06
The Sonic franchise has had many hits and misses over the years, but one of the biggest failures was the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog, commonly referred to as Sonic '06. One of the biggest criticisms the game faced was its load times, with players left pulling their hair out when speaking to any character resulted in a 30-second loading screen disrupting the flow of the game. And that was if the game loaded at all and didn't crash the second Sonic or Tails moved.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, rather than a return to form, had terrible controls and camera movement, which often left players feeling frustrated. Levels were bland, made worse by the infuriating camera and numerous bugs. There is also an incredibly weird romance between Sonic and a human woman, which results in many cringe-inducing cutscenes packed with awful dialogue.
4 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
In the land of skateboarding games, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series reigned supreme - until Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Released in 2015, seemingly after publisher Activision realized its licensing contract with Tony Hawk was due to expire, the company had developer Robomodo put out one last game. The result of only a few months of development was the rushed, unfinished mess that was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, which failed to retain Tony Hawk's Pro Skater skateboading throne.
Pro Skater 5's graphics looked old and outdated even at release, which was exacerbated by some lazy design choices. In the end, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was a bug-filled mess, with an utterly unplayable online mode and dull levels. To make matters worse, many of the game's core features required access to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater servers, which have been shut down since 2018, making the game completely unplayable now.
3 SimCity (2013)
SimCity 2013 was the fifth main SimCity game and was meant to be a reboot of the franchise. However, as soon as it was launched, it ran into problems. While the updated graphics were welcomed by the player base, the heavy focus on multiplayer meant that SimCity 2013 required players to always be online to play.
To even install SimCity 2013, a stable internet connection was needed, even if players had bought a physical copy. This meant that the game was unplayable at times as the servers were often down, and if players didn't have great internet, then they couldn't play the game they had paid for. This understandably angered a lot of people, and with the game also suffering from glitches, the cloud losing players' cities, and rubbish AI pathfinding, it meant that SimCity 2013 ended up killing the SimCity franchise.
2 Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever will go down in history as one of the most famous examples of a terrible video game sequel for so many reasons. Perhaps the most well-known aspect of this sequel's downfall was that the problem-filled development of the unsuccessful Duke Nukem reboot was rumored to be so chaotic that the game was scrapped and restarted from scratch multiple times. Eventually, after spending over 14 years in development from 1997 to 2011, the result was a clunky, bug-filled mess.
The graphics were outdated, the controls were unresponsive, and the level design can only be described as basic. Worse still was Duke Nukem Forever's portrayal of women, which was described by several critics as creepy and even hateful, with one multiplayer mode even involving spanking women. Overall, Duke Nukem Forever felt like multiple games cobbled together, and it probably is as Gearbox salvaged what it could from 3D Realms.
1 Bomberman: Act Zero
When players think of the Bomberman games, they probably imagine a cute little cartoon guy running around a playfully designed maze. Indeed, it was this charming aesthetic, along with the explosions, that Bomberman players loved, so it was especially strange when developer Hudson Soft scrapped all of that for Bomberman: Act Zero. While nothing about the gameplay was really changed, Bomberman: Act Zero looked nothing like anything else in the franchise.
Instead of the adorable graphics players were used to, Hudson Soft decided to launch a gritty reboot of the franchise setting Bomberman: Act Zero in a dark and dystopian future. Needless to say, fans of the series were a little perplexed. Bomberman: Act Zero might have been able to weather the new aesthetic changes, however, if the gameplay had been half decent. Unfortunately, all the levels look exactly the same, the collision detection was terrible, and the AI was horrifically unbalanced, all of which add up to Bomberman: Act Zero being easily one of the worst video game sequels.