Sequel Gap / Video Games

Franchises with multiple examples

• Ace Attorney:
  • Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (2007) and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies (2013) — 6 years, in terms of a direct sequel. There were still Ace Attorney games released between them, but two of them were Gaiden Games and the third was a crossover with the Professor Layton series.
  • The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and Resolve came out in Japan in 2015 and 2017, one year before and after Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice (2016) respectively, but due to various reasons, possibly including the non-expired copyright of the character Sherlock Holmes, official localizations of the GAA duology weren't released internationally until 2021, 5 years after Spirit of Justice.
• Age of Empires I (1997) was followed by Age of Empires II (1999) only two years later, but then Age of Empires III (2005) came along seven years after the previous installment. Then Age of Empires IV (2021) came out sixteen years after III, notwithstanding rereleases of the previous three games in the interim.
• Arkanoid (1986) zig-zags its sequel gaps: The first sequel, Revenge of Doh (1987) came out just a year later, but it was 10 years until Arkanoid Returns and Arkanoid: Doh It Again (the pair itself is an inversion, as they were released the same year, 1997). It was another 10 years until Arkanoid DS (2007). Only two until Arkanoid Live! (2009), but another 8 years to Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders (2017).
• Atelier Series:
  • Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (2011) and Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland (2019) — 8 years. In between them, the Atelier franchise would see the release of the Dusk and Mysterious subseries of three games each. This also marks the first time a previous subseries would get a new installment after its supposed finale.
  • Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (2015) and Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (2022) — 7 years. This is in regard to a direct sequel featuring the same protagonist, the first game was followed by two other installments in the Mysterious subseries, followed by the above Lulua title and the first two Ryza games. If the last game in the Mysterious subseries, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings, is considered, it would only be a 5 years gap.
• beatmania IIDX arcade releases have always had consistent release schedules, but as far as consumer releases go, we have beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST (2009) and beatmania IIDX INFINITAS (2015) — 7 years.
  • Guitar Freaks and DrumMania home releases had a five-year gap between GITADORA! GUITARFREAKS 4thMIX & drummania 3rdMIX (2001) and Guitar Freaks V & DrumMania V (the 12th and 11th versions respectively) (2006). Masterpiece Silver and Masterpiece Gold were released shortly after as "best hits" collections voted on by fans from the versions in between.
• Blaster Master: 10 years between Blasting Again (2000) and Overdrive (2010), followed by 7 years between Overdrive and Zero (2017).
• Bloons games:
  • Bloons Tower Defense 5 (December 2011) to Bloons Tower Defense 6 (June 2018) — 6 years between numbered installments.
  • Bloons 2 (2010) to Bloons Pop! (2021) — 11 years.
• Broken Sword:
  • Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror (1997) to Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon (2003) - 6 years.
  • Broken Sword: The Angel of Death (2006) to the first episode of Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse (2013) - 7 years, though the gap is otherwise filled with a Director's Cut version of Shadow of the Templars in 2009 and a remaster of The Smoking Mirror in 2010.
• In the Command & Conquer series, going strictly by games within one of its three universes sees two eight-year gaps in both the Tiberian and Red Alert series, the first between Tiberian Sun (1999) and Tiberium Wars (2007), and the second between Red Alert 2 (2000) and Red Alert 3 (2008). The overall series averts this, with Red Alert 2 coming a year after Tiberian Sun, and then Renegade (2002) and Generals (2003) between it and Tiberium Wars, which was only four years later.
  • The cancelled 2013 game, as a sequel to Generals, would have been another instance specific to its universe, with its intended release in early 2014 putting it eleven years since the game it was a sequel to, but only four years after the most recent game in the series proper, 2010's Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight.
  • If mobile and other Gaiden Games are counted, there's a six-year gap between Tiberium Alliances (2012) and Rivals (2018) - if they're ignored, the gap reaches a full ten years between Tiberian Twilight (2010) and the remastered collection of Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert (2020).
• Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003) and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) — 8 years.
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016) — 5 years, if not counting the spinoff Deus Ex: The Fall (2013/2014).
• Diablo: The first game came out in 1997, and the second game, Diablo II, came out in 2000. Following that, there would be a twelve-year wait for Diablo III, which came out in 2012, and then another eleven years before Diablo IV released in 2023.
• Donkey Kong (1981), Donkey Kong '94 (1994), and Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2004) — 13 years and 10 years, respectively.
  • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996) and Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) — 14 years. If you count Donkey Kong 64 (1999) in the series, it's 11 years.
  • Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini Mario and Friends: amiibo Challenge (2016) and Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2024) — 8 years.
• Doom II (1994) to Doom³ (2004) — 10 years. Not particularly noticeable, however, between Final Doom (1996), Midway's Doom 64 (1997), the emergence of source ports such as ZDoom (1998), and the games being ported to everything that possibly could run it in some form - even considering just official ports, it was only two years between the Game Boy Advance port of Doom II and Doom 3.
  • Doom 3 to the rebooted Doom (2016) — 12 years. Similar to the above, it's not as noticeable because of continuing to port the originals to new systems (where the longest gap between official ports was five years between Doom II being ported to the original Xbox in 2005 and then the 360 in 2010, and that's if you ignored Doom I hitting the 360 first in 2006 and then iOS in 2009 between them), mobile spin-offs in the Doom RPG series (the first coming in 2005 and the second in 2009), and even with an Updated Re-release of Doom 3 itself, which was at most four years before the reboot.
• Double Dragon (the Neo Geo version released in 1995) to Double Dragon Advance (2003) to Double Dragon Neon (2012) — 8 years and 9 years respectively.
  • If we excludes the Neo Geo version for being a competitive fighter instead of a beat-'em-up, then that leaves Super Double Dragon (1992) as the last true game in the series prior to Advance, which makes it an 11-year gap instead.
  • There were other Double Dragon games released between Advance and Neon, though, particularly a Zeebo version by Brizo Interactive released in 2009 and an iOS version made by the same developers in 2011, but these were a bit more obscure (especially the Zeebo version, which was a game console only available in Brazil and Mexico).
  • Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (1991) to Double Dragon IV (2017) — 26 years if we're only counting numbered entries. Of course, there was already a Double Dragon V in 1994, which was numbered as such, since the publisher (Tradewest) was counting Super Double Dragon (a 1992 game) as the fourth entry.
• Drakengard has a few versions of this trope.
  • In terms of the Ending E timeline, Drakengard (2003) — NieR (2010) and NieR: Automata (2017) — 7 years between each of the three installments.
  • In terms of Numbered Sequels, there was yet another 7-year gap between Drakengard 2 (2005) and Drakengard 3 (2013), although they do not seem to be canonically connected timeline-wise.
• The Elder Scrolls series saw a 6 year gap from TESII: Daggerfall (1996) to TESIII: Morrowind (2002), and then a 5 year gap from TESIV: Oblivion (2006) to TESV: Skyrim (2011). Interestingly, as of the 2018 announcement of a sixth Elder Scrolls game, the gap between it and Skyrim was already the longest in the series at 7 years (and counting - as late as five years after that initial announcement they've gone on record saying it's likely another five years away at least). That said, the gap between Skyrim and VI has been filled up with various revisions and rereleases of Skyrim, including a Legendary Edition in 2013, a Special Edition in 2016, VR versions for the PlayStation 4 and PC in 2017 and 2018, and an Anniversary Edition in 2021.
• Elite (1984) to Frontier: Elite II (1993) — 9 years. To Frontier: First Encounters (1995) — just 2 years, reasonable enough. To Elite Dangerous (2014) — 19 years!
• Fallout:
  • There was a ten year gap in between Fallout 2 (1998) and Fallout 3 (2008), during which the franchise changed hands from Interplay to Bethesda (as well as a change from top-down CRPG to first/third-person Action RPG) in the interim — notwithstanding the releases of the spinoffs Fallout Tactics (2001) and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004).
  • Five years passed between the release of Fallout: New Vegas (2010) and Fallout 4 (2015). If New Vegas's status as a non-numbered game developed by Obsidian is taken into account, then it marks seven years between two numbered entries in the franchise.
• Final Fantasy IV (1991) and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (2008) — 17 years. Note that this is in regards to a direct story sequel, as the Final Fantasy series is non linear with 16 titles released in the main series, and one where the longest gap is four years between Final Fantasy XI (2002) and Final Fantasy XII (2006), and otherwise only reaches the requisite five-plus years for this trope in a six-year gap between the original 2010 incarnation of Final Fantasy XIV (ignoring its 2013 reboot, A Realm Reborn, and its 2015 expansion Heavensward) and the 2016 Final Fantasy XV, and then a seven-year gap between XV (ignoring its expansion DLC and the first part of Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2020) and Final Fantasy XVI (2023).
• F-Zero:
  • F-Zero (1990) to F-Zero X (1998) — 8 years.
  • F-Zero 99 (2023) — an online battle royale game based on the original F-Zero, is the first new F-Zero game since the release of F-Zero Climax (2004), almost a 19 year hiatus.
• Gauntlet II (1986) and Gauntlet Legends (1998) — 12 years (counting arcade releases only and disregarding sundry console/computer ports and spin-offs).
  • Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005) and the 2014 Recycled Title reboot — 9 years.
• Ganryu (1999) to Ganryu 2 (2022) — 23 years. The sequel is an Indie retraux game made by presumably fans of the original.
• The Ghost Recon series has seen two five-year gaps surrounding 2012's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, one between 2007's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and it (otherwise filled up by 2010's Ghost Recon: Predator on PlayStation Portable and Ghost Recon Wii on Wii, and 2011's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on DS), and then another between it and 2017's Ghost Recon Wildlands (this one only filled with a Facebook game concurrent to Future Soldier and Phantoms, which was online from 2014 to 2016).
• Guilty Gear XX (2002) to Guilty Gear Xrd (2014) — 12 years, filled in slightly by updating and re-releasing XX many times during the gap (with the last version before Xrd coming in 2012) and by the Spiritual Successor BlazBlue, which began in 2008 (and essentially started alternating its releases with GG after Xrd was released following its third installment). The gap is also lessened if one counts Guilty Gear 2: Overture (2007) — though very experimental compared to the rest of the series, Overture is officially touted as the true continuation of the original Guilty Gear (X and XX are counted as Gaiden Games, albeit in-canon Gaiden Games), though its release still leaves a 5-year gap from the original incarnation of XX to it and then 7 years from it to Xrd.
  • Guilty Gear Xrd (2014) to -STRIVE- (2021) - 7 years, or 4 years when compared with Xrd Rev 2.
• Half-Life (1998) to Half-Life 2 (2004) was about a 6-year wait, but that paled in comparison to the development between Half-Life 2: Episode Two (late 2007) and Half-Life: Alyx (early 2020), a significant 12-year gap (during which HL2: Episode Three had become the new byword for Vapor Ware), although Alyx is an interquel, not a sequel.
• The King of Fighters:
  • The King of Fighters XIII (2010) to The King of Fighters XIV (2016) — 6 years.
  • The King of Fighters XIV to The King of Fighters XV (2022) — 6 years.
• Kirby:
  • In terms of handheld games, discounting spinoffs and remakes: Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995) to Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (2004) — 9 years. Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006) to Kirby: Triple Deluxe (2014) — 8 years.
  • In terms of console games, discounting spinoffs: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000) to Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) — 11 years. ^note If spinoffs count, then Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010), a non-traditional platformer, narrows the gap by a year. This is then followed by Kirby Star Allies (2018), 7 years after Return to Dream Land.
  • In terms of the main series in general, Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006) to Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011) — 5 years.
  • On top of that, the conceptually similar Kirby: Canvas Curse (2005) and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (2015) had 10 years between them.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) released five years after the previous mainline installment, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993).
  • The Japanese name of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (2013) is Triforce of the Gods 2 with the original Triforce of the Gods being the Japanese name of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991) — 22 years.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023) came out six years after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), marking the longest gap between mainline installments in the series.
• The Little Tail Bronx series from CyberConnect2, a Shared Universe set in a World of Funny Animals:
  • Tail Concerto (1998) and Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (2010) — 12 years.
  • Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (2010) and Fuga: Melodies of Steel (2021) — 11 years.
• The Longest Journey Saga has released 3 three games over the course of 17 years:
  • The Longest Journey (1999) and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006) — 7 years.
  • Dreamfall to Dreamfall Chapters (2014-2016) — another 8 years. That's despite the Word of God claiming it wouldn't take another seven years.
• Luigi's Mansion (2001) and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (2013) — 12 years.
  • Luigi's Mansion 3 was released in 2019, 6 years after Dark Moon.
• Mario sports games:
  • Mario's Tennis (1995) to Mario Tennis (2000) — 5 years.
  • Mario Golf:
    • NES Open Tournament Golf (1991) to Mario Golf (1999) — 8 years.
    • Mario Golf: Advance Tour (2004) to Mario Golf: World Tour (2014) — 10 years.
    • Mario Golf: World Tour to Mario Golf: Super Rush (2021) — 7 years.
  • Mario Strikers Charged (2007) to Mario Strikers: Battle League (2022) — 15 years.
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000) and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011) — 11 years.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011) and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (2017) — 6 years.
• Mega Man 8 (1996) and 9 (2008) — 12 years. Even if non-numbered entries are counted, that still leaves an 8 year gap between Mega Man & Bass (1998) and Mega Man Powered Up (2006). As with Sonic, there were other Mega Man titles released, though nearly all of them falling into the various other spin-off series — the GBA-only Battle Network and Zero series particularly both saw their inceptions, conclusions, and the start of their own sequel series in the midst of the gap between 8 and 9.
  • Speaking of those spin-offs, there was also the cancelled Mega Man Legends 3, which likely would have seen a 2012 or 2013 release, putting it 12-13 years after Mega Man Legends 2.
  • While individual series within the Mega Man franchise had large gaps, the entire franchise had been running since 1987 with at least one game (sometimes several) in almost every year until 2010's Mega Man 10. After cancelling several projects and the base-breaking release of Rockman Xover in 2012, the entire franchise went on hiatus. Apart from a few retro compilations, the next new game in the franchise is 2018's Mega Man 11, a gap of 6 years between it and any other original Mega Man game, and a gap of 8 between it and Mega Man 10 specifically.
• Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990) and Metal Gear Solid (1998) — 8 years. Kept you waiting, huh?
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) — 7 years — in terms of continuity, with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004) being a prequel with an almost entirely separate cast and minimal ties to the cliffhanger of its predecessor.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) — 7 years. At least as far as the numbered entries are concerned. Between those games there was Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (a portable game that directly sets up MGSV) in 2010 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (a half-canon sequel/spinoff) in 2013, as well as Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes in 2014, a prologue to The Phantom Pain that was sold as a stand-alone game.
  • There is also a 6-year gap from Snake Eater (2004) to its direct sequel Peace Walker (2010)^note only a 4-year gap if you count Portable Ops (2006), an earlier sequel to Snake Eater developed without Kojima's direction, leading off with a gap of only four years from Peace Walker to Ground Zeroes (2014).
• Metroid:
  • Super Metroid (1994) and Metroid Prime/Metroid Fusion (2002) — 8 years.
  • Metroid: Other M (2010) to Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016) — 6 years.
    • Counting just the Metroid Prime sub-series, the gap would be from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007) to Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016) — 9 years.
  • Metroid Fusion (2002, 4th game in the series) and Metroid Dread (2021, 5th game in the series) — 19 years. Though there were remakes and a side series trilogy among other spin-off titles released between the two games, Metroid Dread marks the first new mainline installment in the series since Fusion.
• The Monkey Island series had a six-year gap between Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991) and The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), a nine-year one between Escape from Monkey Island (2000) and Tales of Monkey Island (2009), and a thirteen-year gap between Tales and Return to Monkey Island (2022).
• Pikmin:
  • Pikmin 2 (2004) and Pikmin 3 (2013) — 9 years.
  • Pikmin 3 (2013) and Pikmin 4 (2023) — 10 years.
• Pilotwings:
  • Pilotwings (1990) and Pilotwings 64 (1996) — 6 years.
  • Pilotwings 64 and Pilotwings Resort (2011) — 15 years.
• Pocket Mirror (2016) and Little Goody Two Shoes (2023) — 7 years. Though a remastered version of the original game, GoldenerTraum, was also released in 2023 a few months before the latter.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Snap (1999) and New Pokémon Snap (2021) — 22 years.
  • Detective Pikachu (2018) to Detective Pikachu Returns (2023) — 5 years.
• Postal (1997) to Postal 2 (2003) — 6 years. The gap was filled up somewhat with the Special Delivery expansion in 1998, a 2000 Japanese-exclusive version with two extra levels, a Postal Plus Compilation Re-release of the original game and its expansion in 2001, and then another version in 2002 that also bundled in a demo for Postal 2.
  • Postal 2 to Postal III (2011) — 8 years. Even with the Apocalypse Weekend expansion (2005), there's still another six-year gap between that and III.
  • If the third game is ignored (as the original developers are keen on doing), then there's a further ten-year gap between Postal 2's first expansion Apocalypse Weekend (2005) and its second DLC Paradise Lost (2015).
  • Postal 4: No Regerts (2022) — Depending on what you consider to be the previous installment, it's been 7 years since Paradise Lost, 11 years since Postal III and 19 years since Postal 2.
• Punch-Out!!:
  • Punch-Out!! (NES) (1987) and Super Punch-Out!! (1994) — 7 years.
  • Super Punch-Out!! (1994) and Punch-Out!! (Wii) (2009) — 15 years.
• Quake IV (2005) to Quake Champions (Early Access as of 2017) - 12 years. Even if you acknowledge Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (2007), that's still a gap of 10 years between it and Champions.
  • Quake IV itself closed another gap in following on from the original trilogy, that gap being six years in terms of simply continuing the series after Quake III: Arena (1999) and eight in terms of continuing the story from Quake II (1997).
• Resident Evil:
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) to Resident Evil 4 (2005) — 6 years. The series had two additional mainline entries, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica in 2000 (which was arguably as much of a sequel as any of the numbered entries) and Resident Evil 0 (a prequel) in 2002, a remake of the first game (also in 2002) and a few spinoffs (Survivor, Dead Aim, Outbreak) in-between that made the wait between numbered sequels seem shorter than it actually was. Still, Resident Evil 4 took longer than expected to come out due to a lengthy Development Hell that involved a few platform shifts (from being a PlayStation 2 game to a GameCube-exclusive and then to a timed-exclusive that came out on both consoles anyway) and various scrapped builds (including one that evolved into the first Devil May Cry).
  • Resident Evil 6 (2012) to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017) — 5 years, which is the second longest gap between numbered entries. But like the gap between RE3 and RE4, the series was not without its share of side-entries and spinoffs during that period, which include Resident Evil: Revelations 2 in 2015 and a downloadable prologue to RE7 itself (The Beginning Hour) in 2016.
  • As far as the remakes go, Resident Evil (2002) to Resident Evil 2 (2019) — 17 years. The time difference between the original and remake of RE2 is also at a whopping 21 years (and three console generations) since the original 1998 version of RE2, a distinction also shared by the 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3 from the 1999 original. By comparison, RE1 only took six years and one console generation to be remade since its original 1996 release.
• Raiden III (2005) — 7 years if you count Raiden Fighters JET (1998) as the last entry, 11 if you count Raiden DX (1994) as the last.
  • Now, Raiden IV (2007) to Raiden V (2016) — 9 years.
• Repton:
  • After EGO: Repton 4 (1992) there were no new Repton releases of any kind until the PC remake of Repton 1 (2003)^note which contains a new set of levels as well as the original levels — a gap of 9 years.
  • Repton: The Lost Realms (2010) is a direct sequel to Repton 3 (1986) — 24 years.
• Sengoku 2 (1993) to Sengoku 3 (2001) — 8 years.
• Sengoku Blade: Sengoku Ace Episode II (1996) and Sengoku Cannon: Sengoku Ace Episode III (2005) — 9 years.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • Shin Megami Tensei II (1994) to Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (2003) to Shin Megami Tensei IV (2013) to Shin Megami Tensei V (2021) — 9 years, 10 years ^note PAL regions had to wait eleven, and 8 years respectively, not counting spin-off games.
  • Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (2000) to Persona 3 (2006) — 6 years. Add another year to that for American audiences, who didn't get 3 until 2007, and another for PAL territories that didn't get it until 2008. Then Persona 4 (2008) to Persona 5 (2016) — 8 years, not counting the numerous Spin-Offs released in the interim.
• Sniper Elite (2005) to Sniper Elite V2 (2012) — 7 years.
  • Sniper Elite 4 (2017) to Sniper Elite 5 (2022) — 5 years.
  • In terms of the Zombie Army spinoffs, there's another five-year gap between Zombie Army Trilogy (2015) and Zombie Army 4: Dead War (2020).
• Plants vs. Zombies has a 7-year gap between the second and third games. It’s a similar case to the below entry, as there were games between the two, but the gap accounts for the main series only, no spinoffs.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Sonic & Knuckles (1994) and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2010) — 16 years. Although there were many other Sonic titles released between then, Sonic 4 is notable for not only being labeled a direct sequel to the original Genesis titles, but also being the first 2D Sonic game for consoles since then. Sonic also went an entire console generation without releasing a main series platform game, resulting in the five year gap between the aforementioned Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles (1994) and Sonic Adventure (1999^note At least for Western territories, anyway, the game was originally released in Japan at the end of 1998, a little over four years).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (2012) and Sonic Mania (2017) — 5 years. Mania also marks a 13 gap following Sonic Advance 3, the last 2D Sonic game to primarily use sprites (subsequent 2D Sonics opted for a notable Sprite/Polygon Mix or being completely 2.5D). Moreover, Mania was additionally the first time a mainline Sonic game strictly used the original Genesis designs for the characters over the post-Adventure redesigns following Sonic 3/ Sonic & Knuckles—a 23 year absence (if one counts spinoffs like Sonic R, the absence is lessened to twenty years).
  • Sonic Forces (2017) and Sonic Frontiers (2022) — 5 years, the longest game between brand new fully 3D Sonic'' games.
  • Sonic Mania (2017) and ''Sonic Superstars (2023) — 6 years.
• Star Fox 64 (1997) had a gap before a sequel came out, though exactly how long it is depends on whether you count the vastly out-of-place Star Fox Adventures (2002, 5 years) or skip it to the more fitting Star Fox: Assault (2005, 8 years).
  • In terms of the original continuity before 64 rebooted it, Star Fox (1993) to Star Fox 2 (planned 1996) wouldn't have been an example... except that Star Fox 2's release was cancelled, despite it being finished, due to the pending release of the Nintendo 64. The original Star Fox 2 wouldn't see an official release until it was bundled in with the Super NES Classic Edition in late 2017, 24 years after the original game.
• Star Ocean: The Second Story (1998), Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (2003), Star Ocean: The Last Hope (2009), Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (2016), and Star Ocean: The Divine Force (2022) — 5 years, 6 years, 7 years, and 6 years respectively.
• Street Fighter II (1991) to Street Fighter III (1997) to Street Fighter IV (2008) to Street Fighter V (2016) to Street Fighter 6 (2023) — 6 years, 11 years, 8 years and 7 years respectively. This is without counting the Street Fighter Alpha and EX games, but even that still leaves an eight-year gap between EX3 (2000) and IV. Of course, each numbered Street Fighter title since II is considered its own series by Capcom since they all had numerous revisions and semi-sequels following their initial release (where, after the four-year gap from Street Fighter to Street Fighter II, there have only been three gaps longer than a single year between releases and revisions - two years each between Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival, Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, then Street Fighter IV), and even taking into account the 9-year gap between the 1999 release of 3rd Strike (the last installment of III) and the original 2008 arcade release of IV, the Street Fighter roster have appeared in other Capcom fighting games in the years between such as the few installments of the Vs. series (e.g. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the Capcom vs. SNK series), the Arika-developed Street Fighter EX3, Capcom Fighting Evolution and the various console ports of the mainline releases.
• In terms of 3D Mario platformers: Super Mario 64 (1996) and Super Mario Sunshine (2002) — 6 years.
  • Also between Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy (2007) — 5 years.
  • Excluding the 3D Series Mario platformers, there's another gap between Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010) and Super Mario Odyssey (2017) — 7 years. If you don't consider the Galaxy games to be open-world, then it's 15 years between Sunshine and Odyssey.
• In terms of 2D Mario platformers:
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995) and New Super Mario Bros. (2006) — 11 years. Mario had kept on going in the meantime, but New was a direct return to classic 2D platforming that had been mostly abandoned since Yoshi's Island. If only 2D SMB-style platformers are considered, it's 14 years, with 1992's Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins being the last game of that type.
    • Counting just games in the direct Yoshi's Island series, there are two such examples. It's 11 years between Yoshi's Island (1995) and Yoshi's Island DS (2006) and 8 years between DS and Yoshi's New Island (2014).
    • If you count other Yoshi games, the gap between Yoshi's Story (1997) and Yoshi's Topsy Turvy/Universal Gravitation (2004) would count instead, with 7 years between games.
    • In terms of console games alone, Yoshi's Story (1997) to Yoshi's Woolly World (2015) — 18 years.
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023) is the first new —not an Updated Re-release— full-fledged^note i.e. not counting Super Mario Maker, and Super Mario Maker 2, or Super Mario Run mainline 2D Super Mario Bros. game since the original release of New Super Mario Bros. U (2012), almost 11 years prior.
• Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) — 7 years.
  • Brawl to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014) — 6 years. Essentially, Super Smash Bros releases are loosely tied to console releases, with one Smash title per console.
• Strider (Arcade) (1989), Strider 2 (1999), and Strider (2014) (2014) — 10 and 15 years, respectively.
• Tekken:
  • Tekken 6 (2007) to Tekken 7 (2015) — 8 years, though several updates and side games came out in between. Tekken 8 was released in January 2024, 9 years after the initial release of 7.
  • Tekken Tag Tournament (1999) to Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (2011) — 12 years.
• Tempest (1981) and Tempest 2000 (1994) — 13 years. Tempest 3000 (2000) was just 6 years, but then there is an even longer gap, as depending on how one looks at it, the sequel could be either the limited-release TxK (2014) or the more widely released official sequel Tempest 4000 (2018) — 14 or 18 years, respectively. Word of God is that Space Giraffe (2007) is not a clone of Tempest, though the sequel gaps would still be rather sizable even if it were counted.
• Test Drive III: The Passion (1990) to Test Drive 4 (1997) — 7 years.
  • Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends (2012) to Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown (2023) — 11 years.
• Toe Jam And Earl:
  • ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (1993) and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth (2002) — 9 years.
  • ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth (2002) and ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove (2019) — 17 years.
• Wario:
  • Wario Land 4 (2001) and Wario Land: Shake It!! (2008) — 7 years. This is for games under the Wario Land branding. Though Wario World (2003) and Wario: Master of Disguise (2007), which were also platformers starring Wario, came out in the interim, they aren't officially part of the Wario Land sub series.
  • WarioWare: D.I.Y. (2009) to WarioWare Gold (2018) — 9 years, not counting the 2013 spin-off Game & Wario.
• The Wolfenstein series has almost traditionally seen nearly-decade-long gaps between releases as the property switches developers:
  • Muse Software's Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984) and id Software's Wolfenstein 3-D (1992) — 8 years.
  • Spear of Destiny (1992) and Gray Matter Interactive's Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) — 9 years.
  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) and Raven Software's Wolfenstein (2009) — 8 years.^note 6 if you count Splash Damage's freeware, multiplayer-only Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory from 2003, which was an intended expansion pack for Return. Also the first game in the series to share a publisher but not a developer with its predecessor, both being published by Activision.
  • Wolfenstein (2009) and MachineGames' Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014) — 5 years.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (2010) to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017) to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022) — 7 and 5 years. For the first gap, this is ignoring the 2015 spin-off Xenoblade Chronicles X. For the second gap, this is ignoring the Torna ~ The Golden Country expansion for 2 released in 2018 and the 2020 remake of the first game which included the new Future Connected post-epilogue story.
• Ys series:
  • Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand (1995) to Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim (2003) — 8 years. In between this, there were remakes and rereleases of the first two games of the series on then current platforms.
  • Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim (2003) to Ys SEVEN (2009) — 6 years. This is ignoring the 2006's Distant Prequel Ys Origin.
  • Ys SEVEN (2009) to Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (2016) — 7 years. In between this was 2012's Ys: Memories of Celceta, the Video Game Remake of Ys IV: Mask of the Sun that also replaced it in the official canon.

Other examples

• Angry Birds (2009) and Angry Birds 2 (2015) — 6 years. This is without counting all the Angry Birds games that were released during this time lapse (Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, Bad Piggies, Angry Birds Star Wars and its sequel, etc).
• The DonPachi series was supposed to "die peacefully" with DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou in 2002 ("daioujou" = "peaceful death"). But fans wanted more, so it was "resurrected" 6 years later with DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu in 2008 ("daifukkatsu" = "great resurrection").
  • SaiDaiOuJou (2012) and its EXA Label update (2020) was over 8 years. Not to mention Cave did not release any other arcade games at all during this span.
• As far as numbered mainline installments go, Dragon Quest X (2012) and Dragon Quest XI (2018) has the longest gap in the series so far at almost exactly 6 years. Excluding the almost-purely online X, IX (2009) would be 9 years. Though the time between installments has generally gotten steadily longer as the series went on. Contrast the first two games only being eight months apart (May 1986 to January 1987). Considering there is a near-constant series of releases given spinoffs and ports though, this can become less noticeable.
• Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! (2008) and Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! (2014) — 6 years. Justified, as both titles were partially made for the Yakuza team to test new engines and were only considered to be a duo retroactively. The main series did and continues to receive new releases every few years at the latest.
• Savoir-Faire (2002) had a sequel called Damnatio Memoriae (2006). The third game in the trilogy, First Draft of the Revolution. came out in 2012 — 6 years.
• Two Worlds II (2011) and its first DLC, Call of the Tenebrae (2017) — 6 years.
• Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2003) and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (2010) — 7 years.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) — 7 years.
• The Last of Us (2013) to The Last of Us Part II (2020) — 7 years.
• MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries (2002) and MechWarrior Living Legends (2009) — 7 years. This is due in large part to the convoluted ownership of the Mechwarrior video game license.
• Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (2008) to Rainbow Six Siege (2015) - 7 years. This is as far as mainline releases, at least, since that gap is otherwise filled with a mobile remake of the original game in the style of Vegas, Shadow Vanguard (2011), which was only four years before Siege.
  • Rainbow Six Siege to Rainbow Six Extraction (2022) - another 7 years, though it's not as apparent between Siege's constant support and that Extraction is itself based on a limited-time mode for Siege from 2018.
• Red Faction II (2002) and Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) — 7 years.
• Sniper Elite (2005) to Sniper Elite V2 (2012) — 7 years.
• Sunrider: Liberation Day (2016) to Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return (2023) — 7 years.
• Unreal Tournament III (2007) to the rebooted Unreal Tournament 4 (2014) — 7 years.
  • In terms of the singleplayer-focused games, there's a 5-year gap between Epic Games' original Unreal (1998) and Legend Entertainment's Unreal II: The Awakening (2003), which was otherwise filled by the multiplayer-focused Gaiden Games in Unreal Tournament (1999) and Unreal Championship/Tournament 2003 (2002).
• Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3DX+ (2010) to Maximum Tune 5^note Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 was skipped (2017) — 7 years. This is only in North America, however; Japan and much of the Asia Pacific and Oceania areas continued to steadily receive sequels in the interim.
• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995) and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) — 7 years.
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2012 in Japan, 2013 elsewhere) to Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020 in all regions) — 8 years. This marks the biggest wait between mainline games in the series, which was only up to three or four years. The difference between the last home console release with Animal Crossing: City Folk (2008) is also quite significant, with it being 12 years. It should also be noted that New Horizons was also subject to delay, as it was originally planned to be released in late 2019.
• Bayonetta 2 (2014) to Bayonetta 3 (2022) — 8 years.
• Caesar III (1998) and Caesar IV (2006) — 8 years.
• Counter-Strike: Source (2004) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012) — 8 years.
  • The sequel to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Counter-Strike 2, is slated to release in the summer of 2023 — 11 years.
• The Dawn of War series saw 8 years between the release of Dawn of War II (2009) and Dawn of War III (2017). Counting expansions, III was released 6 years after the last expansion for II, Retribution (2011).
• Freedom Planet (2014) and Freedom Planet 2 (2022) — 8 years. An interesting case is that the sequel was announced a year after the first game's release, yet it took 7 years for the game to get a proper full release.
• Panel de Pon (1995) to its Nintendo GameCube incarnation (technically a sequel as it features different characters) in Nintendo Puzzle Collection (2003) — 8 years. Not the case with its Westernized variants Tetris Attack and Pokémon Puzzle League, which only had a 4-year gap. From Pokemon Puzzle League (2000) to Planet Puzzle League (2007) is seven years — although this only applies in the West, as the latter game came out only four years after NPC.
• Rage (2011) (2011) to Rage 2 (2019) — 8 years.
• Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (2013) and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021) — 8 years^note While the wait was broken by the PS4 game (2016), that was a reimagining of the first installment set in its own continuity whereas Rift Apart takes place after Into the Nexus in the main continuity. Even then, it is also the first Ratchet & Clank game since the PS4 installment, with a smaller gap of 5 years.
• Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (2003) and Rayman Origins (2011) — 8 years. The Raving Rabbids games are only spin-offs.
• Red Dead Redemption (2010) to Red Dead Redemption II (2018) — 8 years. Red Dead Redemption is itself a follow-up to Red Dead Revolver (2004).
• Shantae (2002) to Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010) — 8 years.
• There is an eight year distance between Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (2005) and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (2013).
• Stick RPG (2003) and Stick RPG 2 (2011) — 8 years.
• Team Fortress Classic (1999) and Team Fortress 2 (2007) — 8 years. As the page quote demonstrates, the development time was actually 9 years; Classic was basically just a port of the original Quake mod to the GoldSrc engine. And the webcomics confirm that they take place in the same continuity, with TFC taking place in the 1930s.
• You Don't Know Jack Volume 6: The Lost Gold (2003) and You Don't Know Jack 2011 — 8 years, although there was an online beta flash game from 2006 to 2008.
• Bionic Commando: Elite Forces (2000) and Bionic Commando Rearmed (2008) — 8 years.
• Jajamaru Jr. Denshōki (2003) and Ninja Jajamaru-kun: Sakura-hime to Karyu no Himitsu (2012) — 9 years.
• KAMUI (1999) and RefleX (2008) — 9 years.
• Max Payne 2 (2003) and Max Payne 3 (2012) — 9 years.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (2010) and Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (2019) - 9 years.
  • No More Heroes 2 and No More Heroes III (2021) — 11 years.
• Rune Factory 4 (2012) and Rune Factory 5 (2021) - 9 years. ^note Rune Factory 4 received an Updated Re-release on the Nintendo Switch in 2019 (2020 internationally), dropping the gap to only 7 years.
• Time Crisis 4 (2006) and Time Crisis 5 (2015) — 9 years.
• Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992) and Wizardry 8 (2001) — 9 years. Despite the long gap, it still allowed you to import your save from the previous game.
• Armored Core: Verdict Day (2013) to Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023). — 10 years.
• Deadly Premonition (2010) and Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise (2020) — 10 years. It is seven years if considering 2013's Director's Cut.
• The Faery Tale Adventure (1987) and Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II (1997) — 10 years.
• Forza Motorsport enjoyed a stable release schedule from 2005 to 2017, where it released a game in every odd-numbered year, while Forza Horizon plugged in the even-numbered year gaps from 2012 onwards. The series however chose to go on hiatus in 2019 and 2020; Horizon 5 released a year "late" in 2021, while the eighth Motorsport game released in 2023, six years after Motorsport 7.
• Gradius III -From Legend to Myth- (1989) and Gradius IV: Fukkatsu (1999) — 10 years, not including ports or spinoffs such as Gradius Gaiden and the Parodius spinoff series.
  • Salamander (1986) and Salamander 2 (1996) — 10 years, reduced to 9 if counting the Japanese version of Life Force as a sequel rather than an Updated Re-release.
• Hydro Thunder (1999) and Spiritual Successor H2Overdrive (2009) or Hydro Thunder Hurricane (2010) — 10 or 11 years.
• Mighty Pang (2000) and Pang: Magical Michael (2010) — 10 years. The two games before Mighty Pang were minor 5-year gaps each as well.
• PAYDAY 2 (2013) to PAYDAY 3 (2023) - 10 years.
• Sin and Punishment (2000) and Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (2010) — 10 years.
• Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (late 2007) to Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (early 2019) — 11 years. This hasn't been as noticeable due to the steady release of spin-offs, where the greatest gaps were only three years — once between 6 and Joint Assault (2010), then once between Assault Horizon & Assault Horizon Legacy (both 2010) and Ace Combat Infinity (2014) — but with constant delays still leaving a five-year gap between Infinity and Skies Unknown. The gap is slightly lessened to four years if one counts the Updated Re-release of Assault Horizon Legacy released in early 2015, Assault Horizon Legacy+.
• American McGee's Alice (2000) and Alice: Madness Returns (2011) — 11 years.
• Devil May Cry 4 (2008) and Devil May Cry 5 (2019) — 11 years. Even acknowledging DmC: Devil May Cry (2013) still leaves a five-year gap from DMC4 to it and a six-year gap between it and DMC5. Updated Rereleases lessen the gap further, however, with a gap of only four years between 4 and an HD Collection of the first three in 2012, leaving only one year from that to DmC (2013), then two to its Definitive Edition and 4: Special Edition (2015), and then three to an eighth-gen/PC port of the HD Collection (2018), leaving only one year between that and DMC5.
• Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter (2009) to Drawn to Life: Two Realms (2020) — 11 years.
• NiGHTS into Dreams… (1996) and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (2007) — 11 years.
• Rampage (1986) and Rampage World Tour (1997) — 11 years.
• Trials of Mana (1995) to Dawn of Mana (2006), Seiken Densetsu 3 and 4, is 11 years. Spin-offs were produced in between but this was the first numbered game since.
• Thunder Force V (1997) to Thunder Force VI (2008) — 11 years.
• G-Darius (1997) and Darius Burst (2009) — 12 years.
• Diablo II (2000) and Diablo III (2012) — 12 years.
• Dragon's Dogma (2012) and Dragon's Dogma II (2024) — 12 years. Dragon's Dogma received the Dark Arisen expansion in 2013, shorting the gap to 11 years. There was also the Japan-only MMO Dragon's Dogma Online in 2015 before its shutdown in 2019, further shorting the gap to 9 years. The first game received various ports from 2017 to 2019 to then current-gen systems, as well as PC.
• EarthBound (1994 in Japan) and Mother 3 (2006) — 12 years. It should be noted that Mother 3 fell victim to vaporware status for a very good chunk of that time - its earliest incarnation was intended for the SNES and at one point was a heavily hyped N64 project. It ultimately ended up emerging at the end of the Game Boy Advance's lifespan, and in Japan only.
• Epic Mickey: Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012) and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (2024) - 12 years.
• Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Grand Theft Auto VI (slated for 2025) — at least 12 years.
• Might and Magic IX (2002) and Might and Magic X (2014) — 12 years (not counting games that technically are spin-offs).
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge (2005) — 12 years. Notable example in that it is a videogame billed as a direct continuation to an animated film.
• Starcraft (1998) and Starcraft II (2010) — 12 years. As Tychus Findlay put it, "Hell, it's about time."
• The House of the Dead 4 (2005) to House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn (2018) — 13 years, excluding the 2008 prequel The House of the Dead: OVERKILL (which still left a gap of 10 years from it to Scarlet Dawn) and other non-arcade spin-off titles that series director Takashi Oda wasn't involved with.
• Magical Drop F (1999) and Magical Drop V (2012) — 13 years.
• Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991) and Ninja Gaiden (2004) — 13 years.
• Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993) and Sam & Max: Culture Shock (2006) — 13 years. Even without the cancellation of the intended Hit the Road sequel in 2004, the gap between them would have been at least 11 years.
  • While not exactly a sequel, the gap between Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (2010) and the remastered version of Sam & Max Save the World (2020) is 10 years, while Sam & Max: This Time it's Virtual (2021) would release the following year, bringing the gap up to 11 years if one doesn't count the remaster.
• Super Stardust (1994) and Super Stardust HD (2007) — 13 years.
• Syberia II (2004) and Syberia 3 (2017) — 13 years.
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002) and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (2015) — 13 years, though numerous spin-offs, three sub-series, and an HD compilation of levels from the first three games were released in between.
• Wii Sports Resort (2009) and Nintendo Switch Sports (2022) — 13 years.
• After Burner III (1992) and After Burner Climax (2006) — 14 years.
• Asterix and Obélix XXL 2 (2005, although with a remaster in 2018) to Astérix and Obélix XXL 3 (2019) - 14 years. ^note The 2008 Astérix at the Olympic Games tie-in game can be considered part of the XXL series, as it involves a character exclusive to XXL 2 and the story sets it as an Alternate Universe to the one of the movie proper; the gap with XXL 3 would be still a whole 11 years.
• Golden Axe: The Duel (1994) to Golden Axe: Beast Rider (2008) — 14 years.
• Kingdom Hearts II (2005) to Kingdom Hearts III (2019) — 14 years. This is ignoring the various sidestory games released in-between. If they are included, then there's the seven-year gap between Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (2012) and Kingdom Hearts III, or a mere two years if one counts the episodic mini-game Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- (2017).
• Klonoa (2008) and KLONOA Phantasy Reverie Series (2022) — 14 years.
• Microsoft Flight Simulator X (2006) and Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) — 14 years.
• Robotron: 2084 (1982) and Robotron X (1996) — 14 years.
• Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (2005) and Sakura Wars (2019) — 14 years.
• The World Ends with You (2007) and NEO: The World Ends with You (2021) — 14 years. However, the first game was given the Updated Re-release treatment twice (once in 2012 and again in 2018) in the meanwhile.
• Carmageddon TDR 2000 (2000) and Carmageddon: Reincarnation (2015) — 15 years.
• Duke Nukem Forever (2011) is probably one of the most well-known examples of this trope, being released 15 years after Duke Nukem 3D (1996). Though to be fair, the gap was mainly due to the game being stuck in Development Hell — it's notable in particular because the game was still in active development in some form or another for the entirety of those 15 years. Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project (2002) did come out in the interim, 6 years after 3D and 9 years before Forever.
• Endless Ocean: Blue World (2009) and Endless Ocean: Luminous (2024) — 15 years.
• Rygar (1987) and Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (2002) — 15 years.
• Samba de Amigo: Samba de Amigo (2008) and Samba de Amigo: Party Central (2023) — 15 years.
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1991) and Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins (2006) — 15 years. Not counting the WonderSwan game Capcom licensed to Bandai, the Game Boy Advance port of Super, or the Gargoyle's Quest spin-off series.
• Cruis'n Velocity (2001) to Cruis'n Blast (2017) — 16 years, or 10 years if one counts the Wii Cruis'n, which was not an original game but rather a license-scrubbed port of the arcade game based on The Fast and the Furious film series.
• Excitebike (1984) and Excitebike 64 (2000) — 16 years.
• Goblins 3 (1993) and Gobliiins 4 (2009) — 16 years.
• Langrisser Millennium WS (2000) and Langrisser Re:Incarnation Tensei (2016) — 16 years.
• Psychonauts (2005) and Psychonauts 2 (2021) — 16 years. The spin-off game Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin was released in 2017.
• Umihara Kawase Shun (1997) and Sayonara Umihara Kawase (2013) — 16 years, during which the former title was rereleased and ported a few times.
• V-Rally 3 (2002) to V-Rally 4 (2018) — 16 years.
• Evil Genius (2004) and Evil Genius 2: World Domination (2021) — 17 years, excluding the Facebook games Evil Genius Online and Evil Genius WMD.
• Killer Instinct 2 / Killer Instinct Gold (1996) and Killer Instinct (2013) — 17 years.
• King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (1998) and Kings Quest (2015) — 17 years.
• OutRun (1986) and OutRun 2 (2003) — 17 years. Although it did have a few other oddly named sequels (notably Turbo OutRun in 1989 and OutRunners in 1992, both arcade releases).
• Gungrave Overdose (2004) to Gungrave G.O.R.E (2022) — 18 years, without counting the 2018 spin-off Gungrave VR.
• King's Bounty (1990) and King's Bounty: The Legend (2008) — 18 years.
• R-Type Final (2003) to R-Type Final II (2021) — 18 years (not counting the R-Type Tactics spin-off subseries, in which case the gap between R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate and Final II is 12 years)
• Shenmue II (2001) and Shenmue III (2019) — 18 years.
• Super Princess Peach (2005) to Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024) — 18 years.
• X (1992) and X-Scape (2010) — 18 years.
• Daytona USA 2 (1998) and Daytona 3 Championship USA (2017) — 19 years (and even including the 2001 Dreamcast game Daytona USA 2001, the last genuinely new Daytona USA game, that's still over 16).
• Melty Blood (2002) and Melty Blood Type Lumina (2021) — 19 years. When compared to the last version release (Current Code), there's a 10 year gap.
• R.B.I. Baseball '95/Super R.B.I. Baseball (both 1995) and R.B.I. Baseball 14 (2014) — 19 years
• Back to the Future: The Game (2010), which followed up on the plot of the films, came 20 years after the release of Back to the Future Part III (1990).
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004) and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 (scheduled for 2024) — 20 years.
• TRON (1982)/Discs of TRON (1983) and Tron 2.0 (2003) — 20 years.
• Super Bomberman 5 (1997) and Super Bomberman R (2017) — 20 years, without counting the various other spin-offs and assorted games. Even counting them, however, still leaves a six-year gap between 2011's Bomberman Dojo and ''Super Bomberman R’’.
• Bubsy is 3D in Furbitten Planet (1996) and Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back (2017) — 21 years.
• Pocky & Rocky with Becky (2001) to Pocky & Rocky Reshrined (2022) — 21 years.
• Rainbow Cotton (2000) to Superlative Night Dreams: Cotton Rock 'n' Roll (2021) — 21 years. Notably, Cotton Rock 'n' Roll is the second of three Cotton releases in 2021 (sandwiched between a Video Game Remake and a Compilation Re-release) after 18 years of inactivity.
• Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (1991) and Kid Icarus: Uprising (2012) — 21 years (see page image). Uprising pokes fun at this by starting the game with Pit saying "Sorry to keep you waiting!" Japan had it worse - they didn't get Of Myths and Monsters until its Virtual Console release in 2012, meaning they had to wait 26 years between installments. The game even ends by joking that the next installment will take just as long to show up.
• Putty (1992) and Putty Squad (1994/2013) — The Super Nintendo Entertainment System port of the sequel came out only one year after Super Putty, but the original Amiga version was unexpectedly shelved for nearly two decades before System 3 finally released it an incredible 21 years after the first game was released for the Amiga.
• The Great Giana Sisters (1987) and Giana Sisters DS (2009) — 22 years.
• Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (1998) to Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (2020) — 22 years. ^note  While there are technically other Crash games after Warped (with another installment also being considered a direct sequel), It's About Time is marketed as a direct sequel to Warped. Even then, it's also the first new Crash game since Crash: Mind Over Mutant (2008), a smaller gap of 12 years.
• Baldur's Gate II (2000) and Baldur's Gate III (2023) — 23 years. Though it's 22 if you count Throne of Bhaal (2001) expansion, and only 7 if you count Siege of Dragonspear (2016).
• The Legend of Kage (1985) and The Legend of Kage 2 (2008) — 23 years.
• Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina (1999), an Interactive Fiction game by Jim Aikin, had a sequel called The Only Possible Prom Dress (2022) — 23 years.
• Mutant League Football (1993) and Mutant Football League (2017) — 24 years.
• Shaq Fu (1994) and Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn (2018) — 24 years.
• The Fool's Errand (1987) and The Fool and His Money (2012) — 25 years.
• Operation Tiger (1998) and Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission (2023) — 25 years.
• Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993) and Underworld Ascendant (2018) — 25 years.
• Battletoads Arcade (1994) and a reboot released in 2020 — 26 years. This is after five unique games were released in the series between 1991 and 1994.
• Streets of Rage 3 (1994) to Streets of Rage 4 (2020) — 26 years.
• Wasteland (1988) to Wasteland 2 (2014^note early access beta since 2013) — 26 years.
• River City Ransom (1990) and River City Ransom: Underground (2017) — 27 years. There have been other games in the Kunio-kun series during this time, but Underground is the first sequel that specifically follows the story of the U.S. version rather than being a direct translation of the Japanese original.
  • River City Girls Zero (1994) and River City Girls (2019) — 25 years. This specifically covers games made for the Nekketsu Kouha branch of the series, not the main Downtown Nekketsu one.
• GG Aleste II: Lance Bird (1993) and GG Aleste 3: Last Messiah (2020) — 27 years. Notable in that GG Aleste 3 beat out Aleste Branch which was announced as an anniversary game in 2018 but fell into Development Hell, and that GG Aleste 3 is a Game Gear game just like its immediate predecessor.
• Tapper (1983) and Tapper World Tour (2011) — 28 years.
• Wind Jammers (1994) and Windjammers 2 (2022) — 28 years.
• Andro Dunos (1992) to Andro Dunos 2 (2022) — 30 years.
• The Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate (1988) to The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep (2018) — 30 years. The 2004 game The Bard's Tale is part of the series In Name Only.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (1991) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (2022) — 31 years. Particularly interesting case, since no arcade-style Beat 'em Up games based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) cartoon were released in the interim, focusing on the more contemporary series, and '87-based games in general were largely absent between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (1993) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Madness (2020). The only one-off case was the Re-Shelled remake of Turtles in Time in 2009.
• Toxic Crusaders: 32 years between the original cartoon (1991) and the 2023 game. By proxy, it also came long after the older standalone licensed games of the same name (1991).
• Ufouria (1991), in its original Japanese form Hebereke, and Ufouria 2 (2024) — 33 years.
• Getsu Fuma Den (1987) and GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon (2022) — 35 years.
• Outcast (June 1999) and Outcast: A New Beginning (March 2024) — nearly 25 years.
• Lugaru (2005) and Overgrowth (2017) — 12 years.