Contested Sequel / Video Games

• Advance Wars:
  • Even if the relative lack of new content made it feel a bit like a Mission-Pack Sequel, the fandom almost unanimously agrees that Black Hole Rising was a major step up over the original Advance Wars due to the more balanced gameplay, the more refined enemy A.I., and the vastly improved level design. However, opinion is much more split over the third game in the franchise, Dual Strike. Many praised the game for the wealth of new units and game modes, the new dual-front battle system, and the overall faster pace of battles, while its detractors criticized the weak cast of new COs, the almost nonsensical plot, and the overemphasis on gaming the CO Power system to win.
  • Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict has caused an even greater divide than Dual Strike. While its supporters praise the game for taking a darker, much more serious tone in its story and dialing back the importance of CO Powers and bonuses after Dual Strike took it to extremes (thus bringing the focus of battles back to strategy and planning ahead), its detractors deride it for being so radically different from the rest of the series that it comes off less like an actual sequel and more like a knockoff with the Advance Wars name slapped onto it.
• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is praised for its story, improved voice-acting, and sound design, and criticized for its length, lack of horror, and removal of many gameplay elements from the original.
• Is Animal Crossing: New Horizons a huge step forward for the franchise, an entry with improved graphics, new features like the photo studio, allowing changing hair at your will, having a healthy amount of ensemble dark horses among the Funny Animal cast, the increased focus on island customisation, with every part of the island under your control (even down to the layout and which villagers will move away), and a larger inventory for your player? Or was it completely ruined by the increased "gamification" of the mechanics, such as item durability on every tool (even the Golden Weapons), the removal of almost 21 NPCs that have appeared in prior games in some capacity, the reimplementation of those NPCs, content and events prior games had as standard via its new "Live Service" model, all at the expense of Animal Crossing's traditionally laid-back atmosphere, wide variety of content, and interesting/funny villager interactions?
• Depending on who you ask, Armored Core: Nexus is either a slick, content-packed sequel that finally brings Armored Core up to modern standards by upping the production values and finally giving players the option to use proper dual-analog controls, or a disaster filled with lazy, simplistic missions and ruined by an overly-restrictive heat management mechanic that kills much of the fun and choice in building your own mech. About the only things people agree about is that the soundtrack and the bonus disc with remade PS1-era missions are awesome.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Assassin's Creed III received a fair amount of praise for its unique direction, naval warfare, and for its portrayal of the antagonists. It was also criticised by fans for its glitches, scripted missions, lack of stealth, a poorly written story and a protagonist that wasn't as compelling as the previous one. To an extent, the divided opinions extend to the other games set in the Americas.
  • Opinions over Unity are divided. While it is praised for bringing the series back to its roots and its beautifully realised setting, some fans think this entry reeks of Sequelitis due to the plethora of bugs, mixed views on Arno, and the cliche ending. The fact that this game followed the highly praised Black Flag did not help matters one bit. Rogue on the other hand, is praised and loved by fans and critics alike.
  • Revelations was a contested sequel. Some enjoyed playing as an older Ezio, moving on to a new setting in the Ottoman Empire, experiencing flashbacks from Altair's life after the first game, and wrapping up both tales. Others considered the story to be boring with a cheap antagonist, and didn't like how it removed all the supporting characters we'd come to love in II and Brotherhood.
• Backyard Baseball 2001 and Backyard Soccer: MLS Edition. Some people say that it is better than the original because of the pros and MLB/MLS teams, making a perfect "Dream Team," and others hate it because of those same pros.
• Banjo-Kazooie:
  • Banjo-Tooie: While the core gameplay was virtually unchanged from the original (aside from some new moves for Banjo and Kazooie), the worlds were about triple the size, and each was connected to other worlds in some way, thus necessitating some backtracking in order to get some of the Jiggies. While many fans loved and embraced these changes, other fans of the original preferred the smaller worlds and being able to get all of the Jiggies in one sitting.
  • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Some believe that it's a fun resurrection of the franchise, some think it's a good game on its own but not a good Banjo-Kazooie game, and some say that it destroyed any chance of a more traditional Banjo-Kazooie game being released.
  • Its Creator-Driven Successor, Yooka-Laylee, also gets this treatment. While some say it's a solid collectathon that manages to retain the same kind of charm Banjo-Kazooie had, others who view the game negatively claim it's inconsistent, retains many of the issues Banjo-Tooie had, and tries so hard to emulate BK that it never gets the chance to establish itself as its own franchise.
• Batman: Arkham Series:
  • Batman: Arkham Origins, though it's a prequel, still qualifies. The game was made to expand the Arkham franchise beyond Rocksteady Studios, and was rushed to the point there were many bugs upon release and the actual gameplay was 90% identical to that of City (using mostly modifications of the City resources to build upon). Still, the change in production company and story writers is noticeable. The premise is more bare bones, telling a story that isn't overly convoluted and allows more emphasis on Batman's interaction with both enemies and allies. Many fans consider the story, taken by itself, to be the best of the series, even if the gameplay itself is underwhelming.
  • Opinions are varied as to whether or not Batman: Arkham Knight lived up to its predecessors Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City (and to some extent, Batman: Arkham Origins). Some loved the enhanced visuals, the expanded combat, the bigger world and found the story to be compelling and a fitting finale to the series. Others, however, found the story to be lacking, criticized the handling (and frequency) of the Batmobile, missed the on-foot boss battles that the series was well known for, and were disappointed by the inability to use other characters in challenges (which was later fixed).
• Bayonetta:
  • Everyone agrees Bayonetta 2 is an awesome game. But fans debate whether this game or the first has the better overall aesthetic and plot themes, as well as whether Loptr as Aesir can top Jubileus, aka the series' equivalent of God as the Final Boss. And while the easier QTEs and removal of minigame segments have been almost unanimously praised, several of the changes to the combat have been quite contentious. Often criticized is the game's overreliance on Witch Time (where the first game removed the mechanic at the highest difficulty), Umbran Climax being unbalanced, enemy design, removal of certain advanced techniques, and scoring system. Critics argue that the changes result in a more restrictive game that while more approachable for new players, forcefully railroads the player into an overly defensive playstyle.
  • Bayonetta 3 quickly proved to be an even more divisive entry among fans. One camp enjoys the game for its fine-tuned combat, varied locales, and diverse gameplay while the other camp dislikes it for its perceived overreliance on Gameplay Roulette, a plot considered to be undercooked in many respects, and an Audience-Alienating Ending.
• BioShock:
  • BioShock 2 is either a neat exploration of the world of Rapture and its lore, or an an unnecessary slapdash redo of the first game with shoehorned multiplayer.
  • BioShock Infinite is either a deep character driven story with interesting game mechanics like the sky rails or the tears, or a narratively confusing dumbed down mess for leaving the System Shock 2 and BioShock roots, enemy research, hacking, and different ammo types for a lot more combat. Depending on who you ask, it's either the best game in the series, or worst.
• While agreed to be a solid game. how much Burnout Revenge stacks up to the universally-beloved Burnout 3: Takedown is debated among fans. Some find it a straightforward improvement with the new formula complemented by a generous amount of new tracks, cars and fun new mechanics like the ability to throw cars at other racers and the ability to use Crashbreaker mid-races. Others dislike the new dark and gritty visual direction (particularly pronounced for the Xbox 360 version, which massively amps up the grit and bloom as was typical of the time) and find the new "Traffic Check" mechanic both overcomplicates the Crash mode and trivializes much of the risk/reward calculus that had been at the core of the series' appeal.
• Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It's argued whether the former deserves the merit of being called a sequel despite the change in setting, and it doesn't help that many disliked on the principle it was made by Treyarch instead of Infinity Ward or was a World War II game. The latter's major complaint is that it went too far into the Rule of Cool, hurting the more realistic impression Modern Warfare gave. For PC gamers, the major complaint with Modern Warfare 2 was the lack of Dedicated Servers and mod tools.
• Castlevania:
  • Castlevania II: Simon's Quest attempted to take the platforming gameplay of its predecessor and build an Action RPG around it. Its reception was mixed enough that Castlevania III kept well away from its RPG Elements and continuity and the series would not make another (and far more successful) attempt at an open-world action/adventure hybrid until Symphony of the Night.
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2: Many people consider the game as inferior to the original game at it takes place in a modern setting that doesn't quite fit with the Castlevania mythos, has undeveloped characters, and the final battle with Satan is merely fighting your son possessed by Satan — but it actually feels much more like a Castlevania game than its predecessor, playing as Dracula is fun, and it's certainly much darker than the previous game.
• 4X games are very prone to this, especially the Civilization series, which is why Civilization IV onwards are designed from the start to be easily moddable. That allows fans to do whatever they want, even turn it into a remake of the non-Sid-Meier Civilization: Call to Power.
• Company of Heroes 2 and Total War: Rome II were both heavily contested sequels due to the DLC commanders, the single player campaign for COH 2 and the poor optimization for Total War: Rome II.
• Condemned 2: Bloodshot added a great deal of depth to the melee combat system, sharpened the graphics, and put in much more interesting forensic investigation. You either like it for those, or you dislike it for abandoning the creepy slums and giving the plot a ludicrous twist.
• Chrono Cross was destined for this by being the only Chrono Trigger sequel. (Or rather, the only sequel released outside of Japan for a long time.) There are a lot of people who loved the mood of the game, the huge cast of characters, and the plot seemingly delightfully tying rather darkly into its predecessor in a way that proved interesting and engaging. The other half of the Chrono fandom hates it for the cast of characters not getting much time to develop aside from a small handful, calling the ties to Trigger making the whole story a rather dark Retcon, also calling the plot an epic Mind Screw coupled with a Gainax Ending. Most of the fandom agrees that Cross a good game in its own right, with near-universal praise going to the soundtrack, frequently called one of the best original video game soundtracks ever. But the dispute as to whether Cross is a good sequel to Trigger is pure Flame Bait.
• In the world of Command & Conquer, Tiberian Dawn is the only game that isn't a sequel, and is consequently the only game that doesn't qualify. Red Alert is contested for being nothing but a Tiberian Dawn remake (gameplay-wise, at least); Tiberian Sun is contested for being too dark and Science Fiction-y; Red Alert 2 is contested for being too damn cheesy (oh, and the Canon Discontinuity); Generals is contested for being an In Name Only spin-off; Tiberum Wars is contested for its Canon Discontinuity and its striking resemblance to Generals; and Red Alert 3 is contested for cheesiness that reaches outright silly levels, Canon Discontinuity, and lots of other stuff. Lastly, Tiberian Twilight is reviled for its combat system being a significant departure from previous games and being closer to real time tactics than real time strategy. Suffice to say, epic glame wars have erupted over which games are "good" and which games are "bad." Everyone agrees, however, that Sole Survivor never happened.
• Crash Bandicoot:
  • The first three games and Crash Team Racing were made by Naughty Dog. Everything after that is hotly contested. Some say Crash Bash and Crash Twinsanity were still good, some say more or all of the games were good, and a very small portion only like the Titans/Mutant duology.
  • Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time may be the most divisive one yet. Some praise it for its visuals, story and core gameplay mechanics, while others are more critical of the character redesigns and/or immense difficulty spike from the previous games. Fans of the post-Naughty Dog era were also disappointed to see this game essentially reset the timeline back to square one, with it setting itself up as the direct sequel to Warped and no plot elements or characters from those games showing up outside varying cameo appearances.
• Cytus II. Fans of it prefer it over the original Cytus for its aesthetic, fleshed out story, and increased difficulty, while detractors find the story to be too in the way, despise the excessive use of paid DLC, feel that the game resorts to Fake Difficulty for more difficult charts, and the tedious Level Grinding that one has to do to progress said story and unlock new songs.
• As far as the main Darius series goes, Dariusburst is this to G-Darius. Fans either like it for being less punishing on life losses and encouraging aggressive play with its Burst weapons, others feel that it took a serious hit in the level and boss design departments.
• Dark Souls:
  • While some people enjoy Dark Souls II, finding it even better than the first thanks to its mechanical improvements, some people hate it, criticizing various aspects of its gameplay design, music, storytelling/lore, and visual aesthetic as uninspired, lazy, and poorly thought-out compared to the first game. Some people think it is still a pretty fun game, but just doesn't live up to the memorable experience of the first, even taking DSI's flaws into account. There isn't really a consensus.
  • While Dark Souls III was generally well-received, there isn't much of a consensus on how the game stacks up to its predecessors. On one hand, gripes about its lack of individuality, combat more reminiscent of Bloodborne than the other two Dark Souls games, and call-backs to the original are common. Praise, on the other hand, for its detailed world, balanced difficulty curve, and numerous and varied bossess is just as common.
• Darksiders II was overall well-received, but splits opinions regarding whether it's better than the original or not (those who prefer the first feel it's more polished and has a better story, the sequel camp feel the sheer wealth of content and a more interesting and charismatic protagonist tips in their favor). Darksiders III, on the other hand, had a more mixed reception, with the decision to ditch its predecessors' gameplay and instead take elements from Dark Souls being deemed as either a welcome change of pace or diminishing for dropping what made Darksiders stand out in the first place.
• Every Dawn of War game that is a sequel is a Contested Sequel.
  • The original game's agreed-upon high water mark is the Dark Crusade expansion, which featured seven playable races (expanded to nine in the less-well-received Soulstorm expansion), a "Risk"-Style Map as its primary single player experience, and emphasis on large armies and building a traditional tech tree. Vehicles and infantry used separate population caps, requiring different weapons to counter effectively (for example, heavy machine guns mowed down infantry but did little more than tickle tanks, while rocket launchers kicked infantry around somewhat harmlessly but were very effective against vehicles), and Heroes were powerful units that could attach to squads and were improved by research.
  • Dawn of War II, by contrast, was a tactical combat game that focused on smaller numbers of smaller squads (for example, a Tactical Marine squad in I started at four, could reinforce up eight and then add a Sergeant for nine, while the same squad in II started and maxed at three with an option to add a Sergeant) and no base building. There were three single player campaigns released, of which two were playable only by Space Marines. II started out with four playable factions, capping out at seven in the final expansion, Retribution. The large armies and separate population caps were removed in favor of a simple 1-100 system shared across all units. In place of huge army and economy management, cover, positioning, firing arcs, and ability rotations were the game's core micro skill. Hero units were both expanded and restricted, with each player starting the game with a single hero unit that could be revived if killed and grew more powerful as the game progressed. These two games offered very different experiences, meaning that while there were many fans of both, most players had a distinct favorite.
  • Then came Dawn of War III. It tried to split the difference between I's huge armies and II's intimate micromanagement and made... something else. MOBA elements were worked into the multiplayer, with the single player being a single linear campaign shared by the game's three races (fewer than in any previous entry, and all whom had been present in the base games of I and II). Hero units became the primary micro skill, drawing criticism for the perceived MOBA influences. Vehicles became more like elite units, being less of a unit type to be countered and more of a Lightning Bruiser to be endured. The game has not fared well and has not seen post-release content in the vein of the expansions for the previous two games.
• Deadly Premonition 2: Another So Bad, It's Good art game that offers a deeper look into York and his charmingly quirky surrounding cast with some surprisingly emotional moments, or a frustrating, Flanderized mess of an attempt to capture lightning in a bottle twice whose myriad of technical issues were probably made to run badly on purpose.
• Dead or Alive:
  • Dead or Alive 4. Most competitive players hate the game and blame it for the stigma attached to competitive DOA, but the more casual fans love it due to its unique online mode and flashy aesthetics.
  • Dead or Alive 6, for being Tamer and Chaster and Bloodier and Gorier.
  • For the spin-off Xtreme series, Xtreme 2, which while offering more than just beach volleyball (jet skiing, butt bumping, flag races, water slides) was decried by some for retreading, technical problems in spite of superior hardware, and unrealistic Jiggle Physics. Xtreme 3 got praise for improving the graphical part, but still divided by removing plenty of features of the other two games along with fan favorite characters.
• Dead Space 3. People who like the game cite the weapon customization, the co-op mechanics, the side missions and new character Carver's story additions as positive aspects. Detracters criticize it for adding common Third-Person Shooter elements (taking cover, being able to kill previously-regenerating enemies with enough shots, fights with gun-toting humans, etc.) to a Survival Horror, mixing in microtransactions and including those very same co-op mechanics that further dilute the horror aspect.
• Deus Ex:
  • The original Deus Ex is often called "one of the greatest games of all time" so from the get-go its follow-up, Deus Ex: Invisible War, had a lot to live up to. Due to factors like the removal of the skill points system (meaning the only thing players can upgrade are their biomods), smaller levels as a result of also developing the game for console players, being an overall shorter game, and feeling like an Actionized Sequel, many are in agreement Invisible War ultimately did fail to live up to the standards set by the original. However, the "contested" part comes in when people try and discuss if Invisible War is still a good game in its own right if you forget for a moment what it's a sequel to, as some argue that if it is seen more as a sci-fi FPS from the era when games like Halo were hitting it big then Invisible War stands out as one of the more unique FPS titles of the era.
  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was yet another Contested Sequel. Coming off the well-received Deus Ex: Human Revolution, this game was praised for evolving the gameplay of the previous game and having a well-written story, while placing more emphasis on dialogue-based bosses and giving you a bunch of cool new experimental augmentations to play with. However, the major complaint about the game was the length, clocking in at about twenty hours (including heavy sidequesting), and the experimental Augs you get, you have to permanently disable other Augs or else you will be penalized for using them, and while a sidequest to obtain an item to fix this problem is introduced and can be completed fairly early in the game (after the first few story missions) the actual solution is not implemented until much later in the game. Combine that with an online multiplayer mode that absolutely no one asked for and microtransactions. Making this even worse were the reports that Square Enix was apparently developing a sequel to Mankind Divided since mid-2015. This report, when combined with the relatively short length and the fact that there was only a single hub area, left many people to speculate that Mankind Divided was just the first part of what was supposed to be a much larger game.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Devil May Cry 2 is either an awful sequel that should be buried and forgotten (a sentiment aided by the fact that the following installments barely acknowledge the game's events) or a merely mediocre game that, in spite of being buggy and at times dull, is at least playable and offers good concepts like making Trish playable (which influenced in her depiction in the fourth game's Special Edition) and the Bloody Palace, a feature that has appeared in every game since.
  • Devil May Cry 4 is either one of the best or one of the worst sequels. Detractors found Nero a Replacement Scrappy and hated the high amounts of Backtracking and Recurring Bosses, while fans, especially more advanced players, hold 4 in high regard thanks to the gameplay tech that's only found in this game due to the depth that mechanics such as Nero's Exceed and Dante's Style Switch and Weapon Swap provide.
  • DmC: Devil May Cry was a reboot hated by old fans for simplifying the gameplay while adding ham-fisted themes and making the characters unlikeable, but has fans that call it a fun, accessible title with great art direction, a protagonist that actually develops and grows rather than remaining static for most of the time, and a story that's more than a somewhat-confusing Excuse Plot — a common defense is that it might not work as a Devil May Cry game, but is a decent title in its own right.
• Dino Crisis 2 split the fanbase, with some praising the Actionized Sequel aspects while others criticized the lack of Survival Horror elements from the first game.
• By the same token as Dino Crisis, Disciples III features a significant departure from the previous two games in terms of graphics, storyline, battle mechanics (units can now move Heroes-style), changes in types of leaders, resource management, etc. Once again, the fan base is split.
• DonPachi:
  • Do Don Pachi Dai Fukkatsu, particularly version 1.5. The over-the-topness of the gameplay is either a fun diversion from past games' strictness, or a mockery of its own series.
  • DoDonPachi Saidaioujou. You either like it for going back to the series' roots after the bullet-cancelling craziness of DaiFukkatsu, or the Sequel Difficulty Spike is too off-putting for the game to be enjoyable.
• Doom:
  • Everyone agrees Doom II is still fun to play, but debates about the game's level design are quite common, with a significant amount of people considering the levels from Doom II way too gimmicky and inconsistent, as well as thinking that the maps are too plainly textured and just ugly, with an overuse of brown. Some people only take issue with Sandy Petersen's maps, which have an abstract feel to them and aren't necessarily up to par with the style or quality of the rest of the maps. There are even those who consider Final Doom to be a superior sequel, particularly the Plutonia Experiment half thanks to improvements like higher difficulty and more consistent level quality.
  • Doom³ was either interesting and refreshing for incorporating a survival horror-inspired take or inferior to its predecessors due to the lack of in-your-face fighting the previous installments were known. The shift of tone in BFG Edition may have fixed this by making it more action-orientated than the original.
  • Doom Eternal:
    • Even though the game is generally praised, there are people who are unhappy with the changes from Doom (2016). Doom Eternal tries to combat against the "use Super Shotgun and Gauss Cannon for everything" strategy by giving the combat a much harder emphasis on Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors and reducing the max ammo count significantly to encourage switching weapons more frequently. A consequence of these changes are that it breaks up the pace of combat by having you run away to look for a mook to chainsaw to refill your ammo because you can't fire the weapon you need to counter the biggest threat and Early Game Hell is in full effect due to how pitiful your max ammo count is at the start, and having gameplay revolve around hard counters means strategy against individual enemies just boils down to using the appropriate weapon against them and limits player agency.
    • The Ancient Gods DLC is a rare example of a Contested Expansion Pack, most of which can be blamed on bad balance. Part 1 is a significant difficulty spike from the base campaign, with some majorly dickish enemy placements and the addition of even worse Demonic Spiders that seem like they were added solely to force the players to use underpowered weapon mods more often. Part 2 weirdly goes in the opposite direction because of the addition of a Game-Breaker of a weapon in the form of the Sentinel Hammer to combat said Demonic Spiders and makes balance even more confusing and the game ends on a Goddamned Boss that fights like a super beefy Marauder.
• Donkey Kong:
  • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! gets a lot of flak for its more subdued soundtrack, which wasn't produced by series veteran composer David Wise, Kiddy Kong being an uninteresting replacement for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, the weak ending, and its greater emphasis on exploration and item collecting. It's generally seen as the weakest game of the 2D "Country" series no matter who you ask, but whether said fan will follow that up by saying it is still a perfectly fine game in its own right or decry it as being truly awful varies.
  • Donkey Kong 64 is considered by some to be the best Donkey Kong game due to its huge levels, emphasis on exploration, and the ability to play as many different members of the Kong family. But at the same time, it's considered by some to be the one of worst Donkey Kong games due to its high emphasis on item collecting in order to get the true ending.
• Dragon Age II:
  • Take away the tactical elements that made Dragon Age: Origins a call-back to the oldies like Baldur's Gate and replace them with an emphasis on interactive combat. Take away the epic storyline of saving the world and replace it with a more in-depth and character-driven storyline with more personal stakes. Add a simplified item crafting system, a Suddenly Voiced main character, and choices that have actual meaning to the protagonist, and you've got all you need for a nice, long discussion about its merits as a game on its own and as a sequel. However, many fans praise the more in-depth writing and the unusual storyline (which starts as a struggle for survival and develops into a clash between Well-Intentioned Extremist factions) as a refreshing departure from the usual CRPG "save the world" type of plot.
  • Origins actually got some flack as a Contested Creator-Driven Successor to Baldur's Gate, initially criticized for being a poor tactical RPG due to class imbalances.
• Drakengard 2 wasn't directed by Yoko Taro, and it shows, such as with the replacement of Caim with the much more generic Nowe and a lighter atmosphere overall. The gameplay is significantly improved, though, and those who found the first game was too dark might prefer a less gloomy game.
• Dynasty Warriors 6. While most fans will say it sucks, there are a significant number who actually enjoyed the game. Almost everyone agrees that the others are better, though.
• Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, mainly due to completely abandoning the older games' storyline for a story written by someone who'd never played them.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Oblivion. Though critically acclaimed and a financial success, it is a contested sequel for fans of Morrowind. Many dislike the Level Scaling and claim that it was dumbed down for console users and casual players. In this vein, a lot of old-school Elder Scrolls fans have complained about one or the other facet of Oblivion's gameplay. Oblivion did shake things up. The Shivering Isles expansion, however, is generally well received by both sides.
  • Morrowind was contested among Daggerfall fans at release, but it's died down a little since Morrowind's release, and it has become something of a Sacred Cow to some.
  • Eventually, things settled between Morrowind and Oblivion fans. Then Skyrim came around, and shook up the fandom once again. Though often praised for its enormous world and content, beautiful environments and more dynamic design, while also frequently being accused of butchering the "true" RPG elements the series held so far and seemingly not having learned anything from previous games as far as writing quality, locational variety/depth and especially pacing goes.
• Etrian Odyssey:
  • Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard: Both versions of the game fall into this:
    • Time hasn't been especially kind to the original version, being stuck between the well-known first game and the series-refining third game. By comparison, Heroes of Lagaard can come across like a Mission-Pack Sequel due to reusing the first game's classes and its plotline hitting many of the same beats, and it has plenty of its own issues such as odd experimental mechanics, very lopsided class balance (with top-tiers from Etrian Odyssey being nerfed into uselessness while low-tiers became overpowered), and being very buggy. Still, it has its fans for improving on aspects of the first game (mainly by refining mapping and removing level correction) as well as its faster pace, beautiful strata environments, and more interesting town dialogue, and ultimately most still find it a decent game in its own right.
    • The Fafnir Knight is potentially the most divisive game in the series. Its fans love it for the at-the-time largest class roster, the customization offered by the improved Grimoire Stone system, numerous quality-of-life changes kept for the rest of the series, and a more interesting Story Mode with better character writing. Non-fans dislike the aspects of the first Untold that were retained, the questionable balance (if not as much as the original game), the overly complex FOE and boss puzzles, and the high amount of paid DLC. The vastly different boss encounter design from every other game in the series (featuring fights with very high health, strict but dangerous patterns, and frequent summoned minions) tends to be the deciding love-it-or-hate-it factor.
  • Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth: There are fans who appreciate the game for refining the tried-and-true "create your own guild and explore a 30-floor dungeon" formula, especially the four-race system, expanded cosmetic customization options (such as RGB sliders for hair and eye colors and choosing voices for characters), and some of the more unique selections of new classes (the Harbinger/Reaper and Necromancer in particular stand out). Others don't like that the game did away with the Story Mode of the Untold games and the world maps of the past two non-Untold games, resulting in what feels like a bare-bones product.
• Fallout:
  • Fallout 3: Due to being a very different type of game than Fallout and 2, it is either game of the year by a mile or a lazy rehash of Oblivion with guns, depending on whom you ask.
  • Fallout: New Vegas. While closer to the original games in atmosphere and story, some fans who preferred the atmosphere and style of Fallout 3 found New Vegas to be lacking. Among the fans of the original games, reception was more positive.
  • While many regard Fallout 4 as an improvement over Fallout 3, how it compares to New Vegas is a major source of contention among fans. Much of this is due to Bethesda toning down the RPG elements that Obsidian brought back in New Vegas in favor of placing more emphasis on combat and exploration.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The entire Final Fantasy series. Some entries, like Final Fantasy VII (and, more recently, Final Fantasy VII Remake), Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XIII, get more hate than others, and as the years have worn on, the vitriol has gotten a lot worse. But these games also have large fanbases who will defend them to the death. In truth, all the games get argued over to death. You'd think a series where the sequels are deliberately out of continuity would not have this problem, but it had it even before Square started making direct sequels.
  • Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV are both MMORPGs that have fans debating over which one is better than the other. People who grew up on XI feel that XIV is too easy and dumbed down while XIV fans feel XI is too difficult and has outdated game design that simply doesn't fit in the modern trends of MMORPGs. There also fans who like both games and acknowledge the flaws both games can present.
• Fire Emblem:
  • The Elibe games are incredibly divisive when compared to past games, but they both have their own reasons:
    • The Binding Blade is a rather divisive title, particularly outside of Japan. Being the follow-up to the very creative Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776, The Binding Blade let go of many of their revolutionary additions, preferring a back-to-basics approach reminiscent of Mystery of the Emblem. As such, there are fans who consider it to be not worth their time in light of its predecessors and its prequel, while other fans enjoy it for what it is in spite of this and may actually enjoy some of the simplification considering some of the more glaring mechanics of the Jugdral duology. Some fans, both those who like and dislike the game, are eager to see a remake (possibly acting as a second generation for The Blazing Blade) that fixes its issues.
    • This reaction towards The Blazing Blade was the result of Fandom Rivalry with the previous game. Most fans consider it a huge improvement from The Binding Blade by fixing a number of gameplay issues it had (i.e. unfair throne bonuses, poor hit rates), having a more likeable cast, and have a more unique and interesting story that made it a good introduction to the franchise. However, others criticized the game for its inconsistent continuity between the titles, the questionable additions made to the game such as the Weather mechanic and more gimmicky Gaiden Chapter requirements, numerous plot holes that plagued the story, and, most of all, insist that the title just gets a free pass for being the first Fire Emblem game officially released in English, and benefits from a Nostalgia Filter from people who have only played during their youth.
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was the most divisive game in the series before the 3DS titles.
    • Narratively, its fans like the moral complexity, and argue that its storytelling cliches are at least different cliches from the rest of the series. Its detractors loathe that its story made plentiful haphazard changes of the mythology of The 'Verse to do it, and are especially critical of the cut-down Support conversations and rampant Ship Sinking (rumor has it, in an attempt to pander to the Yaoi Fangirl crowd).
    • Mechanically, its fans like the uncompromising challenge of the gameplay and shake-ups to the series formula at work. Its critics consider it to be overloaded with Fake Difficulty, opaque or badly designed mechanics, and uselessly weak characters.
  • Both of the Jugdral titles also attract this kind of reaction.
    • Genealogy of the Holy War attracts a lot of praise for its interesting and complex plot, willingness to move on from the Archanea universe, and many interesting and experimental gameplay choices, particularly the Love and War system plus the resulting "Second Generation". Yet, at the same time, the huge levels make avoiding the series' trademark Permadeath really hard (with the Love and War system adding further consequences to losing someone), many of the mechanics are either opaque or artificially complex, particularly the item management system, and there are lots of "newb traps" that can only really be discovered via Trial-and-Error Gameplay.
    • Thracia 776, in turn, has fans who call it a deep, uncompromising, well-designed game with many experimental features of its own, and critics who describe it as unfair, almost-fatally complex, and thoroughly unfun, with the "experimental" features being either hated whenever they come up in later titles (Fog of War is the most obvious culprit), terribly implemented (Escape chapters where Leif has to wait until everyone else has escaped before escaping himself or lose them forever, the Rescue ability) or just plain bad ideas that add little, detract from the experience, and have never returned (Fatigue, Dismount).
  • The 3DS titles caused a major Newbie Boom. Awakening saved the series after Nintendo was seriously considering shelving it, and the strong sales of Fire Emblem Fates saw the company acknowledge the series as a major IP in the U.S. — a big deal, given that it was strictly Japan-exclusive for a long time, and the studio had frequently been skeptical of its ability to succeed outside its native country. However, in making the series more accessible, they attracted criticism from many series fans, who dislike that lighter difficulties and "unskilled newbs" will be heavily influencing its direction for the foreseeable future.
    • The fans that love Awakening enjoy the high-headroom reclassing system and Pair-Up mechanic, the shipping-friendly Support system and the way it interacts with the Time Travel plot, and the player-built protagonist. Its critics despise it for many of the same reasons.
    • Fire Emblem Fates is largely held as improving on Awakening in terms of gameplay, but a step back in terms of storytelling. While the reworked Pair-Up, reclassing, and weapon mechanics are seen as well-made, and while it features some of the best, most-nuanced map designs in the series, the story is seen as poorly written, and not well served by the business model that undergirds it. As a result, its overall quality compared to Awakening is difficult to determine, and often relies on what the individual subjectively values more.
  • The reception to Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, though generally positive, can be at least partially chalked up to a combination of Old Guard Versus New Blood and the Casual-Competitive Conflict. Not only was it coming off the heels of Awakening and Fates' commercial and critical success, Shadows of Valentia was also a Video Game Remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, widely considered to be the Oddball in the Series. To say that Intelligent Systems had their work cut out for them modernizing Gaiden over two decades later would be an understatement. On one hand, the writing is generally considered to be a marked improvement over Awakening and Fates, expanding upon the original story while making Gaiden's somewhat nebulous ties to its connected installments much stronger and cohesive as well as taking a far better crack at Grey-and-Gray Morality than Fates did, though the largely minimalistic implementation of Supports was bemoaned (for both gameplay and characterization purposes). And while some of Gaiden's strange quirks found their way into later games (such as Unbreakable Weapons in Fates), SoV retained enough of them to make new and longtime players alike scratch their heads ("No Weapon Triangle?" "Magic is Cast from Hit Points?" "Mercenaries promote to Myrmidons?" etc.), to say nothing of the poor growth rates and the Fake Difficulty it can cause in the second half of the game. Those who were used to the idea of a customizable Player Character, marrying off their units, and getting to use said couples' kids in battle also found the omission of these features to be a strike against, even if there was no narrative or gameplay purpose to their existence this time around. (To wit, New Mystery garnered criticism for inserting a spotlight-stealer into the original story, whereas Fates' narrative justifications for including second generation units were seen as flimsy compared to Genealogy and Awakening, amounting to little more than simply being there because it was a popular aspect of the previous game.)
  • Fire Emblem Engage is the second lowest-reviewed mainline Fire Emblem game on Metacritic in terms of critical scores, after the similarly controversial Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and the lowest-rated mainline mainline Fire Emblem game overall in terms of user reviews (even lower than the DS remake of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and the Revelation route of Fire Emblem Fates) due to a divide between high and low ratings. The reason for this divide is in large part how the game compares to Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as it features more challenging and traditional gameplay that appeals to long-time fans, while lacking much of what newcomers liked in Three Houses, such as the story and characters.
• Fire Shark, the sequel to Sky Shark. On one hand, you have players who love this game because of the iconic flamethrower weapon and the absoultely fantastic synthesized metal soundtrack, considering it to be a vast improvement upon Sky Shark. On the other hand, there are people, even fans of Toaplan's other games, who dislike this game because of its sadistic difficulty even by arcade game standards, not helped by the game's intentionally-unhelpful powerup system that can force the narrow-range green beam onto the player, and prefer Sky Shark for being simpler yet much more fair and refined.
• Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich split the fanbase. The additional powers were nice. The new characters were well developed. The plotline was good (although the disappearing teammates angered people who liked those character and/or had invested a lot of experience in them). But they dumbed down the power consumption mechanic from a wide spectrum to three possible values of one-third, two-thirds, or all of your power bar, which nerfed many of the concepts, and minor changes in the engine meant most of the third-party models no longer worked in-game.
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 is viewed as this compared to the original Fuga: Melodies of Steel. On one hand, its gameplay is viewed as a natural evolution of that of the first Fuga — characters have more varied skillsets in battle (though less skills overall), there are greater varieties of enemies to fight, the first game's bartering system has been replaced with in-game currency which can also be used to alter progression, and the addition of the Managarm (as a "diet Soul Cannon" that incapacitates one of the children rather than killing them) allows for a wider range of strategies. The major point of contention is the story itself — following the mixed view on how the first game's plot was presented, the sequel aims for a more fantastic Shonen-esque style of writing and humor akin to Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, and while some players find it to have more personality and feel it fleshes out its characters better (the portrayals of Malt and Jihl tend to be among the more well-received), others feel it clashes too much with the more grounded War Is Hell theming that Fuga is meant to be based around. Likewise, quite a few take issue with plot decisions such as two particular Ass Pull cases regarding the characters of Flam Kish and Cayenne, along with the blatantly Nazi-esque surviving antagonists of the first game being too Easily Forgiven. The general consensus from critics is that while the gameplay has improved, the writing isn't anything to write home about, and those who didn't already like the first game likely won't be swayed by this one.
• The existence of F-Zero 99 was polarizing from the get-go, thanks to a longstanding collective desire for a new F-Zero game and the expectations that stemmed from it. On one hand, there were players upset that they waited nearly 20 years for a new F-Zero game only to be met with a multiplayer remake of the original that didn't incorporate any of the lore or other content from later games (or even the content from the two BS F-Zero Grand Prix titles for the Satellaview), and wanted something similar to or even topping the critically acclaimed F-Zero GX — or at least something that could salvage the series' reputation after F-Zero: GP Legend and F-Zero Climax were met with series-stopping disappointment. Others were just glad that a new F-Zero title existed in the first place and consider it one of the best fits for the Battle Royale Game format, upgrading the game for modern times while keeping true to the look and feel of the original and being an addictive, fun game in its own right and not just nostalgia-pandering.
• Grand Theft Auto IV. Some love it for its realism, rich characters, production values and gritty nature, while others chastize it for those very things, preferring the zany, cartoony, over the top style of Vice City and San Andreas. Notably, the developers put considerable effort into building a digital recreation of New York City with appropriate levels of detail, but they took away many popular gameplay features from previous games, like military vehicles, character customization options, non-urban environments, and every aircraft model except helicopters; some fans consider this an appropriate trade-off, while others disagree.
• Guild Wars 2 has very little to do with the original Guild Wars gameplay-wise, making any comparison between the two challenging.
• Halo has a few complicated cases. Everyone agrees Halo 2 and Halo 3 are Even Better Sequels with beloved additions such as online play. But each game also has its share of detractors for things such as the weapon sandbox and how 2 ends the single player abruptly. Halo 4 had people decrying how it incorporated aspects from other shooters and lacked the polish of what Bungie had done, along with those that liked that the core gameplay and elements were intact and there was also a more emotional story in the campaign. And then came Halo 5: Guardians, that while the fans accepted well the gameplay changes on the multiplayer, what was done in the campaign was very divisive, as the four player co-op stunted the One-Man Army feel and gave numerous characters that didn't contribute much to the story, to say nothing of Cortana becoming the Big Bad of the franchise.
• Harvest Moon:
  • While Back to Nature is a popular game within the series, being the source of the series most popular titles, it is the Mission-Pack Sequel to the game often considered the best in the series.
  • Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade. The latter gets major flak due to the slower pacing, less interesting characters, near-identical storyline, boring festivals, etc.
  • DS has its fans but is also a source of scorn for many older fans, considering it's technically a combo of A Wonderful Life and Friends of Mineral Town which are the most popular titles. The main issue is the Excuse Plot and how everyone was extraordinarily flanderized.
• While many fans of the Heroes of Might and Magic series despise the fourth installment due to turning the heroes into regular units (and allowing you to have your entire army composed of 7 uber-powerful heroes) and other gameplay changes, as well as destroying the old world developed in the first three games as well as Heroes Chronicles. Others actually enjoy finally taking their heroes into the thick of battle and like exploring the new world. Then comes the fifth game, developed by a completely different company (in Russia), creates yet another world, this time completely unrelated to the rest of the franchise, changes the game mechanics (the heroes are once again merely generals, but still get their turn, during which they can attack or cast), and adds 3D graphics. But wait, there's more. The sixth game is made by a third developer. The fans are probably confused by this point.
• Imperium Galactica II upgrades the series to 3D graphics. However, battle mechanics have changed as well and, in most fans' opinion, were dumbed down. Space Fighters can no longer be directly controlled. Instead, the player can adjust the Attack-Defend behavior scale. However, fighters are also almost useless in this installment. The first game focused the fleet on the flagships, a special class of powerful ships that were the only ones who could carry invasion forces. The sequel removes the flagships and instead allows each capital ship to carry a certain number of tanks.
• After the original Inazuma Eleven ended, its sequel Inazuma Eleven GO got mixed reactions from the fanbase. Some people thought that it was much better than the original while other thought it was a step backwards.
• Initial D Zero departs from a lot of the traditions set by the first Initial D Arcade Stage that lasted until Initial D Arcade Stage 8 Infinity, and it has proven to be divisive:
  • Was the move from an up/down shifter to a 6-gear H-shifter necessary?
  • Is the new J-rock soundtrack a refreshing change of pace, or They Changed It, Now It Sucks!?
  • Was moving from data cards to the online-requiring Sega Aime infrastructure a wise move? While it does mean that the player doesn't have to worry about outright losing their data — since the data is stored server-side, card corruption ceases to be a concern and a registered Aime user who loses or otherwise is unable to use their card anymore can simply buy another card and tie it to their account — it also means that the game, which is Japan-only, cannot be played outside of Japan; even if one were to import a cabinet and somehow able to get it running, they would not be able to save their data.
• Jak II: Renegade is one due to how much of a departure it is from the first game. Some prefer the more traditional Collect-a-Thon Platformer gameplay of the first game, dislike the increased difficulty of the sequel and think the Darker and Edgier setting and tone were a dumb attempt to make the game more "mature" and combined with the genre shift resulted in the series suffering an identity crisis, while others like the new gameplay additions and enjoy the more complex story and fleshed out characterization compared to the first game.
• jubeat saucer. Fans like it because it is always being updated with new songs to play, but detractors are turned off by the monthly deletion of songs; not only were non-Konami originals not removed until saucer, but this is the first BEMANI game to delete songs through udpates.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • The biggest Contested Sequel in the franchise, at least until 2012, was undoubtedly Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Some say the story was refreshing because it lacked the complicated narrative beats of Chain of Memories and II, returning to a simpler Star Wars-esque story, while others say this is when the story started going off of the deep end, with the formal introduction of Master Xehanort and Vanitas complicating the plot of the numbered games. Some say that the action finally had more variety and that there was great exploration. Others feel that in terms of action, it was terrible all-around because of the lack of combos, non-staggering enemies including bosses, lack of a magic bar/summons/multiple shortcuts, lesser mobility, etc.
  • Chain of Memories gets this for its card-based battle system, Coded for its perceived contrived and Filler-esque story, and 358/2 Days for the character portrayal of several fan favorites, a Parody Sue that some say Crosses the Line Twice, and the new ability system. And then there's Dream Drop Distance, contested for the Virtual Pet mechanics, its EPIC Mind Screw nature and a surprise or two.
  • Kingdom Hearts III is one compared to Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. It's generally agreed that the scope, level design, combat, action scenes and emotional stakes are the best the series has ever had, but many fans still don't consider the game to be an Even Better Sequel the same way they felt II (particularly its Final Mix edition) was to I, primarily due to the easier difficulty with no Critical Mode at launch; no Final Fantasy characters until the DLC (even then, they only show up for two scenes while Cloud and Sephiroth are still missing); the lack of battles against Disney Villains (with most of the bosses of the worlds being giant Heartless); most of the plot being Filler until after all the Disney worlds are complete (with half of the Disney worlds not only following the plot of the movies to the letter but also having the tendency to relegate Sora and co. out of the plot); the lack of post-game content; the lack of a big midway event (like the second visits to Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion) which makes the game feel less evenly paced; and the quality of the writing of the game. Some people were also not too keen with the implementation of Kingdom Hearts χ content in III due to the relative obscurity of the mobile game and its microtransaction-heavy nature, and also felt like this meant the game spent too much time promoting the next big saga of the series instead of bringing a satisfying close to the saga at hand.
• Go to a Sierra fan board and ask if King's Quest: Mask of Eternity is a King's Quest game. Then ask them if it's a good game. Make sure to bring chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers for the inevitable cookout. Quest for Glory V gets this to a lesser extent. Most fans will still say it still feels like a proper QFG game in terms of story and humor, and appreciate the return of beloved characters for the final installment; the main points of contention are how poorly executed the Video Game 3D Leap is and the change in focus from puzzle-solving to combat.
• Kirby:
  • Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, due to the Metroidvania aspect of the game. While plenty of fans enjoy this take on a Kirby game, other fans have criticized it for being overblown, confusing, poorly designed and not meshing well the Kirby formula.
  • It is often debated whether or not Kirby Star Allies holds up to the previous three games. Defenders of the game enjoy the return of the helper system from Kirby Super Star, the HD graphics, many fan-favourite characters becoming playable and the new lore (particularly with the final boss), while the most common criticisms are the more streamlined level designs due to the greater multiplayer focus, the helpers making boss fights and puzzles trivial and the game too easy, the short length of the game^note the game has 40 levels, around the same as several previous Kirby games, but only four worlds with around half the levels being thrown into the last world, the levels are simpler and a large chunk of the levels are boss levels with only two or three rooms before the boss, and the game feeling rushed, especially around the ending, as well as the Return to Dream Land formula, itself being a revised Super Star formula, becoming stale after its fourth consecutive use in a mainline game.
• Regarding Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, most fans agree that the lack of an ending (due to LucasArts wanting the game out for Christmas) sucks. Other than that, they're largely divided over whether the story provides a much-needed Deconstruction to the Star Wars universe, or comes off as mean-spirited fan fiction written by someone who hates Star Wars. Then there's the sequel, Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO, with all the usual polarizing aspects about PvP, PvE, "pay to win" with the Cartel market, which class is best, a large portion of the fanbase Rooting for the Empire, and at least a dozen controversial decisions about the handling of Revan, Exile, and the legacy of their companions.
• The Last of Us Part II has many fans, but the many who don't like it argue that the game isn't a huge improvement on the original in terms of gameplay. The plot, on the other hand, is extremely controversial and opinions vary wildly from "masterpiece of the medium" to "unnecessary and incoherent disaster." Thankfully, the major consensus seems to be leaning on "average."
• Left 4 Dead 2 is hotly debated over whether or not it's an improvement over the first game. Fans who like the sequel love the varied environments and having levels take place during the daytime instead of always being at night while others feel that the horror of fighting zombie hordes goes out the window when the sun is introduced. Melee weapons, a new mechanic that was not present in the first game, are either liked for giving players more means of self-defense or are hated for being "silly" (i.e. attacking zombies with a guitar or frying pan).
• Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy is a somewhat divisive follow-up to the original and prequel trilogies, partly because it has a looser and more episodic plot, fewer ties to past games, and more "trick question" puzzles compared to previous games.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Any Zelda sequel, going at least as far back as Ocarina of Time, has been immediately divisive among fans and gamers. Majora's Mask, for example, was not widely liked at the time of its release for being too different from Ocarina of Time (and darker) but some fans consider it the best game in the series. The subsequent games, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, went as far as causing a Broken Base, as the former departed from the overworld mechanics and changed the visuals to cel-shading, while the latter followed the more traditional conventions, both to praise and criticism.
  • Skyward Sword. Defenders argue that the game fixes the problems Twilight Princess had with items that were useless after their intro dungeon, pushes Wii Motion Plus to its limits with an amazing control scheme, gives Link a personality unseen since The Wind Waker, has a stronger, more cinematic plot behind it than most of the past games, and some of its dungeons (Ancient Cistern, Sandship, Sky Keep), bosses (Koloktos, Ghirahim) and in-game mechanics (Timeshift Stones, RPG Elements) are ranked by longtime fans among the finest in the franchise. Detractors find the story cliché ^note particularly the childhood friend relationship with Zelda being similar to the childhood friendship with Ilia from Twilight Princess, Fi has been called the most annoying guide character in the series due to her constant interruptions and stating the obvious on where to go next^note which stood out even more since Midna in Twilight Princess was widely praised as the best guide character in the franchise, feel the motion control is gimmicky, and there are criticisms of the game's linear progression, constant tutorials, and hand-holding.
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was a contested sequel long before the post-Ocarina trend. There are fans who welcome the RPG and platformer elements of the game, while others prefered the traditional format instead. Whether its extreme difficulty is a strength or a flaw is also a point of debate. So far, it's the only game of its type in the main series — its 2D platformer style was copied for the CD-i games, which are pretty self-explanatory.
  • The Wind Waker itself has spawned contested sequels as well, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. The games took advantage of the DS' touchscreen, and as a result are almost completely button-free, both to the rejoice of those looking forward to a more unique gameplay style, and the dismay of those preferring button controls.
  • Even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while widely popular, has been controversial for making some of the most massive changes to the formula since the NES era. Some fans consider it a much needed reimagining of a series that was going stale, and a return to the roots of the first game. Others think that while it's overall a good direction for the series, too many staple elements of the series like dungeons and item collection were removed in favor of extreme open-endedness and non-linearity. And some fans of the previous games feel it's so different that, regardless of whether it's a good game in itself, it isn't what they want in a Zelda game. These fans are concerned that with the massive critical and commercial success of Breath of the Wild, Nintendo will see no reason to make any more games in the classic style established by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (not helped at all by the poor fan reception of games with that traditional template like The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, despite the latter addressing many of its flaws in the Switch version and being Vindicated by History to an extent).
• LEGO:
  • Island Xtreme Stunts, compared to the first LEGO Island (it's considered a Surprisingly Improved Sequel compared to LEGO Island 2). On one hand, it is a welcome return to the free-roaming sandbox approach of the first game, now combined with the increased freedom in movement introduced in the second game, and gives us a much larger island to explore, plus a hefty dose of Awesome Music provided by L.E.G.O. Radio. On the other hand, it has unprofessional voice acting, carries over its predecessor's poor platforming (which becomes apparent, once again, when you must ascend the Brickster's tower), and has numerous Game-Breaking Bugs including one particularly infamous one which corrupts your save file. Some fans of the series also feel that the Extreme Sports Plot felt out-of-place in the LEGO Island setting, while others don't mind it at all.
  • Lego Racers 2. It tried to be anything except a sequel to the original. If anything, it tried to be the polar opposite. The game was a lot more open than the original (It had a Diddy Kong Racing-esque Adventure Mode), the power-up system was changed to randomization (in the original, you had four colors for different types and could add three additional levels of power to it), the controls were changed to be more realistic, there was a new car damage system, and every world now has five courses taking a different route through the world. These changes led to a wide variety of opinions.
  • On the Traveler's Tales side, there's LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. Some like it and consider it one of the best in the series, citing the attention to detail in Chronopolis, the story, several improved mechanics, and the large roster that includes many an Unexpected Character. Others dislike it for lacking Expected Characters from X-Men and Fantastic Four due to Marvel's Fox Embargo, as well as a copious amount of bugs — and not of the good bad variety.
• Like a Dragon / Yakuza:
  • While Yakuza 3 received good to average reviews, it was widely deemed inferior to its predecessor Yakuza 2. Many fans who had played the previous two games weren't fond of the game's sudden emphasis on the new direction focusing on the orphanage or the children, felt the plot wasn't on par with the previous games^note It was also the first game in the main series without the involvement of crime novelist Hase Seishū, and found the Final Boss of this game wasn't nearly as memorable as Ryuji Goda, but there's a good portion of fans who consider it one of the better games of the series due to its sole emphasis on Kazuma Kiryu (which would be lost in the next three mainline games), loved the Slice of Life moments involving the orphanage, felt the game had its own memorable characters and story, and found the game's Final Boss not only to be a memorable and complex villain in his own right, but found the fight against him to be one of the best in the series.
  • Yakuza 4 is either seen as an improvement to its predecessor or inferior to it. Some fans believed the series would begin to go stale if the series continued to focus solely on Kiryu, and found that introducing more protagonists was a needed breath of fresh air, and enjoyed what they had to offer to the story. The game's plot, however, was seen by many as a convoluted mess filled with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and twists galore, and were torn on how the game's story played out between the four characters, who each have their fans and detractors.
  • Yakuza 5 is seen by fans as either one of the best entries in the series or inferior to its predecessors by trying to be too grand for its own good while suffering from the same gameplay and story problems as 4. Many fans enjoyed every aspect of the game from beginning to end with the game's new engine, improved combat, Anti-Frustration Features and variety of gameplay, while others were torn on the characters' unique side story quests, Saejima's chapter, Haruka's gameplay, Shinada's combat and his story, and some features, moves and mini-games from the previous games not returning. Many agree that from a gameplay perspective it's the best in the series, but reactions to the story itself are all over the place, although some of those who claim the story is the worst in the series maintain that it's only the weakest in a lineup of strong stories, and is still leagues above those offered by its triple-A competitors.
  • Yakuza 6 was the first game released on the Dragon Engine, meaning that while it was the most immersive and impressive looking entry in the Yakuza series yet, and finally leapfrogged the visual quality of the games to contemporary levels, it was offset by a host of technical issues, a feeling of unrefinement, as well as a far lower amount of content relative to previous games, though some appreciated its more focused nature with 5 being as large as it is. Most of these issues would have been a lot more forgivable for a spinoff game, but the fact that it's meant to be the Grand Finale for the Kiryu saga means it was held to higher standards. Points of contention are the fact that Kiryu is the only playable protagonist once more, the characters intoduced in the entry, how a certain romantic relationship (Haruka and Yuta) was handled, the way the game treated long-time recurring characters, the Final Boss in terms of both story and gameplay, and finally, Kiryu and Haruka not receiving a happy ending after everything they've been through, with the former faking his death so the latter is no longer marked as a target due to her ties with a legendary ex-yakuza. In spite of that, the game did receive a lot of positive reception for its Slice of Life aspects and its themes of family and humanity.
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon, almost solely due to its Genre Shift from a real-time Beat 'em Up to a turn-based JRPG after 14 years.
• LittleBigPlanet 3 had a load of Game-Breaking Bugs at launch, and the community members were divided between going to the third game, with its new characters, 16-layer gameplay, and loads of new possibilities for creating, but having to contend with the bugs that plagued the game, or sticking back with LittleBigPlanet 2, which had fewer choices for creating, but wasn't completely broken.
• Mafia III is easily the most controversial game in the Mafia franchise. Fans of the game believe the game is good in terms of storyline, cutscenes, soundtrack, and cinematics. Detractors of the game often feel that the storyline (the mafia is actually Lincoln Clay's enemy) does not fit the series, criticize the shift from a linear mission path to an open sandbox game, the fact that some of the more realistic features from Mafia II (such as dressing in different outfits and repairing, refueling, or modifying cars) were cut, and claim Lincoln is nowhere near as strong of a character as Tommy or Vito were.
• maimai Deluxe, the first hardware upgrade to the then-7-years-old maimai series, was met with mixed reception from fans. Fans enjoyed the improved hardware (especially for slide note detection; the original hardware is known for having a relatively primitive touchscreen) and new note types. Others disliked the idea of arcades having to chuck out all their existing maimai cabs, the larger cabinet dimensions, how out-of-place the new note types are, and the phone holder replacing the camera, i.e. "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the sequel to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. While both Mario + Rabbids games were well-received, some fans argue that the first game is superior for its X-COM-style strategic gameplay and having a greater amount of Mario series elements involved in the narrative (namely in the form of Yoshi as a playable character in the main game and Donkey Kong getting his own DLC campaign), whereas others prefer the second game for the integration of Real-Time Strategy elements into the combat, much deeper plot, and having Rayman as a DLC character with his own story campaign.
• Mario Kart Wii had this reputation since it came out, due to lacking both the two-driver system from Double Dash!!, the Mission Mode from DS (although it has an equivalent to it in its competitions), or the extra Battle Modes from Double Dash!! with this game's iteration of the mode often seen as lackluster (and it being restricted to teams-only making it more divisive), but it has intensified thanks to the divisive nature of its sequels and the creation of the "Custom Track Grand Prix" mod, which adds 216 more tracks and several quality of life features to the game. The game is praised for its "loose", sportlike gameplay, which can be accredited to the introduction of bikes, the unique stats of each character in its large and varied roster, and enhancements/mechanics such as the half pipe ramp (which did not return in the series until Tour), 12-player races, and tricks. The creation of the aformentioned mod is also cited as proof of the game's staying power and vibrant community, which fans of the other entries have attempted to mimic but cannot fully attest to. Its detractors, on the other hand, criticize it for many of the same reasons, particularly with the fact that each character and kart having unique stats allows only a handful of combinations to be viable, and the significant advantages bikes have over karts that, against its name, Mario Kart Wii ends up being more "Mario Bike Wii". They also claim CTGP has distorted perceptions with how the mod masks issues with the original, such as a lame Battle Mode and various gameplay issues it has (particularly with "Ultra Shortcuts", which result in a glitchfest second only to Mario Kart 64). Needless to say, especially for a game that's thrived on its community alone, there's not a lot of middle ground.
• Max Payne 3. A long development cycle and a change in developers led to it being very different stylistically than the previous games, both in gameplay and in general aesthetics. Those who favor it praise the detailed graphics and environments, the scale of the gunfights and feel the changes don't detract from the story. Those who don't like it feel the gameplay isn't as polished and loses some of the series' appeal, that the long and unskippable cutscenes are a poor replacement for the graphic novel segments, the noir aspects aren't as well done and that the story is too dark for its own good. There are those who would even say that it's a good game, just not necessarily a good Max Payne game.
• Mega Man:
  • The franchise has entire series that are contested in this manner, particularly Mega Man Battle Network and its follow-up Mega Man Star Force. RPGs and platformers being such different genres, this is probably to be expected.
  • In the Classic series, there's Mega Man 3. The general consensus is that it's still a great game, but the debate is whether it lives up to the Tough Act to Follow that was Mega Man 2. Those that find it as good or better than its predecessor point to the more colorful and imaginative stages, new mechanics such as the slide, the excellent soundtrack, the length of the game (18 stages as opposed to 14, counting revisits), and the introduction of the popular new characters Proto Man and Rush. Those who find it worse bring up that it was rushed to market and has several flaws as a result, namely occasionally sloppy and unpolished level design, a lack of context for anything that happens in-game, various glitches and slowdown issues, a rather weak selection of Robot Master weapons (including the infamous Top Spin), and a general lack of difficulty, particularly in the Wily stages.
  • Among the Mega Man X series, there have been feuds between the games after Mega Man X4 (which is generally seen as the only game on par with the first) and which one either stands as one of the better games in the series or the worst. This typically rounds to out to Mega Man X5 being deemed a worthy title on the merit of its narrative but not necessarily its gameplay, Mega Man X6 and Mega Man X7 duking it out to determine which entry is the lowest point of the series, and Mega Man X8 serving as a Surprisingly Improved Sequel (and solid entry in its own right) that had the misfortune of coming after the widely panned X7.
• Metal Gear:
  • Depending on whom you ask, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is either a crowning achievement in gaming and video game narrative or an unspeakable abomination. There is no in-between on this.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is either a masterpiece of storytelling and a fitting conclusion to a great series or the worst game in the entire series that ruined everything with its anticlimactic "nanomachine" garbage and took away all ambiguity and weirdness that defined the series.
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is either the pinnacle of the franchise and the entire video game stealth genre in its gameplay and attention to detail and a fitting send-off of the series under Kojima's hands... or an absolute disgrace and horrible way to end the original run of the series due to an absolutely clumsy and horrendous narrative that soiled the series even harder than the previous main titles.
  • Most Metal Gear games get this to some extent. The two PSP titles (especially Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops) are sometimes ignored, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has its detractors, for mixing up the gameplay and introducing features such as the camo index and maintaining your stamina.
• Metal Slug:
  • Metal Slug 3. A major point of contention is its length; some welcome the epic length of the game compared to other titles, but others feel that it succumbs to Ending Fatigue and as a result is very brutal in difficulty compared to other games. The more supernatural elements are also a point of controversy: While the non-human enemies are beautifully animated and give the game an unmatched visual flare, most of them are bullet sponges who can be a slog to fight.
  • Metal Slug 5 made some considerable changes to the formula, introducing a new set of enemies, a rock/metal soundtrack, a more serious tone, and various gameplay changes like a Mega Man-style slide move. Fans say that these changes make the game a much-needed breath of fresh air and hold it up as one of the best in the series. Detractors argue that these changes were unnecessary and detract from the game, and regard it as one of the worst in the series. Some in the middle believe that while it had some good ideas, the execution wasn't there.
  • Metal Slug 6. Many look down on it for sharing several themes to 3 and being considerably easier than the other games, whilst many others love it for those very same reasons. Either way though, it is generally agreed that it is where the series got out of its Audience-Alienating Era.
• Metroid:
  • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Is it an interesting game with beautiful scenery, fun new powerups, a Darker and Edgier tone, memorable boss battles, and old-school difficulty, or is it a glorified Mission-Pack Sequel with Fake Difficulty through the roof, unnecessary ammo mechanics, a story worthy of a bad romhack, a flawed multiplayer mode, and key-collecting ripped straight from an early-90s FPS?
  • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. While the motion controls work very well and it provides good closure to the Phazon/Dark Samus plotline, as well as varied and beautiful level design (particularly in Bryyo and Elysia), not everyone was happy that the game leaned more towards action than exploration, as they feel the increased prominence of the plot and the presence of NPCs undermined the claustrophobic sense of isolation that had permeated previous entries in the series. Some players also feel that the gunship's features weren't sufficiently exploited.
  • Metroid: Other M is either a fun game only bogged down by a poorly implemented focus on narrative, or a complete failure that even came short in providing gameplay that fits with the rest of the series.
• Every installment of the Monkey Island series has been contested by some fan or other. Some people don't like Monkey Island 2's darker tone, The Curse of Monkey Island's cartoony style (and lack of Gilbert, Schafer, and Grossman), Escape from Monkey Island's poor graphics/controls/grasp on the series continuity, or Tales of Monkey Island's episodic style.
• The fifth-generation Monster Hunter installments got hit by this, despite (and likely because of) them becoming the most successful and thriving games in the franchise:
  • Monster Hunter: World has received critical acclaim far and wide and gone on to not only become the best-selling Monster Hunter game ever, but also the best-selling game out of all of Capcom's games. Many who enjoy it cite its heavily streamlined user experience (No more breakable gathering tools! Gunner and Blademaster weapons use the same armor now! Planning armors and weapons is more organized now!) and absolutely beautiful visuals that are the result of the game being designed around the PS4's and Xbox One's cutting-edge hardware (as opposed to the respective PS3, Wii U, and Switch ports of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate; the first was originally released on the PSP and the latter two on the 3DS). That said, not everyone is pleased with it, even in relation to past MonHun games, with traditionalists feeling that the game is too dumbed down and many series veterans finding that the game has a sore lack of monsters or G-rank, and others preferring older games due to the portable factor, something that World doesn't have due to being console- and PC-exclusive (even if you did manage to install the PC version on a laptop, it's not as on-the-go friendly as a handheld game system and there's still no local multiplayer, one of the biggest selling points of the PSP, 3DS, and Switch MonHun games).
  • Monster Hunter: Rise was acclaimed for carrying over many of the quality-of-life improvements first seen in World, plus featuring a greater variety of monsters (including classes that were absent in World due to technical reasons, such as Leviathans and Amphibians), introducing the beloved Palamute companions, and more quests by bringing back the dedicated single-player questlines (though, in line with the older non-expanded games, they don't go beyond Low-Rank). However, it also received criticism due to the Rampage quests, not having a very extensive postgame, and once again for having a decreased difficulty.
• Mother 3 is almost unanimously viewed as an Even Better Sequel to EarthBound by international fans for a variety of reasons, including its rewarding Sound Battle system, its greater emotional depth, its tighter emphasis on plot, and its better-developed cast of characters. On the home turf, though, reactions are significantly more divided, with a number of detractors slamming the game for having a linear chapter-based style of progression as opposed to giving the player a semi-open world to explore, much smaller areas, weaker writing of incidental dialogue, abandoning the Eagleland setting that defined EarthBound Beginnings and its sequel, and generally feeling joyless or even glurgey compared to the first two games. While some international fans have these criticisms as well, they're nowhere near as vocal about them as Japanese fans.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is this compared to the original game. Supporters cite the sequel's more mature plot, detailed levels, lack of entry fees for getting into the next boss fight, more varied enemies and weapons, the tedious sandbox aspect being gone, and the retro style of the side job minigames. Detractors claim that the absence of an overworld (the aforementioned sandbox was replaced with a map screen that allows quick access to city locations) might potentially shorten the game's longevity despite the higher number of rank missions, that some of the bosses are tedious to fight, and have the opinion that the stages starring Ensemble Dark Horse Shinobu need polishing.
• Pac-Man Championship Edition DX to the original PMCE. While some players enjoy the massive ghost trains, varied mazes, and intense speeds, various players find that DX is too focused on following a strict and rigid path compared to its predecessor.
• PAYDAY 2 has a sharp divide among the fan base over several elements. Fans who like the sequel praise the game for having multiple ways of tackling a heist, character skills that lets them customize their abilities to how they want to play, and weapon mods that also lets the player tailor their guns' performance to their liking. People who don't like the sequel feel that the levels are too small and boring compared to the bigger and more grand looking heists in the first game and they also feel that the sequel is DSjust not hard enough.
• Phantasy Star III does not have the same developers of the rest of the tetralogy, and thus a different art style and a story separated from the rest of the rest of the universe (aside from something connected to the plot of II that shows up, and Dark Force eventually showing up) make its borderline Gaiden Game qualities divisive. It works well as an independent chapter due to its standalone qualities, but not for those already familiar who expected something more like its predecessors.
• Pikmin:
  • Pikmin 2: While there are a number of aspects that are the cause of this divide, from the cave system to the storytelling to the difficulty, the biggest point of contention is the game's removal of a overarching Timed Mission structure. Where the first and third game had one in the form of the player getting a game over if they couldn't fix Olimar's ship in thirty in-game days, or run out of juice, the second gives you as much time as you need to pay off the company's debt. Those who enjoy Pikmin 2 welcome the more relaxed pace, while those who don't find that the lack of a time limit removes all tension from the gameplay unless you're doing a Self-Imposed Challenge.
  • Pikmin 3 is divisive, but for different reasons than Pikmin 2. Fans either like this game for its smarter Pikmin AI, more expansive overworld maps, focus on a linear narrative, gorgeous visuals, and refined gameplay. Others find it to be a weaker entry due to its different feel than the first two, linear plot, collectables not playing into the game's progression, easier difficulty, removal of caves, and overall shorter length. Those who are critical of the game also dislike how previous elements from the franchise were treated in this game, from the removal of the C-Stick March (replaced by the less versatile charge mechanic) and Piklopedia to the sidelining of the Hocotatians in favor of the new Koppaite characters. In the lattermost example, detractors dislike how the Hocotatians were Flanderized, with Olimar being greedy and somewhat uncaring, Louie being a destructive, gluttonous load ^note only able to say "FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!", and the President learning nothing from the previous adventure and nearly dooming the company yet again. Deluxe would alleviate some of these issues, with its new content (especially in regards to Olimar's Comeback) and refined controls, though as a whole the game is still seen as divisive overall.
• Pokémon: Any game following the first two generations qualify.
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Some fans consider it one of the best games in the series thanks to the Scenery Porn, new 135 Pokémon, the introduction of new gameplay mechanics like Abilities and Natures which improved a lot with battles, many more Berries (as well as the ability to farm them), Contests, and better graphics; others felt it was too much of a Continuity Reboot and consider it one of the worst in the series. This was not helped by how some innovations the last set of games brought were stripped out, such as trading Pokémon with the previous games, (visible) morning/day/night cycles, and being able to visit the previous games' regions. There were obvious technical reasons for this, but it does make the game feel like a smaller and shorter experience compared to Gold & Silver.
  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: The games are praised for retrieving some of the features scrapped in the previous games (like day/night being visible in the overworld), introducing the Physical/Special split so Pokémon would not be restricted to certain Types based on their stats, and increased connectivity. However, they are also frequently criticized for a slow frame rate and a needlessly restricted selection of Pokémon (both of which were somewhat addressed in the Updated Re-release Platinum), as well as a questionably large number of the new Pokémon consisting of evolutions for older Pokémon or legendaries.
  • Pokémon Black and White is well-liked for its greater focus on story, characters, speeding up the battles from Gen IV and for providing a deconstruction of the franchise's basic premise. It is criticized, though, for limiting all past Pokémon to the postgame, the new 150 Pokémon having debatable competitive viability, and many of them being expies of past Pokémon.
  • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are also susceptible to this. Some fans also consider it one of the best in the series due to its large Pokémon selection and many new features such as the new legendary Pokémon forms, the Pokémon World Tournament and Black Tower/White Treehollow, and being a continuation of the story from the originals. Others have criticized it for its weaker story elements, and claimed that it introduces nothing original or new to the series. Additionally, while the original Black and White were criticized for being too easy, the sequels have often been criticized to be even worse on that matter.
  • Pokémon X and Y have become a particularly pronounced example, especially as time goes on. The people who dislike the game tend to point to Kalos being a rather uninteresting region overall that, despite the "French" theme, doesn't do a whole lot of interesting things mechanically or story-wise to make it memorable (especially compared to the fifth generation, which it comes right on the heels of) and what new mechanics there are, like Mega Evolution, feeling somewhat out of character for the series, with the very easy difficulty and lack of post-game not helping matters. The fact that the games feature a considerable amount of references and call-backs to Pokémon Red and Blue has also drawn the ire of those irritated by the prevalence of Genwunners^ExplanationPeople who feel that the first generation of Pokémon (and in some cases the second as well) are the only good one(s) in the fandom, believing the references to be an over-exaggerated response to Generation V's detractors or an attempt to win back older fans who grew up with Gen I but lost interest in the franchise overall.
    
    Those who like the games, though, tend to be very passionate about it, and are very attached to things like the huge Pokédex with two sets of starters and legendaries, trainer customization, Pokémon-Amie, the orchestral-sounding soundtrack, the more diverse cast, the vastly improved competitive breeding/training mechanics, and Mega Evolution and how it gives a number of old favorites a new lease on life and shakes up the metagame. Additionally, the aforementioned Generation I pandering attracts many fans who enjoyed Gen I and its Pokémon, especially its iconic starters and legendaries, whether or not they identify as "Genwunners". All of these opinions came into particularly sharp relief in online debates during the prerelease of Pokémon Sun and Moon about what direction future games should take.
  • This happened with Pokémon Sun and Moon, though the divide is pretty straightforward: It being more plot-heavy than any previous Pokémon game to date, either players enjoy the story and like the new characters, or they see the story as unskippable padding and just want to get to the end of the game as soon as possible to be ready for competitive play.
  • Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon seems to have become this with critics, with the games either being considered better than Sun and Moon due to the positive tweaks they made to the gameplay or slightly weaker due to the games being a bit too similar. The story is also subject to this as a few story events that occur in the base Sun and Moon games either play out differently, are replaced by new scenes, or do not occur at all.
  • Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! is one to Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, as both are Kanto remakes that include and exclude a variety of different mechanics and story builds. Visuals aside, those who prefer Let's Go! praise its vastly improved and modern mechanics made long after FR/LG came out^note  The Physical-Special Split, which allows Pokémon to use moves better aligned with their stats by not dividing their effectiveness by type; HM moves being replaced with Secret Techniques, no longer requiring the player to keep a Pokémon with certain (often otherwise worthless) moves on board for the sake of progression; Mega Evolution and the Fairy type, neither of which existed when FireRed and LeafGreen were released, were still included despite other cuts; overworld encounters allow players to focus more on which Pokémon they want to get instead of having to cycle through various 'mons they don't care for, this also makes progressing through otherwise tedious areas a lot less pace-breaking and annoying., enjoy the multitude of references to other games and the various manga series^note Archer referencing his exploits in HeartGold and SoulSilver, a younger Mina waiting at the Vermillion boat for her trip back to Alola, and the first appearance of Green/Leaf in any form of media since the Gen III remakes, and see the more simplified and streamlined experience as the better series starting point, particularly for players who primarily or only play Pokémon GO. Those who prefer FR/LG cite its more standard if not dated gameplay and it containing all Pokémon from the first three generations upon completion, giving it more than double what Let's Go! offers, as well as the Sevii Islands arc. They often criticize the Let's Go! games for sticking to just the Generation I roster and the Meltan line, not having the Sevii Islands, replacing traditional wild encounters with the GO catching mechanics, and being an incredibly simple and easy experience. Putting brand new main characters in place of Red and Blue did little to allay fans' displeasure.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield caused split reactions within the fandom, becoming one of the most divisive mainline games in the series. The games have received praise for improving access to competitive battling, a smoother gameplay pace which includes faster transitions between the overworld and battles, their lineup of new Pokémon including Galarian forms, introducing several much-needed mechanics such as mints or having online competitions taking place in-game rather than via the Global Link, well-implemented camping and cooking mechanics, many quality-of-life improvements (such as removal of random encounters and a dedicated large area for catching Pokémon), plus new characters and Pokémon that many fans (and detractors) enjoyed. The games have also received flack for their short length and increased linearity compared to previous installments, the poorly handled online modes, the controversial removal of the National Dex, which left more than half of all 890 then-current Pokémon on the chopping block^note Many players who've spent decades trying to "Catch 'Em All" were outraged that they couldn't import their complete collection of Mons to the new game, not to mention any players whose favorite Pokémon didn't make the cut. But many other fans consider it an absolutely necessary step, because the number of Pokémon had become too huge for the National Dex to be sustainable, especially since the franchise's transition from sprite-based 2D to 3D rendering means that including full battle animations for every Pokémon would become prohibitively time-consuming and expensive (leading to either longer gaps between releases or lots of corner-cutting in every other aspect), a problem that would've kept getting worse with each generation (the franchise averages adding over 100 new Pokémon species per generation) if Sword and Shield hadn't nipped it in the bud.; graphics of debatable quality, the Dynamax phenomenon replacing more popular Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, which detractors consider more gimmicky; a smaller postgame than past titles; the continued lack of Battle Frontier in favor of another Battle Tower clone; and the bare bones plot that spends most of the game shunting the player to the side while other characters like Sonia and Leon investigate the more interesting things and then shoehorning in a generic "save the world" plot in the game's 11th hour. The divisiveness of these games seems to somewhat coincide with a "casual vs. hardcore" and Old Guard Versus New Blood mentality, with most of the game's most ardent critics being the more hardcore and/or "old guard" fans of the series and most of the game's most ardent defenders being newer and/or more casual fans who generally don't examine the Pokémon games to the same level of meticulousness.
  • Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness to Pokémon Colosseum. Despite the gameplay improvements, some felt that the Lighter and Softer take on Orre, using a more traditional Kid Hero protagonist, and in general recycling a lot of plot elements from Colosseum made this game seem like a step backwards. The only thing people never seem to criticize about the plot is Shadow Lugia.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. Some people like it for conveniences such as Companion Mode, new items, and the 3D environments for the Pokémon in the dungeons. However, it has been largely panned for some of the gameplay elements that were added, its weaker story, and only having 144 Pokémon, most of them from the fifth generation. To add on to that, the text speed in cutscenes moves very slow and it can't be sped up by pressing A, which is another thing for players to dislike about it.
  • Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is praised for increasing the Mystery Dungeon aspect of the series, making more Pokémon available than those in Gates of Infinity and having a better plot than its predecessor. Others note much of the plot is recycled from past games, the game is too hard and it spends too much time in the starting village and not enough on the main action.
• [PROTOTYPE 2] featured a new protagonist, new writing staff, and a greatly refined gameplay system. Quite a few fans were upset at the new protagonist, especially given that the previous one was now the Big Bad. After the game came out, fans were split over those who felt the new protagonist was a genuine improvement, and those who didn't (many also felt that the villain's motives, given in side materials and never even explained in-game, were out of character). While there is more consensus that the gameplay was improved, whether that made up for the perceived story faults is subject to debate.
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the most polarizing installment in the Sands of Time trilogy. While the combat mechanics were improved and more time-based powers were added, the game got rid of the Arabian Nights atmosphere of its predecessor in favor of an extremely Darker and Edgier one. The huge contrast between the characterization of the Prince in the first game and in the second one (in which he might've predated Kratos as a 2000s example of the '90s Anti-Hero archetype) was a big turn off for some. The third game, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, fixed this by making it somewhat a compromise to the tone of the two games and having the Prince, portrayed much closer to his original characterization in Sands of Time, acknowledge (and move past) his depiction in Warrior Within. Then again, while The Two Thrones was a Surprisingly Improved Sequel for those who hated Warrior Within and had somewhat higher critical reception than its predecessors, those who were fans of Warrior Within found it weaker for those very same reasons.
• While both Radiant Silvergun and its Creator-Driven Successor Ikaruga are highly-acclaimed, some fans tend to argue over which game is better. RSG is praised for its complexity while Ikaruga is lauded for having the opposite.
• Rayman:
  • Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc had half the fanbase think it was the last good Rayman game before Origins hit, while others think this was the game that made the series go downhill for several years, and preferred the more serious tone and large, exploration-based levels of Rayman 2: The Great Escape.
  • Reception towards the Rabbids, which grew out of the Rayman series, has been extremely mixed, ranging from open hostility to passive acceptance. The controversy comes from the cancelled Rayman 4, which would've featured the Rabbids as the main enemies of a 3D Rayman platformer similar to 2 and 3; the game was ultimately canned and resurfaced as a party game on consoles, while the technically-inferior GBA and DS salvaged the remnants of the cancelled platformer as mediocre 2D sidescrollers. The Rabbids completely displaced Rayman for the next 8 years, and no major Rayman games came out until Origins.
  • Rayman Origins and its sequel Legends. Some viewed them as fantastic games that were long overdue the return to the series' 2D platforming roots, others enjoyed them but not as much as the older titles, and still others felt they were disappointments that pale in comparison to the 3D installments. The games also take a Denser and Wackier approach to its characters and narratives, with some people liking the approach, while others feeling it's too silly for their tastes; that latter group including those who view it unfavorably to its more serious predecessors. Legends also gets contention when compared to Origins; some people feel the sequel is an grand improvement in terms of level design, Art Evolution, and its additional Murphy and musical levels; meanwhile, others see it as a Mission-Pack Sequel that fails to bring much new to the table.
• Resident Evil:
  • Many fans cannot stand Resident Evil 4 and 5 because they're not like the preceding four (and contain horrific Eldritch Abominations). However, some of those who have never played a Resident Evil game before enjoy both of them due to tight controls and an emphasis on action and shooting. Others who have played both think the newer controls are a welcome change to get away from tank controls which were becoming antiquated.
  • In spite of its attempts to cater to both crowds (and then some) via multiple scenarios, Resident Evil 6 suffered from such a pratfall. Cue one half of the broken base claiming that Capcom sold out and completely abandoned survival horror for the sake of competing with other titles (such as Call of Duty) and staying fresh, while the other claims it was a well-done next step of the formula introduced in RE4 that simultaneously incorporated the best elements from the classic titles. The fact that Revelations and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, much closer in tone and style to the pre-RE4 titles, both garnered significantly better critical reception did not help RE6's case.
  • Much like how Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 attempted to repeat the formula of Resident Evil 4 but were met with increasing backlash, the same story repeated itself with the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. As with its 2019 precursor, the complaints center mostly around changes in the storyline and characterization, as well as related gameplay — most prominently the interactions with primary antagonist Nemesis. Whilst still very beloved, it is far less adored than its 2019 counterpart.
• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. While many people enjoy the game's Video Game 3D Leap and new additions, there are also many people who say it didn't translate well to 3D, mainly due to its Obvious Beta release, and the game was developed by a new developer, Frontier Developments. While the first two games' effective simplicity and Chris Sawyer's Genius Programming holds up a lot better than 3 even decades later, it's now seen as a decent entry in the series, and its concepts would later be refined by its Creator-Driven Successor, Planet Coaster.
• R-Type Final is easily the most divisive game in the series, even more so than R-Type Leo and the following Tactics game that changed the genre entirely. Supporters like the game's expansion to the series lore, large amount of content for a shmup (most notably its roster of 101 playable ships) and its dark, moody tone that provides a fitting closure to the series storyline, but there is a considerable contingent of fans who criticize Final, finding it an unexciting shooter with boring, uneventful levels and dislike the game's roster gimmick, citing the amount of grinding required to unlock new crafts and its redundant and unbalanced (in both directions) nature.
• Saints Row: The Third is this to Saints Row 2, which is widely considered to be a great game by fans of the series. The third game went a lot Denser and Wackier than its predecessor, and whether that's a good or a bad thing is a substantial topic for debate amongst fans. There are also some other things missing from the second game (less clothing customization in return for what you do have looking better, etc).
• Senxin Aleste is seen by many as a Surprisingly Improved Sequel to the Compile-era Aleste games as a whole due to being a much beefier game with Bullet Hell, hyper modes, multiple playable characters, and an in-depth scoring system (something that previous Aleste games notably lack, typically amounting to "just kill stuff and collect items"), while others don't like it precisely for that reason, feeling that it strays from what gives the Aleste series its own identity and is just another CAVE-like shmup in a market that has so many of them already.
• All of the mainline Serious Sam games after the first two encounters have been divisive for one reason or another:
  • Serious Sam II got a cold reception from the fanbase at release due to its intensely Denser and Wackier direction, easier difficulty and somewhat pared-down enemy count. Its relative failure would cause Croteam to dismiss it as non-canon and backpedal hard from the "cartoon" era of Serious Sam for the following games. However, in the following years, the game would amass a growing fandom who love it precisely because it's such a weird and wacky game, with praise going to its lengthy campaign filled with many unique worlds, characters and enemies. Some (including, notably, popular "boomer shooter" reviewer Civvie 11) also praise it for toning down the frustrating qualities of the previous games.
  • Serious Sam 3: BFE: Some think it's a great sequel that got the series back on track after the cartoonish excesses of the previous game and features some of the most intense and exciting combat in the genre thanks to a generous case of Sequel Escalation while others think it's one of the weaker installments with criticisms going toward the Slow-Paced Beginning, the abundance of Demonic Spiders (which the Fusion release goes some way toward rectifying), and the uninteresting modern Egypt setting. The additions of modern shooters conventions like sprinting, reloading and aiming down sights were also contentious.
  • Serious Sam 4 is either a rough gem that successfully fixes all of the gameplay problems of BFE for the deepest and most balanced core game yet, or an unfinished mess that looks little better than BFE despite releasing nine years after and suffers from overhyping features (specifically the open map and "Legion System") that end up undercooked in the actual game. The extra focus on story is also divisive: some feel it add some unexpected emotional depth to the series while others find it annoying and unfunny.
• Shantae: The series ran into this trope with Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, after every previous installment was generally considered to unquestionably improve upon the last. Defenders praise its higher budget, the new art style, the soundtrack, and the various additional modes such as "Friends to the End". Meanwhile, detractors bemoan the switch to a level-based progression system, the significantly more linear stages in a series that had been a pure Metroidvania up to that point, and feel that the decision to make the game a Soft Reboot wasn't for the better.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, depending on whether you ask someone who prefers story elements or focuses on game mechanics, is either:
  • An improvement over Shin Megami Tensei IV for refining its mechanics: Smirk is no longer hideously overpowered, death no longer costs a fee to come back from let alone just kicking you back to your previous save except in the second-to-final dungeon, battle partners are chooseable, have useful abilities, and are not as stupid as in SMTIV, and there's no 1/256 encounters (Want to fight the Fiends? Just come to this late-game dungeon!). Or...
  • A downgrade for its messily handled lore: The Law and Chaos alignments are effectively "straw" alignments in a series where debating over which side is better is a major point, and in fact their respective endings are "bad" early endings. In the Bonds route, Danu forcefully fixes the problem of her son Dagda trying to kill the protagonist by killing her son and replacing him with a new one in a manner too close to Abusive Parent for comfort in a route about trying to achieve a peaceful resolution to the cosmic series-traditional Forever War.
• Silent Hill: The first three games tend to be liked universally among series fans. Every game since has been controversial to some extent:
  • Silent Hill 4: The Room is by far the most controversial of the Team Silent era. It has its detractors who hate it for what they see is an "In Name Only" sequel that lacked the themes and symbolism of the past three games and strayed too far from the original formula with more combat and some questionable at best gameplay decisions (a greatly increased emphasis on melee fighting without any major improvement to the combat mechanics, unkillable and unavoidable stalker enemies, multiple stages that are revisited several times, and an Escort Mission that makes up the game's entire second half), marking it as the "beginning of the end" for the series, but it also has a good-sized fan following who love it for its surreal atmosphere and a uniquely dark and twisted story, all while expanding on the mythos of a serial killer previously mentioned in the second game.
  • Silent Hill: Origins: Depending on who you ask, an enjoyable return to the series roots that stand on its own just fine or a poor retread that only added unnecessary gameplay elements like Quick Time Events and breakable weapons and is driven by a bad fanfiction of a plot that only bloat the series mythology with needless details.
  • Silent Hill: Homecoming: Taking a page from Resident Evil 4, Homecoming opt for a more action-oriented approach by giving the players melee combos, a dodge moves, a lock-on and the ability to use the guns manually and have him fight fully fleshed-out boss fights. Whether or not this approach worked or even belonged in a Silent Hill game in the first place has been hotly debated. There’s also controversy over the game borrowing elements from the 2006 movie, an adaptation who happen to be its own can of controversies.
  • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories: This game was destined to be controversial from the moment it was marketed as a reimagining of one of the series sacred cows as it obviously raises questions regarding tone, plot and characterization, but the differences doesn’t stop there as the game doesn’t play like any other game in the series. Combat is entirely absent with the emphasis being solely put on puzzle and exploration and the Wii motion controls are in full use. Some people consider it one of the most unique and interesting entry in the series, others a betrayal of everything the series stood for and some a good game on its own but not a real Silent Hill.
  • Silent Hill: Downpour: Downpour is a tricky one. From one side, you have fans who praise it for finding a balance between the action-oriented Homecoming and Shattered Memories lack of it, evolving the exploration aspect by turning the town of Silent Hill into an open-world with optional side-quests and featuring a plot that doesn’t try to ape the original trilogy like many of its predecessors were accused to. On the other hand, they are some who accuse the game plot structure and themes of being too derivative of 2 to really stand out, feel like the side content doesn’t add much to the experience and criticize it’s glaring technical issues as well as the loss of Akira Yamaoka as series composer. It’s either an underrated gem that got screwed over by the network or a series low point.
  • Even Silent Hill 3 has been viewed as this to a lesser extent, especially when compared to its predecessor Silent Hill 2. Though many agree that it is a good entry overall, debate continues on whether it was a great idea to make a direct sequel to the first game with the Order returning and the cult being fleshed out, or a misstep for not continuing with the personal demons direction the second game established.
• In The Sims 2 fan circles, The Sims 3 is jokingly referred to as "The Dark Side." While the game has its fair share of fans, many Sims 2 players write it off completely. Reasons vary from being too attached to their Sims 2 projects to not liking the way Sims 3 sims look. The Sims 4 got even worse treatment, especially since the original release lacked basics like toddlers or pools, and went even further in the direction of "RPG-ish" "quest-based" gameplay which were part of the reason many Sims 2 fans scorned the third installment.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog CD is somewhat obscure compared to the lauded Genesis/Mega Drive trilogy, but reaction has been surprisingly split. Fans of the game praise its lush, surreal graphics, high-quality soundtrack (a point of contention itself, as it varies between the EU/JP and US releases), introduction of series longstays Metal Sonic and Amy Rose, and the time-warp mechanic (adding variety and incentives to the game). Other players denounce the labyrinthine, offbeat level design (often featuring gimmicks and loosely-scripted sequences that send Sonic to a crashing halt), frustrating special stages (ambitious Mode 7 style fields with less-impressive depth perception), and time-warp mechanic (which is difficult to activate due to the choppy level design). It doesn't help that fans are equally split on whether Sonic CD or Sonic 2 is the true sequel to Sonic 1, as they were developed concurrently — Sonic 2 in the US, Sonic CD in Japan.
  • Sonic Adventure 2. The most general consensus is that this is still a good Sonic game, but one of the last ones of the era. Some liked the streamlined level-by-level progression as well as the longer, more linear levels, and the gameplay variety. Others preferred the overworld hub linking to each level and the shorter but more open levels of the first game, and the other playable characters being optional.
  • Sonic Heroes. A good (if not flawed) platformer with fun, (usually) fast-paced gameplay that features a novel and enjoyable emphasis on teamwork, nice little nods to previous continuity, and a feel hearkening back to the Genesis era that managed to be the last good game before everything went downhill? Or a plodding, clunky platformer with poorly implemented ideas and gimmicks, unbearably long stages, Fake Difficulty, Fake Longevity, and an Excuse Plot that was a complete 180 from the Adventure series' narrative- and character-driven drama which caused everything to go downhill? Coming right after Adventure 2 (as well as being the series' first new installment after Sega exited the console race and went Multi-Platform), bringing back Shadow after his presumed Heroic Sacrifice, and directly setting up plot points for Shadow's hotly contested spin-off only add more fuel to the fire.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes I and II. While it's generally agreed that Sonic 4 as a whole is a step back from its direct Mega Drive/Genesis predecessors, the contention comes from its individual episodes. Some people say Episode II is better than the first episode due to its graphical overhaul, more natural gameplay physics, the return of Tails to the gameplay with new co-op moves, and increased originality in levels, enemies, and bosses, compared to the first episode's massive recycling of past gameplay content. Other argue Episode II is worse than the first episode due to Tails being required to progress through the levels, the overpowered nature of the co-op moves, tedious boss battles, and the general feeling that it failed to address many of the complaints pushed concerning Episode I. While fans usually point towards Episode II as the lesser of two evils, critics seemed to think otherwise, as Episode II received a more mixed reaction compared to the mostly positive reception to Episode I. The fact that Episode II came after the acclaimed Sonic Generations didn't help its case.
  • In the Sonic Advance Trilogy, the third game gets this, with criticisms such as the level design not meshing well with the game's mechanics and the hubs being labyrinthe and unnecessary. The second game also gets this to a lesser extent for its greatly linear level design, auto-scrolling boss battles, and generally emphasizing a higher focus on speed more than the previous titles.
  • Once Dimps was relegated to producing handheld tie-ins to console games (Colors on DS, Generations and Lost World on 3DS), opinion on their games became extremely mixed. Many fans deride the handheld versions as watered-down, content-bare cash-ins on the superior console games made by Sonic Team; others, including several outspoken critics, consider the handheld versions to be better than the console versions. Infamously, Jim Sterling gave Sonic Colors a 4.5 on Wii and an 8.5 on DS; to this day, Sega just won't let the matter die. Kotaku's review of Sonic Lost World was just as biased: it reviewed both the Wii U and 3DS games in one article, calling the 3DS version "the good one" and the Wii U version "the bad one" in the very first sentence.
  • Sonic Lost World, coming right off the heels of the critically acclaimed Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. Lost World is Sega experimenting with yet another new style of gameplay, one which takes strong cues from later Mario games by slowing Sonic down, emphasizing precision platforming over fast setpieces, and introducing copious amounts of level-specific gimmicks. Fans are split whether despite the flawed execution, it was a step in the right direction as some felt the fast-paced, boosting gameplay of the aforementioned titles had run its course and needed to be scrapped, or that Sega are once again playing around with new styles instead of being consistent with one that worked. Notably, Lost World received more mixed reviews among the critics. However, like most Sonic games, Lost World became Vindicated by History years later thanks to notable improvements made to the game since, combined with its sequel, Sonic Forces, receiving an even more mixed reception despite returning to the Boost gameplay of Colors and Generations.
  • The 3DS version of Lost World is a pretty weird example; some players lambast it as one of the worst 3D Sonic games, filled with intrusive Wisp usage, lifeless gameplay, and absolutely tragic level design, while others praise it as one of the best 3D Sonics yet — due to its Wisp usage, tighter controls, and level design.
• Soul Series:
  • For many fans, Soulcalibur V is this due to the poorly handled seventeen-year Time Skip between it and the previous game — this opportunity to start afresh with a slew of brand new characters and exciting older versions of established extras was instead squandered on either a) bringing the old regulars back with various flimsy Soul Edge magic-related excuses to explain why a lot of them hadn't changed or even aged at all in almost two decades, or b) worse, completely dropping them with little to no word on their fate or current whereabouts and replacing them with a younger Suspiciously Similar Substitute. And most of the cast wounded up Out of Focus in the game's story anyway due to the rushed schedule the game was developed under.
  • While Soulcalibur VI is, for the most part, regarded as a welcome return to form, owning to the cast being (mostly) the same as the original Soulcalibur, increased game speed, a larger movepool that was present in the older games, and more fluid animations, there are those that still have issues with the game, blaming the lack of single player content outside the two story modes, connectivity issues, the divisive Reversal Edge mechanic, and perceived bland stages (especially in comparison to, ironically enough, the previous entry).
• Splatoon:
  • Splatoon 2 is seen as being on par with the first game, if not even better, thanks to building and expanding on the first game with various massive improvements and additions such as its more polished graphics, more customization options, the addition of the long-requested playable Octolings, having just as creative and more balanced new stages/weapons/specials and gameplay changes that discourage mindless one-man army attempts, and the inventiveness of the "Octo Expansion" DLC single-player campaign. Due to this, debates within the community over whether Splatoon 2 was a Mission-Pack Sequel died down pretty quickly, but what would continue are debates over the quality of the "Hero Mode" single-player campaign. Those that liked it cite it directly building off the Audience Participation ending of Splatoon 1, allowing the player to use a greater variety of weapons, and offering more worldbuilding (both in-game and via the Squid Sisters Stories supplemental material that explains what happened during the Time Skip). Those that dislike it felt that the adventure was too much of a re-hash of the first game's Hero Mode (while also lacking fun bonuses like the amiibo challenges), that the story wasn't as deep as the supplemental material implied it would be, and weren't fond of the lack of Callie (as she wasn't present to speak to after the Final Boss fight until the Version 3.0 update). Furthermore, both sides agree that it was a waste that none of the characters introduced in this game were involved in the plot (the aforementioned "Octo Expansion" would address this complaint). There are also those who like Splatoon 1's Hero Mode and characters more but like Splatoon 2 more overall (and like "Octo Expansion" just as much as the first game's Hero Mode).
  • Splatoon 3, though not considered bad, is far more contentious than its predecessor. Defenders enjoy the new gameplay features like King Salmonids, Tricolor Turf War, and Big Runs; the base game featuring a much-improved single-player campaign; added bonus content, like lockers, Tableturf Battle, Splashtags and emotes, the locker room, the catalog system, Battle Replays, and the DLC adding the ability to revisit Inkopolis Square from the first game to see how things have changed. Detractors point to the game generally feeling too similar to previous Splatoon games, especially 2, to justify releasing on the same console and that the bonus content leaves the game's main attraction — its multiplayer — with numerous issues; many of the stages feeling similar to each other, with the infamous "Tetrimino" layout running rampant; a number of the new features being poorly balanced or glitchy; numerous balance and connectivity problems that remain unaddressed from the previous game alongside newly introduced ones; a slower update cycle; Return of the Mammalians once again being too similar to previous single-player modes; handling a number of fan-favorite characters poorly (the most infamous cases besides Deep Cut are turning the mysterious Mr. Grizz into a character that many felt was a rehash of Commander Tartar from the Octo Expansion, and relegating nearly all of Off the Hook's appearances to the paid DLC campaign Side Order); still missing certain notable additions that its predecessors had such as a new Ranked Battle mode; and a general feeling of cut corners and lack of polish compared to the previous Splatoon games.
• There's some hot debate over whether or not Spyro: Year of the Dragon is an Even Better Sequel to Spyro 2, or if it's the weakest installment that shows the original Spyro trilogy isn't flawless. Pros often point to the more fleshed out Spyro parts, the pretty good boss battles, and the storyline being surprisingly deep and creepy when you really start thinking about it. Detractors point out how less than half the game is spent actually playing as Spyro, with the other half usually consisting of being bounced around other characters with greatly different playstyles, with quite a few of them^note Shelia, Bentley, and a few of Sgt. Byrd's missions being the prime offenders controlling rather awkwardly at times.
• The general fandom opinion towards Super Robot Wars X is this from Super Robot Wars V. The addition of Expert Mode is generally a plus, for it answered the complaint of recent SRW titles are too easy, but the plot is considered too messy and lazy (as the writer tend to use "teleportations" to explain/solve everything).
• Each respective entry in the Star Fox series since 64 have dealt with this reaction.
  • Star Fox Adventures, which is the Oddball in the Series due to changing the gameplay from Shoot 'Em Up to Action-Adventure, didn't please the fans of 64. Going by its own merits, though, the game is still quite divisive, being a The Legend of Zelda clone instead of a rail shooter. Critically speaking, the game actually did rather well, but it still gets demonized as the entry that marked the series' decline.
  • Star Fox: Assault is well-liked by some series fans, who like the balance of Arwing and ground missions, the more serious tone of the story, the amazing score and visual design, a completely new villain and storyline, and what is by most accounts the best multiplayer experience the series has ever provided. That said, others chide its short length, linearity, a relative lack of on-rails Arwing stages, the on-foot controls and being in general an easy game to beat, with some of the criticism stemming from the perception that the multiplayer aspect of the game was the bigger focus and therefore took away from the single player content. There are also those who don't like the more serious direction Assault took, equally happy to point out Narm moments and the lack of meme-worthy lines.
  • Star Fox Command returned the core gameplay to pure flying action as opposed to Assault (which was commonly criticized for having too much on-foot action compared to the Arwing sections), but most people didn't like it for a variety of reasons. While the lack of classic rail-stages is a valid complaint, fans also objected to everything else, including the innovative touch-screen controls (or the lack of a classic alternative). The story was also quite derided, probably because many of the Multiple Endings were rather baffling in nature, although there are people who found the idea a neat evolution of the series' usual branching paths.
  • Star Fox Zero has it likely the worst out of any game in the series. Either it's a beautiful-looking and sounding reimagining of 64 that pushes the Wii U's relatively aged hardware to its limits, with just enough original mechanics and vehicles to keep things fresh and an innovative, if often awkward, control scheme that shows the full potential of the GamePad in a way that few other Wii U games did, or a sloppy, disappointing regurgitation of the franchise's glory days with shoehorned new elements, where the most dangerous enemy is not Andross's army but the (to say the least) unorthodox controls that demand the player pay full attention to both the TV screen and the GamePad at the same time. There is almost no middle ground on the issue.
• StarTropics II: Is it an Even Better Sequel or a sequel that lacks the punch its predecessor had? Both games have their fans (and sometimes they like both games). However, some fans of the first don't like how in the sequel, it can be easy for Mike to get killed by monsters due to no Mercy Invincibility. Another common complaint was the addition of time travel to the plot, most of which had nothing to do with the tropics. This angered some of the fans of the first game. It's still by no means a bad game or a bad sequel. The ending of StarTropics II is also divisive for seeming to directly contradict that of the original. The Argonian children who'd established themselves on Earth were whisked back to their home planet by their king who's inexplicably alive despite Zoda supposedly killing him, even though the eight of them will seemingly be the only living things on Argonia.
• Street Fighter:
  • The Street Fighter III series is a big hot point among many fans, particularly "old-schoolers" who are more familiar with the Street Fighter II and Alpha games, who claim that parries (the ability to counter an attack without being stuck in block stun) kill the flow of the game, while its fans say that parries are what make the game great. The original version of Street Fighter III also received a lot of flak for jettisoning away the majority of the series' roster up to that point; the updates 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike tried to address this by adding back some of the original characters.
  • Street Fighter IV tried to find a middle ground; while parries are absent, the Focus mechanic allows something relatively similar in that you can absorb one hit (or, in special cases, two) and exploit the advantage; the game also restored many characters from the original roster that were absent in the previous title. The original arcade release focused on the 12 original World Warrior and boss characters (plus Akuma) with four new characters. The original home release, and then Super and AE editions added more characters from III and Alpha. However, this brought new complaints, in that the hodgepodge of old gameplay elements and characters were accused of being shallow shells of their former incarnations, with little of what made them fun or interesting.
• Suikoden III is praised by some for expanding the story by having five different viewpoint characters, one of whom is the villain, but denounced by others for greatly altering the gameplay, in particular greatly reducing the scale of army battles and making them little different from regular party battles. Also controversial was that whereas the first two games were very closely linked and most of the returning characters in II had important roles, in III there were far fewer returning characters and most of them had minor roles. And one was a beloved character who made a Face–Heel Turn; fans are split on whether this was a brilliant twist or done purely for shock value.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels: You either like it because it offers a fresh new challenge and the addition of some new kinds of obstacles such as upside-down pipes and wind, or dislike it because it's just a Mission-Pack Sequel that's too difficult. This extends to the meta sense — Nintendo of America was unsure whether fans in America would approve of the game, so they reskinned the Japan-only Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic with Mario characters and released that as Super Mario Bros. 2, in turn another contested sequel because of its origins and the various differences in style and gameplay from the other games. Americans eventually got Lost Levels with Super Mario All-Stars, while Japan got the American Super Mario Bros. 2 as Super Mario USA, but still to this day neither is exempt from this status.
  • If you ask any classic Mario fan which Mario game is the best, chances are they'll choose either Super Mario Bros. 3 or its sequel Super Mario World. Fans of 3 cite the more plentiful power-ups, slightly smoother controls, higher number of levels (90 versus 73) and the addition of Airship levels (absent in World). World fans prefer its smoother level of difficulty, longer levels, availability of secret exits and a fully featured World Map, addition of Ghost House levels, addition of a save system (at least until it was added to the Super Mario All-Stars version of 3), and the introduction of Yoshi. Most will admit to enjoying both, however.
  • Super Mario Sunshine, with its very different direction from Super Mario 64, is certainly one of the most divisive titles in the series. Mario travels to a foreign resort island with only a few of the series' staple characters and enemies (Bloopers, Bob-Ombs, Pokeys and Boos)^note variants of Cheep Cheep and Piranha Plant are present, including a King Mook of the latter in the form of Petey Piranha and levels revolve around cleaning up dynamically generated goop and exploration-based platforming with the help of a water cannon. Public opinion was rather mixed at the time of release. As time went on, in the wake of criticism on games like the New Super Mario Bros. series and Super Mario 3D Land, Sunshine has been mostly vindicated, and many fans long for its daring creativity.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2. Was it better than the first, or didn't live up to the excellence of the first due to the removal of story elements among other things? Its status as the first truly direct sequel in the 3D lineup also caused some minor division in the fanbase.
  • Opinions are divided on which of the New Super Mario Bros. games is the best —although the first game and New Super Mario Bros. Wii are generally favored due to their improvements and additions to the franchise and not significantly reusing content like the latter two games — and whether or not that best entry can compare favorably to the old-school installments released during the 1985-95 era. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is generally seen as the weakest of the subseries, but even whether it's still a good game in itself or not is also debated.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The fanbase always fights over whether this one was superior to the original, or inferior.
  • The ditching of the standard RPG fighting mechanics made Super Paper Mario even more divisive. The story is generally well liked, though.
  • Color Splash itself continued the trend once it finally came out. On one side are those complaining about how it's taking too many pages out of Sticker Star's book (the card-based battle system, few new characters, still too many Toads, etc.) and solving none of its problems; the other side believes that while it still has nothing on the first two games, it's definitely a good game in its own right that actually does address a lot of Sticker Star's problems, (having an improved battle system, better developed characters (including Bowser, who was silent in Sticker Star), removing the Guide Dang It! aspects, and far more clever writing) and is much better than Sticker Star.
  • Some believe Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is overloaded with tutorials, the story is bland and the antagonist is a Generic Doomsday Villain. Others think the game is a worthy successor to Bowser's Inside Story with tight gameplay, an interesting story and a detailed new location, often pointing to many of the flaws as showing up in earlier games. This is to say nothing of the twist Bowser is the true Big Bad, not the original villain, which is either a clever twist or a sign the RPGs are getting too reliant on having Bowser as the main villain.
  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is lambasted in some circles for retaining some of the flaws of the much hated Sticker Star (an overabundance of Toad NPCs, generic enemies and locations and having Bowser as the villain) plus not using Paper Mario elements not found in Sticker Star and using the same gameplay as past games with few changes. Others like the game for adding to the characterisation of previously flat characters, removing the emphasis of forced tutorials and streamlining the gameplay.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl greatly suffers from this in the communities of the previous games.
    • The nerfing of many characters, the poor character balance, the extremely floaty physics, the slower-paced combat, the removal of many advanced techniques, and the tripping mechanic made many think of this game as a step backward from both Melee and Smash 64. However, many non-competitive players don't care about those changes (or even see some as improvements themselves), and enjoy the expanded roster, and the expanded modes.
    • The Adventure Mode, The Subspace Emissary, is contested enough to be considered almost separately. It's either the kind of thing players really, really wanted when they first played the original Adventure Mode from Melee, making it a favorite mode, or it's overlong, overblown, and just plain subpar. Ironically enough, it was only when the next game dropped Adventure Mode completely that the fanbase started uniting behind SSE.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U: While both versions had the same roster, item list, and mechanics, they each got different stages, game modes, and extras, with the 3DS version focusing on handheld gaming history while the Wii U version highlighted consoles instead. The general consensus is that the 3DS version ended up with better content, since its stages were less frustrating, its Classic Mode was better implemented, Smash Run blew Smash Tour out of the water, and its menus were laid out better; however, the Wii U version won out in terms of playability, with superior graphics and control options.
• Supreme Commander 2 removed the epic scale maps and unit options in return for intimate battles and more detail, making it easy for casual gamers to fight short battles. Combined with changes to the resource system and a graphical downgrade, this erased most things the fans of the first game liked.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World: While not the first direct sequel to a Tales game, it is probably the most well-known, given that it continues the events of the game that made the series popular and well-known to Western audiences. Some people enjoyed new characters Emil and Marta, the deconstruction of what happens after the goals of the previous game were achieved, and seeing their old favorite characters come back to kick ass. Some other people hate it for Emil and Marta, the reuse of the first game's locations, the Mons system, and their old favorite characters not getting enough screen time. There is no middle ground. DOTNW also gets a lot of hate for the fact that the old characters stop gaining levels at certain point, much earlier than Emil and Marta, forcing you to always rely on Emil and Marta and the monsters you recruit.
  • Tales of Xillia 2: Following the 15th anniversary title Xillia, the sequel was loved and hated by fans on various aspects. Xillia had been rushed to meet the anniversary date, which resulted in the plot being rushed at the end and the game missing things, which included playing as Gaius and Muzét, a Hot Springs Scene and similar. All of this was put into the sequel and while some fans loved to see it, others found that throwing out a sequel to add things which should have been in the first game was a poor excuse to throw the complaining fans a bone. Xillia 2 also had a darker story, including having no perfectly happy ending, with the best being a bittersweet one; once again fans were torn between loving the darker atmosphere compared to the previous Tales games while others thought it too dark. While the Xillia cast still remained as your party and often had screentime, the fact that — aside from Jude and Milla — none of them played too big of a role in the plot was once again a split-point for fans. Happy to see their favorite characters, unhappy that majority of them were mostly there to fill up your party and do little else.
• While Team Fortress 2 is extremely popular, many of the fans of the original Team Fortress Classic were not happy with the changes Valve decided to make to the formula for the sequel and have not accepted it as a successor to TFC in favor of the mod known as Fortress Forever, which is more faithful to the original Team Fortress mod for Half-Life. However, there are also fans of the original Team Fortress who prefer what Valve did in TF2 instead and take it as the natural progression from TFC (helped slightly by nods from Valve themselves to TFC itself occurring in TF2's murky past). The Fortress Forever vs. TF2 debate was also very contentious because Fortress Forever came out the week before TF2 did, and it felt very much like deliberate counter programming; not only did the mod have quite a few issues when it launched, but some of the decisions made to further distance itself from TF2 post-launch happened at the expense of gameplay balance. Ironically enough, by the time Fortress Forever had become a much more polished experience, it had (begrudgingly?) adopted some of the improvements TF2 made to the core experience (this was all before TF2 had turned into the different beast it is today).
• Tetris: The Grand Master 3. Some TGM fans view it as an improvement on TGM2, raising the challenge through faster speeds and at the same time making the game more intuitive to play through a 3-piece preview, hold piece, and a fix for the problem involving trying to rotate an I piece into a hole one cell wide. Others see these features as dumbing down TGM and the increase in speed as Fake Difficulty.
• Thief: Deadly Shadows was made after the demise of Looking Glass Studios and whether or not it lived up to it's predecessors is contentious. To some fans, it's a perfectly fine game that did justice to the atmosphere and lore of the first two games, brought Garrett story to a satisfying end and made some welcomed improvements along the ways. But others describe it as a step down due to the removal of rope arrows, smaller levels (due to the Xbox limitations) and feel like additions like the hub world, the faction system and the third person camera where poorly executed.
• Thunder Force V is divise compared to the beloved Genesis games and the poorly received Thunder Force VI. Those who like it cite its excellent presentation (particularly the soundtrack), exciting boss battles and a surprisingly dramatic and elaborate (by shmup standard) storyline; those who don't lament the flat level design lacking in physical obstacles and unique level gimmicks, and the decision to design the entire game and its scoring system around the overpowered Free Range weapon, giving players no reason to use anything else in their arsenal.
• Tomb Raider began running into rocks starting with Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, alternatively considered either the most ambitious, atmospheric game in the original series, or an unfinished glitchy mess of awful controls. Tomb Raider: Legend was a reboot of the series by a different developer, with as much changes as that implies. Let's just leave it to the Broken Base whether this is the point where it grew the beard or jumped the shark. This happened again when the series was rebooted in 2013 and took on Survival Horror and Third-Person Shooter elements, although if the 2013 game did one thing, it brought Tomb Raider back into the mainstream, full-time. But even then, there is a fair amount of debate amongst those who liked it on whether or not its two sequels, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, are worthy follow-ups or lazy retreads.
• It's agreed that the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise fell off a cliff at some point, but when exactly that happened is frequently debated, with a valid case being made for every game after Pro Skater 2:
  • For the hardcore set of fans who view Pro Skater 3 as the beginning of the series' decline, they cite the introduction of Reverts, which made landing jumps and maintaining combos much safer, and subsequently the game is a lot easier than its predecessors.
  • Pro Skater 4 drops the two-minute time limit and experiments with being more open-ended, which depending on who you ask is either a fresh take on the formula or something that loses the strategy elements of the previous games with finding the best line through a level.
  • The two Tony Hawk's Underground games remain popular, but have their detractors for abandoning the pure skateboarding focus of the franchise, as well as for its Jackass-inspired humor. There are plenty of fans, however, who enjoy that irreverent streak, and still think the skateboarding and open world gameplay remains fun.
  • American Wasteland is probably the game most commonly cited as the Jumping the Shark moment, but it does have fans who consider it a good continuation of the Underground games and appreciate it for toning down the divisive humor of them.
  • Finally, there is a set of fans who maintain that the series was enjoyable through to Project 8 and Proving Grounds, the last games developed by Neversoft. While the "Nail the Trick" gimmick remains unpopular, these two games still represent the last entries in the series that stayed true to the formula before the Waggle-infested RIDE games.
• Depending on what mood The Other Wiki is in on a given week, Vandal Hearts II is either "vastly superior" or "vastly inferior" to the original Vandal Hearts. If you bought the second game after playing through the first expecting more of the same (at least semi-)realistic looking characters, nasty-looking animated monsters, and floating backgrounds, as well as gore, character classes, intriguing narration and CGI cutscenes, you're definitely going to be disappointed to find that all the characters in the second game are now animeish, with tiny bodies, oversized heads and no mouths, the first monsters you encounter are now just cartoonish snakes, no cutscenes, and character classes are now based on equipment along with enemies that can dodge attacks.
• Wario:
  • Wario Land 3 became one in the years following its release, primarily due to the Metroidvania style of its gameplay unlike the more linear style of Wario Land II, the amount of backtracking and several Scrappy Mechanics, particularly the Golf minigame. Some think the execution, pacing and progression are a downgrade from II, while others still consider it an overall improvement over II and the best game in the series.
  • Though still considered a good game, Wario Land 4 is more divisive than the titles before it. This is mainly because it makes Wario able to be killed again, there are fewer transformations he can turn into, it makes every level a time-trial mission to escape before it explodes, it becomes mandatory to find every single treasure to beat the game, the level designs go back to the more linear ones of the first two games, and it is much shorter in length than the previous titles.
  • Every game since Wario Land 4 is even more contested. Which one is the "true" sequel to the previous games? Well, you'll get a lot of different answers to that question, as each has different gameplay mechanics and game design. Do you prefer the 3D beat-em-up/platformer hybrid approach of Wario World, the stylus-oriented gameplay of Wario: Master of Disguise, or the more return-to-form 2D platforming of Wario Land: Shake It!? As for whether any of them are even good games... That's pretty debated as well. Wario Land: Shake It! gets flak for being too much like Wario Land 4 except with less new ideas in it, Wario World has a very mixed critical reception in general, and Wario: Master of Disguise is seen by quite a few fans and critics as just plain bad. You can see this by the Metacritic scores of each game: 88 for Wario Land 4, 71 for Wario World, 60 for Wario: Master of Disguise, and 78 for Wario Land: Shake It!
  • WarioWare: Touched! is either a worthy installment that successfully delivers on showing off the promises of the Nintendo DS's new technologies or fails to live up to Twisted! with shallower and more repetitive microgame design. As Twisted was either released after Touched! or not released at all outside Japan, one's opinion often hinges on which game they played first.
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Many consider it an Even Better Sequel with top-tier production values, and an extensively player reactive, complex, mature, and adult storyline that elevates it above many games in its genre. Others, however, consider it something of a Sophomore Slump, with consolized design choices and a highly unbalanced combat system, and complain that it replaces much of what made the first game charming and unique with overly convoluted political intrigue that comes off more like a Game of Thrones knockoff.
• Yoshi's Island:
  • Yoshi's Island DS was fairly well-received critically bar the music, while fans either like it for its various additions to the gameplay (in the way of new characters/abilities, enemies, level features and additional minigames and Time Trial modes) that make it feel like a worthy successor to the the original game or hate it for its huge Sequel Difficulty Spike and certain unintuitive changes in comparison to the original.
  • Yoshi's New Island is the the most divisive entry in the franchise for being too similar to the original, its aesthetic, its music, having none of the things DS introduced, and caused controversy among fans of the original because of the complete retcon of the first game's ending. There are also mixed opinions over how it was developed by Arzest (who is comprised of the same staff who made Yoshi's Island DS).
  • Yoshi's Crafted World, especially compared to Yoshi's Woolly World, which is considered by series fans to rival the original SNES game in quality. The music is agreed to not be as good as previous Yoshi games and the souvenir hunting can make the game feel incredibly slow and repetitive for those who are trying to get 100% Completion. Those who can get past those two elements generally think it's an Even Better Sequel, since the stages are larger, more exploratory and creative in terms of settings.