We consider online game sequels as one thing that may outdo the unique in most methods, be extra of the identical, and even hit followers with the heavy hammer of disappointment. That, nevertheless, ignores the uncommon however very actual case of sequels that don’t essentially suck however that may baffle followers with their nigh-inexplicable new design decisions. We shouldn’t overlook this class of sequel, it does a minimum of an awesome job of offering enjoyable to anybody studying about simply how completely weird these video games can get.

Silent Hill: E-book Of Recollections

Bear in mind how the Silent Hill sequence managed to make gamers really feel scared and uneasy even when no enemy was on display? Nicely, no person had time for that once they have been reinventing the sq. for the PlayStation Vita with Silent Hill: E-book Of Recollections.

This one isn’t a psychological horror recreation and barely even a survival horror recreation. It’s a bizarre try at making an isometric motion title within the vein of the superior Lara Croft and the Guardian of Mild however on the planet of Silent Hill.

Heck, you don’t even have one of many easiest staples of psychological horror that the sequence had performed so effectively up till this level—like the sensation of loneliness and isolation—as this one is a co-op journey that includes as much as 4 gamers. Wild stuff.

Zelda II: The Journey of Hyperlink

Bear in mind when the unique The Legend Of Zelda modified gaming by taking a cue from the top-down perspective of RPGs and re-purposing it for motion adventures?  You don’t? Nicely, neither do I as a result of I used to be too younger to play it again then, however that’s what the legend of The Legend of Zelda says.

Zelda 2 is unquestionably not a foul recreation (in case you’re in search of a foul Zelda side-scroller, google Zelda CD-I video games), however it’s nonetheless fairly bizarre that Nintendo did away with the revolutionary design they’d give you within the first one to make a extra conservative 2D side-scroller. Nintendo already had Mario dominating that area, and there was no scarcity of comparable side-scrollers from different corporations. Fortunately, it didn’t take Nintendo lengthy to each return to their revolutionary system after which strive new stuff that additional propelled the sequence into legendary standing.

Bomberman Act: Zero

This one was completely horrible and in addition marked an terrible tonal shift for a beloved cutesy sequence that positively didn’t want one. I in all probability wouldn’t have put it on the checklist as a result of this isn’t about straight-up dangerous sequels, however I like how its poster seems to be identical to Oppenheimer’s, in order that’s some additional bonus factors for weirdness.

In case you’re in search of a wacky enjoyable Bomberman recreation, you then’re a lot better off taking part in Saturn Bomberman.

Half-Life 2: Survivor

Bear in mind how the unique Half-Life and its sequel every modified the FPS panorama of its time, attributable to sensible gameplay mechanics that compelled gamers to make use of their brains? Welp, Half-Life 2: Survivor is a weird, largely on-rails arcade model of Half-Life 2 that solely got here out in Japan.

Do you see that massively busy interface? That’s not a kind of spoofs of HUD glut that you simply see everywhere in the Web—that’s the actual deal. The rationale why anybody would give you such an antithesis to what made Half-Life 2 nice is a thriller, however I’d be mendacity if I mentioned that I wouldn’t spend just a few {dollars} on the arcade to do this mess.

Jak 2

Ever questioned why the unique Jak & Daxter had gamers fortunately hopping from platform to platform after which Jak 2 was all about gunning down enemies and driving flying autos? Positive, Naughty Canine had additionally beforehand outfitted Crash with a Bazooka for the third recreation within the Crash Bandicoot sequence, however Crash’s Bazooka solely fired Wumpa fruit, not deadly rounds. What the hell occurred there?

Nicely, it seems that the sequel to Naughty Canine’s as soon as happy-go-lucky platformer grew to become a shooter as a result of Naughty Canine noticed all the gaming panorama change with the arrival of gritty titles akin to Killzone, God Of Conflict, and, most significantly, Grand Theft Auto 3. The group made all of the modifications to the unique that they may to accommodate gameplay components that performed equally to Rockstar’s mega-hit, and the sequence was by no means the identical once more.

In Naughty Canine’s protection, nevertheless, I’ve to confess that Jak 2 was fairly rattling good.

Star Fox Adventures

That is the sport that despatched the Star Fox sequence into dormancy and made the titular Fox extra recognizable as a top-tier Tremendous Smash Bros. character than as the principle character of his personal sequence. Its mistake? It determined to get Fox out of his ship and provides him some ground-based missions.

This isn’t a brand new type of 3D recreation. That is Zelda with the exception that Zelda video games are normally nice, and this one is simply okay. Star Fox Adventures marks one of many very uncommon moments in gaming once they would’ve been a lot better off simply doing an on-rails shooter than a sprawling 3D journey.

Dino Disaster 3

Dino Disaster has all the time been an odd Resident Evil clone, however the rule is you can solely ship your sequence to area after across the eighth entry. Selecting area because the setting in your mundane terrestrial sequence within the third entry is an excessive amount of—particularly when it’s a recreation about pre-historic stuff, the historic reverse of area stuff, I assume. Even Exoprimal feels extra grounded than this Chimera.

Additionally, the primary two video games within the sequence got here out for the unique PlayStation, whereas Dino Disaster 3 landed on Xbox as an unique, which could have gotten Xbox followers to imagine it has all the time been in area, thus making it all of the extra hilariously bizarre.

DOOM RPG

Bear in mind when Doom followers didn’t like Doom 3 as a result of it was slower, darker, and spookier? Nicely, there’s an excellent weirder, blacker sheep on this sequence: Doom RPG.

For some bonkers purpose, Id seemed on the “meh” response DOOM 3 obtained and determined to additional scale back the quantity of motion and make a recreation that was extra Remaining Fantasy than Doom. To Id’s credit score, nevertheless, Doom RPG is fairly respectable and was even fairly revolutionary within the cell gaming scene, because it supplied a fully-fledged marketing campaign two years earlier than the iPhone made cell gaming go large. Did any of the issues that you simply simply learn entice you to attend for an HD remaster? Nicely, good luck with that, since Id misplaced Doom RPG’s supply code.

Darkspore

Bear in mind Spore? In some unspecified time in the future, it was completely going to be the most effective recreation ever made! Sadly, probably the most enjoyable anybody ever ended up getting out of it got here from the sport’s extraordinarily superior creature creator—largely as a result of they obtained to create beings that seemed awfully phallic.

The folks at Maxis seemed on the recreation’s lukewarm reception and got here to the pure conclusion anybody within the ‘00s would’ve arrived at: it simply wasn’t gritty sufficient. To unravel this, they got here up with Darkspore, a recreation that ditched all the things from the unique aside from the creature creator, after which made a gritty motion recreation a couple of badass creature that went on to battle different gritty, much less phallic creatures.

Darkspore wasn’t even dangerous, however I can’t assist however snigger on the very apparent high-speed course correction that was at play right here.