• When you finish a great video game, all you want is more of that game.
Usually, you wait for a sequel.
But sometimes you don’t get those sequels, no matter how long you wait.Here are 15 of
those games that have kept us on edge waiting for sequels.
15 –Half Life 2 • The wait for Half-Life 3 has gone on for
so long with no news, the “confirmation” of Half-Life 3 is now more of a meme than
an actual real thing.
• The reality is, Half-Life 3 is unlikely to happen any time in the near future, because
nobody at Valve wants to do it.
And since Valve employees get to work on whatever they feel like, if nobody wants to make Half-Life
3, it’s not happening.
• Besides, Gabe Newell is already one of the richest people in America just because
his company runs Steam. 14 –Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
• In 2002, Nintendo wanted a game that would help them appeal to an aging gaming audience.
• They got Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem¸ a Resident Evil¬-type survival
horror game that wasn’t a commercial success, but has since become a cult hit.
• There was no news of a sequel until Nintendo announced that the sequel had been in the
works, but had been cancelled.
• Developer Silicon Knights went bankrupt in 2013, prompting several of its former members
to reform as a new company and attempt to crowdfund a sequel.
• Those crowdfunding efforts have all fallen well short of their goal, but Nintendo has
been renewing the license for the Eternal Darkness name for the last 10 years… so
maybe someday?
13 –The Legend of Dragoon • Right around the time Final Fantasy hype
was hitting a fever pitch in the West, Sony capitalized on the RPG rush with The Legend
of Dragoon.
• It did well for Sony, and its producer, Shuhei Yoshida, went on to become the President
of Sony Computer Entertainment.
• There was a sequel in development for a time, but it was cancelled before it was
even officially announced.
12 –Jet Set Radio • Sega’s unusual mashup of hip-hop culture,
in-line skating and graffiti painting is still one of the most unique and unusual properties
you’ll find.
• And since the 2002 Xbox-exclusive remake, Jet Set Radio Future, the series has been
dormant, despite consistent fan calls for a sequel.
• This is only one of many examples of Sega creating a popular new IP, only to bury it
in their backyard while people ask them for more.
11 –Vagrant Story • Like The Legend of Dragoon, this is an
RPG that came out in 2000, late in the Playstation’s lifespan.
• It had much of the Final Fantasy Tactics team behind it, and featured a unique tactical
battle system that involved only one character and no party.
• And then it just sort of… disappeared.
It came and it went, and was basically never heard from again.
• But hey, if Square-Enix is breathing new life into Final Fantasy 7, why not Vagrant
Story?
The original game is actually a better fit for the action-oriented style Square-Enix
is known for now.
10 –Perfect Dark • Of all the games on this list, this might
be the one that needs the “reboot” treatment.
• See, people loved Perfect Dark, and there were two sequels in the works.
But then Microsoft acquired Rare, and we got Perfect Dark Zero, the awful Xbox 360 prequel.
• That basically killed any momentum the series may have had.
Still, the love for the original is there, and a return to form would be welcome to fans.
• Problem is, Rare still owns the license, but the company currently known as “Rare”
has been gutted of all its original talent.
9 –Pokemon Snap • When the Wii U came out, it seemed like
the perfect platform for a new Pokemon Snap.
• Considering Nintendo’s obsession with using the Wii U gamepad’s gyro aiming functions,
why not make it a camera to photograph Pokemon?
• At one point, Nintendo even announced they were bringing Pokemon Snap to Virtual
Console with some “upgrades.”
• But it turned out they were just talking about some basic online functions.
So we’re all still stuck with Pokemon Go.
8 –Jade Empire • Bioware says they’d love to make a new
Jade Empire game… you know, when they’re not busy making new Mass Effect and Dragon
Age games.
• Which is basically never.
• Since those are established, cash cow franchises, and Bioware is now owned by EA,
it’s doubtful that we’ll ever see a return to the lesser-known world of Jade Empire.
• But maybe we’ll get an HD remake?
7 –Grim Fandango • Like Psychonauts, this is a Double Fine
game that came out to broad appeal, but littlecommercial success.
• But Psychonauts is getting a sequel.
And while Grim Fandango got a remastered edition, there hasn’t been any noise regarding a
sequel.
• Chances are, there probably won’t be until Double Fine finishes work on Psychonauts
in 2018.
And that’s at the earliest.
6 –World of Warcraft • In 2004, Blizzard changed the landscape
of the online gaming industry forever, and is largely still running on that same framework
that it came out with well over a decade ago.
• The game is still getting a regular feed of updates and expansions, and still has an
active subscriber base over 10 million.
• So is there even any need for a “WoW 2?”
Or is everyone cool to just keep riding out the original?
Maybe Warcraft 4 is a better bet.
5 –Battletoads • At the mere mention of Battletoads, most
people have a sort of love-hate reaction.
They remember having fun with the game, but they also HATE it.
• At this point, it’s one of Rare’s more deeply-buried franchises, but it did
get a cameo appearance in the Xbox One edition of Shovel Knight.
• Also, Rash is a playable character in Killer Instinct.
So it kind of looks like Microsoft is more concerned with pimping out Battletoads characters
than making a new game.
4 –Ghosts ‘n Goblins • Speaking of old platformers that border
on unfair levels of difficulty, the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series is about due for a revisit.
• Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts came out in 1991, and aside from a PSP re-imagining of the series
in 2006 and a pair of mobile games in 2009 and 2010, the series has largely been untouched
since.
• It might be a tough sell now to pitch a game you have to beat twice in order to
finish it.
But in a post-Dark Souls world, people are looking for challenge, right?
3 –Skies of Arcadia • Here lies another beloved Sega franchise
buried under a non-existent marketing campaign, and the utter misfortune of being born on
the Dreamcast.
• Skies of Arcadia is a good game that just didn’t pull in good sales.
• It joins Jet Set Radio, Valkyria Chronicles, Space Channel 5, and Crazy Taxi as Sega franchises
that debuted to critical acclaim, but most of its fans didn’t discover until years
later, because Sega is so terrible at marketing its games.
• But hey, at least Vyse and Aika got a cameo appearance in Valkyria Chronicles.
2 –Killer 7 • Suda 51’s creepy, Resident Evil-like
shooter was like Kill Bill combined with a near-future political thriller, with psychological
horror thrown in just because.
• And Suda really wants to make another one… but Capcom owns the license, and he
doesn’t work for Capcom anymore.
So it’s probably not happening.
• And no, despite looking almost exactly the same, having a similar name, and sharing
the same director, Suda would like you to know that Killer is Dead is NOT a sequel to
Killer7.
Wink, wink.
1 –Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross • When Chrono Trigger was in development,
its code name was “The Dream Project.”
• Square assembled some of the greatest minds in game development to make a game that
has held up as an all-time great for more than two decades.
• Then, 10 years later, they made Chrono Cross, which is widely considered a good game,
but a bad sequel.
It’s debatable whether it even IS a sequel.
• What isn’t debatable, is that one of the best RPG franchises ever conceived is
stalled at two games – three, if you include the Japan-only text adventure Radical Dreamers
for the Satellaview.
• At this point, it looks unlikely that we’ll ever see a new Chrono game, but there’s
always the Crimson Echoes fangame.