The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels - Part Seven

There's little that hurts a gamer more than hearing that a sequel to one of their favorite games is coming out, it releases, and it turns out to be a dud. It's happened to the best of us. It's like having the rug pulled out from under you when a sequel you've been hyping based off of love for its predecessor does less than satisfy when it finally launches. Sometimes it's due to the formula being changed too much and not for the better. Other times it's because the game is missing what made the original so good.

Whatever the reasons may be, SPC is back with a look at six more disappointing video game sequels that failed to deliver or failed to satisfy for one reason or another.

If you're a glutton for punishment and want to think some more about what might have been, take a look at SuperPhillip Central's past installments for even MORE disappointing video game sequels with these convenient links:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

Dynasty Warriors 9 (PS4, XB1, PC)

We begin this edition of disappointing video game sequels with a series that already wasn't viewed in the brightest of lights by most in the gaming industry. Really, the Musou-style of game is a repetitive one, having players hack and slash through enormous waves of enemies. While repetitive and hardly generating and amassing critical acclaim, the genre and games are quite addicting and there's something intrinsically satisfying to be found within them. It's the very definition of comfort food gaming for some.

I have to give Koei Tecmo credit for wanting to change up its somewhat stagnant Dynasty Warriors series. It's quite commendable to have an established formula that works well for its fanbase and risk alienating said fanbase by doing something new. Unfortunately, Dynasty Warriors 9 was a case of poor execution. Instead of smaller battlefields, Dynasty Warriors 9's encounters took place in wide open, empty fields that mimicked and were clearly inspired by open world games. Furthermore, as a means to maybe welcome new players into the franchise with the new installment, Dynasty Warriors 9 featured much more basic combat, and the combat in past games wasn't exactly the deepest to begin with. In aiming to please newcomers, Koei Tecmo essentially made a Dynasty Warriors game for no one, as veterans didn't have much to enjoy with this latest installment of the long-running series.

Dead Space 3 (PS3, X360, PC)

Some games are disappointing not just because they aren't of a quality to one's liking, but more because of the after effects that come of a game's release. Electronic Arts and Visceral Games' Dead Space 3 is an example of this. Focusing less on the survival horrors aspects of the first two games and laser-aiming more on the action side of things, Dead Space 3 changed things up no doubt to make the game more entertaining for online co-op, a new mode added to this installment of the game.

While the game was still entertaining (very much so, might I add), Dead Space 3 offered a rather bloated adventure that went on for far too long, and was a disappointment because it failed to stick to its survival horror roots. But, more importantly, Dead Space 3 served as the end for not just the Dead Space series but the end for the developer of the series itself: Visceral Games. Soon after, the team would get dissolved among two EA studios. Another studio slain by the game publisher.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC)

This disappointing game hurts deeply, as I had the original Curse of the Moon as one of my top ten games of 2018. The game managed to mix its old school difficulty on modern gaming systems wonderfully. So, then, what makes its sequel, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, so disappointing?

The answer is that Inti Creates went way too far with the difficulty this time around. The game has three runs you do, each changing a different element of the story and the characters you have to work with. The first run of the game is simple enough, offering a leisurely enough experience, though the challenge does spike upward at the end. But, by the second run, bosses deal massive amount of damage, especially their final gambit attacks which usually are hard to predict and dodge, and the game just is a much more frustrating experience. You have one less character to play as, and many times in the game you'll discover that checkpoints are few and far in between, unlike the original Curse of the Moon. It all adds up to a game that's the definition of "NES Hard", but in this case it's 2020, and my patience is much thinner than when I was a kid.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)

With the relatively recent release of Paper Mario: The Origami King, and my rather glowing review of the game fresh in my mind, it seems like a good opportunity to look back on a less than stellar installment in the Paper Mario series, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. What Sticker Star marked was a drastic departure from the traditional Mario RPG formula: No partners, no experience points earned in battle, and a pale imitation of what made the previous Paper Mario games so great.

Now, that wouldn't be an issue if the game was great on its own merits like The Origami King was, but in Paper Mario: Sticker Star's case, it wasn't. Between battles basically being meaningless if not downright bothersome was that you used one-time use stickers to do battle and only earned coins and other stickers for your effort. Furthermore, the game's boss battles required certain items called "Things" that needed to be used at very specific times or the battle would be unwinnable. Once you used a "Thing", it was gone and would need to be collected again, making for a great annoyance.
What Paper Mario: Sticker Star represented was the growing pains of the Paper Mario series into something more enjoyable today, as seen with The Origami King. Still, for fans of the old style of Paper Mario games, Sticker Star was the beginning of the end, and for them, that's the biggest disappointment of them all.

Sonic Free Riders (X360)

Moving on from a bad Mario game to one of many bad games featuring his former rival Sonic, we turn to an atypical racing game for an atypical gaming platform. The Sonic Riders series began on the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox, and it featured Sonic and friends (and foes) racing on air-powered hoverboards on winding tracks in fantastical locations, all the while performing stunts and tricks. The series has since seen two other games: Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and the game that probably killed the sub-series of Sonic games, Sonic Free Riders.

Sonic Free Riders was an Xbox 360 Kinect launch exclusive, using the peripheral to read players' movements. However, the consistency that it did so varied from player to player, working adequately for some and terribly to the point of being game-breaking for others. Despite a generous amount of content and modes in the game, this meant nothing if players couldn't access and enjoy all of it due to the poor controls. The fact that Sonic Free Riders has essentially retired the otherwise entertaining Sonic Riders sub-series only makes the game even more disappointing in retrospect.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly (PS2, GCN)

Our final look at disappointing video games this edition gives us Spyro the Dragon, who recently received an excellent remake of his first three adventures with Spyro Reignited Trilogy. While that game was a breath of fresh air for the series, things weren't always looking up for Activision's purple dragon.

I submit to the court Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. The game's crimes? How about atrocious levels that grate and annoy, myriad bugs and glitches, and a short adventure that is both a pro and a con--a pro because it's mercifully short, but a con because it was a full price release back when it released?  Like Crash Bandicoot, Spryo the Dragon was an example of a PlayStation fan-favorite that changed hands and developers and came out worse in the end with a parade of poorly made sequels in the PS2 era. Fortunately, though, also like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro has since seen renewed success and spotlight with both the aforementioned Reignited Trilogy and his cameo appearance as a racer in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Welcome back to the land of the living, Spyro!

The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels - Part Six

Sometimes you're waiting years for a video game sequel only for it to finally come out and your excitement and hype end not with a bang but a whimper due to the game's lackluster quality. With how long it takes for sequels to be developed nowadays with longer dev times and bigger budgets, this pain can sting even more.

With that said, some things come in twos, and that's the theme of this installment of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels. From Xbox first-party efforts to retro revivals, SuperPhillip Central has several themed pairs of disappointing sequels this time around. After checking out this edition's selection of six disappointing sequels, which would you personally add to a future installment?

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

Crackdown 3 (XB1, PC)

Crackdown 3 was a bit of a miracle that it finally got released. It's sort of a Frankenstein of parts, each created and conceived by different studios and development teams here and there. However, as the saying goes, "Too many cooks spoil the broth." The core gameplay of Crackdown 3 meets the standard of past games in the series. This is a good thing and a bad thing. As a positive, you know what you're going to get with Crackdown 3, and if you enjoyed the gameplay of its Xbox 360 predecessors, then you're more than likely to enjoy what Crackdown 3 has to offer.

However, a negative, and one that overshadowed the positives of Crackdown 3, is that the game was in the making for so long and the end result is so similar to past games. What was deemed fresh and modern back when Crackdown originally released isn't so much in the present, over a decade later. Seeing Crackdown 3 in the state that it released in with little in the way of innovation and little more than a shinier coat of paint made for a disappointing sequel after many years of waiting and many delays as well. Still, one can find a fantastic amount of fun with Crackdown 3, and that's really the most important thing. That said, the game still remains disappointing even with the fun one can have from it.

State of Decay 2 (XB1, PC)

I don't mean to pick on Microsoft Studios with Crackdown 3 and now this next sequel, but it's a pretty common opinion that Xbox's first party catalog on Xbox One has not been the most inspiring. That continues with State of Decay 2--at least its launch. Surviving a zombie apocalypse is no new idea in video games. In fact, zombies as a concept by itself is one used ad nauseum, but the idea of fighting for your virtual life against hordes of undead, flesh-craving creatures is one that permeates through pop culture and survives. Why? It's just plain fun. The original State of Decay made a mark in the Xbox ecosystem with rewarding survival-based gameplay and plenty of zombies for players to battle or escape from. It made for a tense and IN-tense experience that was worthy of a play (or hundred).

That's why coming off the original State of Decay to its sequel was such a shock to the system. While the gameplay itself was compelling enough with its similar survival and combat, scavenging for items, and new addition of co-operative play for a maximum of three players to face the open-world zombie hellscape together, there was an even greater danger in State of Decay 2 than the zombie apocalypse. That was the copious amount of bugs and glitches that infested the game worse than zombies ever could. State of Decay 2 isn't a bad game, but its lack of polish made it a lesser game at launch compared to its predecessor.

Dragon Age II (PS3, 360, PC)

Our next pair of games bestow unto us medieval fantasy worlds, though one comes from a big publisher while the other comes from a much smaller by comparison indie. Regardless, Dragon Age II from EA and BioWare is hardly a bad game, but the reason this title is disappointing is when you're looking at it through the lens of being a sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. After all, games aren't released in a bubble, and when you are the sequel to a game that spawned so many brilliant ideas, you're going to draw obvious comparisons.

Dragon Age II brought with it a more simplified, streamlined combat system, which for some players made for a less satisfying gaming experience. The fact that you cannot customize your character in any detailed way also stung. Then, you have the game world of Dragon Age II, which eschewed the open world that its predecessor had, delivering a much more claustrophobic world by comparison. It's definitely up for debate on whether Dragon Age II is a lesser game than Origins, but it's hard to argue against the idea that this sequel didn't disappoint a fair amount of players due to the features that are absent compared to the first.

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power (PS4, XB1, NSW, PC)

I recently reviewed Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power's Nintendo Switch version, which recently launched on that system. Needless to say--by virtue that Trine 3 shows up on a "most disappointing video game sequel" article--I wasn't too thrilled with it. I do give credit to Frozenbyte for not resting on its laurels with the Trine series. After two successful installments with gorgeous 2.5D visuals and satisfying gameplay, the development team tried their hand at taking the series into 3D.

Between the bugs and glitches presented in the game to the depth-perception issues that plague many parts of its 3D world, Trine 3 was an experiment gone awry. The disparity in budget between a 2.5D game and a 3D one made it so that the adventure ended on an abrupt cliffhanger right when the story was getting interesting. It was hard for players not to feel like the wind was taken out of their sails, and some longtime fans of the series grew toxic enough that Frozenbyte felt the need to release an apologetic response. This is a double disappointment for this sequel--not just for the game itself, but the toxic and offensive way some fans lashed out at the developer as well.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episodes I and II (Multi)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a well known character and series for any "most disappointing video game sequel" list, so it's no surprise that the Blue Blur in the modern era sees an appearance on this article. Rather than delve into the myriad 3D games that one could choose, I'm picking the so-called return to Sonic's roots with Sonic the Hedgehog 4's duo of episodes. They're drastically different in visuals and presentation, but they're similar in how much they disappoint.

From a level design standpoint, the episodes range from decent to terrible. At worst, they're a reminder of the Dimps-style level design from the design school where cheap deaths and bottomless pits aplenty are passed off as challenge and boost pads hide the fact that Sonic 4's physics are totally out of wack. Level gimmicks neglect to impress or innovate. From a control standpoint, Sonic Team and Dimps completely failed to nail the feel of the games they were riding the coattails of, as Sonic lacks momentum in his speed and physics issues like coming in and out of loops are a constant feature.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 felt like a cynical attempt to cash-in on the nostalgia of fans, and was by no means worthy of the number 4 in its title. Today, it has been easily outmatched by the true heir and successor to the Genesis / Mega Drive games, and that is of course Sonic Mania.

Double Dragon IV (PS4, NSW, PC)

We end this edition of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels with the fourth numbered game in the Double Dragon series. It very much feels like a lost relic of the 1980s, only with the caveat and major problem that it was actually released in 2017. Sticking with its old school sensibilities in both appearance and how it played was a bold move by developer Arc System Works, but it also made for a game that felt like a product of a long lost time--one that was better lost than found.

We've moved on to better gaming experiences since the days of stiff brawlers and beat-em-ups, and Double Dragon IV stays stuck in the past. Sure, the game won't eat up your dollars from renting it at Blockbuster again and again like its NES brethren were designed to do, but it will eat up something far more important: your patience and your time. Quite frankly, this sequel to Double Dragon is hardly worth playing. It's a fossil in its archaic gameplay and design. If you want a competent and much more desirable sequel to the Double Dragon series, look no further than Super Double Dragon on the SNES.

The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels - Part Five

It's never a good feeling to be hyped for the next installment of one of your favorite franchises, and then POW! You're blindsided with an extremely disappointing game that hardly lives up to your anticipation and hype. That's the focus of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels, and now we're at the fifth installment. This are six more of those games that were either rushed out, released in a broken or incomplete state, or were simply less than stellar experiences overall.

After you browse through and read up on the latest unfortunate games added to this growing series of articles, which game sequels that haven't already been mentioned in a previous article do you think should be added in a future installment?

For past installments, look no further than right here:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (PS4)

Despite enjoying a fair amount of my time with Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, it's hard not to be disappointed when comparing it to the PSP's installments. Absent is the RPG-like story mode with equipment, world map, and other pleasant features--instead what you got was an afterthought of a story, an online mode that seldom runs well, and three-on-three battles that are sensory overload, giving players a high, HIGH learning curve and more HUD elements than seemingly space to see the action.

While Dissidia Final Fantasy NT did well with making fun characters and relatively inoffensive arenas to do battle in, the actual battles are so hectic and crazy that it makes it difficult to not become overly frustrated. This three-on-three experiment didn't really work out as intended, leaving many Dissidia fans out in the cold, yearning for the glory days of the series.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4)

Also from Square Enix, the wait was rather lengthy for Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, the fifth installment in the long-running space opera RPG series. Sadly, the seven-year wait was decidedly not worth it. Star Ocean 5 faced a much lower budget compared to previous games in the series, and it definitely showed. Cutscenes were minimal, instead giving you full control of your character through the agonizingly long, unskippable dialog sequences.

What wasn't long, however, was the actual adventure itself. Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness could be beaten in a couple dozen hours at most, and that's all the while dealing with your clumsy AI teammates and poor pacing throughout the game--such as the necessary backtracking from place to place. The rocky presentation values also cheapened the feel of the game, from some scenes and areas looking gorgeous to others looking poor and amateur at best.

While the Star Ocean series lives on in the mobile gaming sector, the franchise's chances to receive another console installment don't seem likely at this point in time. Perhaps that's the most disappointing part about Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness.

Mario Tennis Aces (NSW)

Of all the games on Part Five of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels, none stung more than Mario Tennis Aces. It felt like getting a direct serve to the face. While the core gameplay and mechanics were rock solid, everything else about Aces--at least at launch--left much to be desired. The disappointment here came from a total lack of modes, options, and overall longevity. Characters were insanely unbalanced, especially Bowser Jr. and Waluigi; the Story Mode was light on content, as was much of Mario Tennis Aces in general. The game since launch has grown with new features and welcomed additions, and while Aces is a much better and really enjoyable game now, it was most disappointing that players and owners of the game had to wait several months for the game to get a state it should have been in at launch.

Sonic Forces (PS4, XB1, NSW, PC)

Sonic Forces is another game that I enjoyed overall, despite the game receiving a savage beatdown by both critics and players alike, but it's not difficult to diagnose Forces as a huge disappointment. Sonic Forces took four years or so of development time, and with that time, many Sonic fans, including myself, thought that this extra dev time would result in a much better game, more similar to Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations than Sonic Lost World.

Unfortunately, those thoughts (or maybe they were just foolish hopes?) were quickly shot down after Sonic Forces was eventually revealed and subsequent launched, using many reused assets from past games and a quick 3-5 campaign. The story was as nonsense as ever, and the desire of the devs to return to a "darker" take on it made for a myriad of eyes rolling at once. While the avatar and customization features were nice, overall, Sonic Forces just didn't do enough to impress after four years of development, giving the franchise another black eye after it had done so well with the fantastic Sonic Mania.

Spider-Man 3 (PS3, 360, PC)

We've been through Square Enix and two platforming all-stars so far, and now it's Activision's turn to get some criticism with some disappointing games. Spider-Man 3 was much hyped by yours truly and many others, as it was coming off the excellent Spider-Man 2. That game at the time was one of the best superhero video games ever concocted--much less the best Spider-Man game to many. Going from that to Spider-Man 3 left a bad taste in many gamers' mouths.

The main issue with Spider-Man 3 was the copious amount of glitches present in the game, sometimes vexing, sometimes unintentionally funny, and sometimes both. The lack of polish on Spider-Man 3 to have it out for release in time for the film was immense, and it soured a lot of the goodwill Activision possessed from fans of previous webhead games. As we'll see with the next and final game on this edition of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels, Spider-Man 3 wouldn't be the last time Activision would hastily push out a game for release to the detriment of the product and the series.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (PS4, XB1, PS3, 360)

Ah, yes... Last but certainly least, we have Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. If Tony Hawk's Ride and Shred killed the series dead, then Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was the one that nailed the coffin shut. However, unlike the other games on this list, THPS 5 isn't really a surprise that its quality was poor. In fact, it was pretty obvious, as the game was quickly assembled together over the course of a few months in order for Activision to unload a game before its license with Tony Hawk expired.

The fact that this shoddy, broken, bug and glitch-ridden mess of a game is the last in the series--completely crapping over the rich history of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, all for the sake of money--is the most disappointing aspect of all with THPS 5. To put it in skateboarding terms, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 didn't just bomb at retail and in reviews, it bailed so hard that it almost retroactively ruined the series' name. Thankfully, it's just "almost".

The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels - Part Three

There are plenty of bad feelings in this world that are far worse than stuff in the gaming world -- stubbing your toe, rear-ending the driver in front of you with your car, texting a sexual message to your mom or dad instead of your girlfriend or boyfriend, etc. In the gaming world, there are some bad feelings as well. For one, being excited and greatly anticipating the sequel to one of your favorite games only for it to simply and completely suck. It especially hurts if it's a game that has been long in development.

That's what The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels series of articles talks about, and now we've arrived at Part Three! To read up on the twelve sequels discussed in past entries, look no further than these links:

Part One
Part Two

Duke Nukem Forever (Multi)

Let's make one thing perfectly clear here: I'm here to bash on the worst video game sequels and chew bubblegum, and guess what -- I'm all outta bubblegum. We begin this edition of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels with perhaps the most disappointing video game sequel of them all, if purely for how long in development this starting game on this edition was, and just how horrible it ended up being.

That game is none other than Duke Nukem Forever, a game that was in development for over 15 years, rightfully earning its one-time moniker as complete and utter vaporware. And what did the 15 years of on and off again development bring players with the final product? Why, awful loading times, repugnant visuals, lackluster controls that made players think Duke was perpetually wandering around in a pool of feces, humor that was so awful that it makes my jokes here on SuperPhillip Central sound like winners in comparison, and design that may have worked fine in a world when the game originally started development but not when in modern-day. Duke Nukem Forever is a game that will always be one of the most disappointing sequels in gaming history... and probably forever, ironically enough.

Assassin's Creed: Unity (Multi)

When you end up having to create a formal apology to both fans and consumers about the quality of one of your biggest releases of the year, you know you've messed up somewhere along the way. But that's exactly what publisher Ubisoft needed to do after the horrific launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity, chiming in a new generation of Assassin's Creed games on new hardware. The most egregious of these launch problems was the almost disturbing graphical bugs and glitches, turning many character models into the stuff nightmares are made of.

While the gameplay was worthwhile in Unity, it didn't do enough to distinguish itself from past games, leaving a "been there, done that" feel to players. Despite the gameplay lacking a significance of new gameplay types, Unity was still worse in the gameplay department thanks to controls that didn't have enough time in the proverbial oven, granting an unsatisfying feeling in controlling Arno Victor Dorian, the main character of the solo campaign. Thus, with all of these problematic troubles with the game, Assassin's Creed: Unity just might be the most disappointing sequel within the whole Assassin's Creed franchise.

Street Fighter V (PS4, PC)

Street Fighter V appeared on both the PlayStation 4 as a home console-exclusive as well as PC. The main selling point: the intricate battle mechanics, combos, and in-your-face fighting antics were all present and accounted for at launch. However, what wasn't, and was something that doomed the game right out of the gate, was Street Fighter V's lack of substantial content, especially for solo players. This was so obvious of a fault that Capcom's Yoshinoro Ono even admitted that the company didn't release a complete game to put on the market. Combined with server issues at release, and Capcom and Street Fighter V had some serious problems to solve with the game.

Unfortunately, the problems didn't end there for Capcom and Street Fighter V either. Subsequent DLC such as stages, characters, and costumes were deemed too expensive for the market, showing off another one of Capcom's own inadequacies with the game and reading the current market. These overarching issues from Street Fighter V have led to certain gamers and the press anticipating Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite to be a bit more hesitant in jumping in on next week's launch for the crossover fighter. Nonetheless, there's nobody else to blame for this hesitation than Capcom itself.

Resident Evil 6 (Multi)

We go from one major tentpole Capcom release to another with a cornerstone in the survival horror genre of video games, the Resident Evil series. Nonetheless, Resident Evil 6 was an entry that tried to do too much, and in doing so, almost ruined the series altogether because of it. While skin-deep aspects of the game like the story and visuals were highly regarded by critics, everything else went off the deep end.

Resident Evil 6 consisted of four major campaigns, each featuring a prolific member of the Resident Evil mythos (well, except newcomer Jake Muller, of course, but he did have a tie to series villain Albert Wesker). Each campaign offered a different type of experience, whether the total action of Chris Redfield's, the best survival horror experience in the game with Leon S. Kennedy's, and the greatest combination of action and survival horror with Ada Wong's campaign.

The biggest issue with the game -- which obviously didn't bother too many perspective purchasers since Resident Evil 6 would go on to sell upwards of 9 million copies worldwide -- was that it pretty much planted itself firmly far away from the series' survival horror roots. This became such as a pronounced issue among critics and players that the next installment of the series, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, would return Resident Evil back into its original survival horror identity without question.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)

Our next game takes us back to the last generation of game consoles, particularly the Xbox 360 in this instance. Unlike most of the games featured in this segment, the disappointment players experienced from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts had nothing to do with it being a bad game, a glitch-fest, or the game lacking any semblance of content. In fact, Nuts & Bolts had none of those problem. No, instead of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts being a bad game, it was just a bad Banjo game.

The Banjo-Kazooie series has always been about 3D platforming with a heavy focus on exploration rather than pure running and jumping like, say, Super Mario 64. The original Banjo-Kazooie remains one of my favorite games of all time, and it was a game that sparked the imagination of millions of players who grew up with the game. Hence, the heavy support towards the Banjo-Kazooie-like Yooka-Laylee when it was being Kickstarted.

With the Xbox 360, players yearned to see several Rare IP get iterations on the Xbox 360. However, with Banjo-Kazooie, this was more of a monkey's paw wish. Sure, we got a new Banjo-Kazooie, but its gameplay style had nothing at all to do with why fans fell in love with the bear and bird duo. What was once a series focused on running, jumping, and exploring complicated environments turned into an Xbox 360 game featuring creating vehicles, solving challenges, and traveling through sparse worlds with little to do in them (except the hub world of Showdown Town, that is). Again, while Nuts & Bolts turned out to be a fun and great game, the arrival of Banjo-Kazooie on the Xbox 360 was sullied by the game not being what fans were expecting at all.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Wii U)

The Mario Tennis series had already seen a decline in quality. The Nintendo 3DS entry used a dismissed Simon Says-like chance shot mechanic. This forced players to move to where the ball was landing on their side of the court and hit the ball with a specific shot to inflict maximum velocity on the ball towards your opponent's half of the court. While I didn't mind this as much as other critics, I still yearned for a Mario Tennis game anywhere as awesome as the Nintendo 64 original, the Game Boy Color and then Advance entries, and the GameCube iteration of the series.

Instead, what Wii U owners got was Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash which delivered traditional tennis as well as the returning chance shot mode of the 3DS's Mario Tennis Open. The gameplay was one of the Mario Tennis franchise's best; it was everything else that failed to impress. The most striking aspect was just how content-barren the game was, featuring only one stadium with differing court types, limited modes, limited characters, and just a limited amount of replayability and longevity. Ultra Smash was released near the end of the Wii U's life cycle, which made it apparent that this was just a game to throw a bone to starved Wii U owners. Out of bounds, Nintendo. Out of bounds.