10 Disastrous Followups To Great Video Games
5. Core Design - Tomb Raider II To Ninja: Shadow Of Darkness
Back in the 90s, Core Design really started making a name for itself, mainly because of the massive success of the Tomb Raider franchise and the mass media appeal of its new protagonist, Lara Croft.
The original Tomb Raider was extremely well received, and a sequel was of course inevitable. Tomb Raider 2 gave us more of the same as the original, but with more varied levels, some new moves for Miss Croft and it enjoyed both critical and commercial success upon its release in 1997.
As is the case with many developers of the 90s, the team at Core Design also had several games in the pipeline too.
The very next game they released after Tomb Raider 2 was received nowhere near as warmly. Ninja: Shadow of Darkness was described by one reviewer for Game Informer as having "Horrible graphics, bad controls, a pitiful excuse for a fighting engine, and no story add up to one word: sucks! Put Ninja to pasture and play Tenchu instead."
GameInformer gave it a paltry 2.5 out of 10, and many other outlets weren't kind to it either!