Sweet and simple games spoiled by overly complicated sequels

[jp1]

The title says it all. Which sequels came along and tried to add too much thereby spoiling your favourite game or franchise. Some games just feel better to me with simple and easy mechanics.

I will no doubt catch hell for this but I loved Final Fantasy up to number VII. Number VII and beyond just added too much crap for me to enjoy it any longer. To this day FF1 is my top pick of the lot. So many hours spent on that game when I was a kid. It didn't help that I would end up screwing up my save files by just cutting the power off.

[Reverend]

Everything after Sonic 3 and Knuckles (the Sonic Adventure series may be exempt).

[kunoh]

Back in college, I played a lot of Samurai Showdown 2/ Samurai Spirits 2... but ever since then they've added all sorts of things.. different versions of each character, different super modes, different counter moves, finishing moves, disarm attacks etc. So after playing the recently released Samurai Showdown compilation on PS2, I was just amazed at how complicated the latest incarnation of the game is. I still like the series as a whole, but it has much more of a learning curve now. And the charm that it once had is somewhat lost in these later versions of the game.

[wilsona26]

I agree on the FF VII thing. I preordered that stupid thing long before it came out and got a t-shirt. I ended up playing it about halfway through and never finished it. I tried 8,9 and finally gave up on it altogether. I guess ill always have dragon warrior/quest for my good old fashioned fun. FF VI was my favorite of the bunch though. I paid 88 dollars for it when it came out. I was so excited.

[Ack]

I tell you, Castlevania really let me down. I was enjoying my side-scrolling platformer action, when all of a sudden out of nowhere this Symphony of the Night crap hits, and now I'm gaining levels?!?!?! I mean, come on, who came up with this crap?!

Ahem.

Joking aside, I think Guilty Gear suffered immensely when Guilty Gear Isuka was released. I go from having an interesting 2D fighting game to a bizarre one that willingly incorporated some of the worst parts of 2D fighters in my opinion. I wasn't a fan of the two-lane combat in Fatal Fury. And pressing L1 to turn around? Chirst, what next, setting aside two buttons for jump and block? I know they wanted innovation, but it felt like such a step backwards to me.

[Jrecee]

Nights: Journey something whatever
Mario Sunshine
Donkey Kong 64
Dig Dug II

[Hateshinai]

Sonic games after the Megadrive/Genesis.

[Flashman85]

The later games in the Mega Man X series started to blow it, beginning with X5--ducking, not being able to shoot through walls, randomized levels, 3-D, Axl, etc.

To this day FF1 is my top pick of the lot.

I agree, but FFIV is about on par for me. I've played about half of the Final Fantasy games, but everything after FFIV that I've seen has had too many characters, too many ways to make your characters identical, too many out-of-genre action sequences (I'm looking at you, FFVIII) and too many random sidequests that nobody would ever figure out without a walkthrough.

Beyond that, SimCity 4 was way too complicated for my tastes--way too much micromanaging and small-scale planning to get even a tiny village running. In my day, if you had a power plant and some roads, you had a city.

[BoringSupreez]

SimCity 4 was way too complicated for my tastes--way too much micromanaging and small-scale planning to get even a tiny village running. In my day, if you had a power plant and some roads, you had a city.

You think SimCity 4 had too much micromanaging? I hated it because it did too much FOR me, instead of making me do everything manualy. If you zone something, all the power lines and roads build atomatically. I want to build the roads and power lines myself. I also didn't like the driving missions you could do because I usually got lost in some neighborhood, becuase of the generic road layouts that occur when the game builds the roads for you, and I'd lose the challenge. That game stank, in my opinion SimCity 3000 was the pinnacle of the series, very closely followed by SimCity 2000.

[KholdStare]

Everything after Zelda ages/seasons. I may excuse Twilight Princess.