10 Video Game Franchises That Never Topped The Original

There are plenty of games that seemed impossible to improve on, only for the later titles to blow them out of the water. Silent Hill 2 surpassed its predecessor in every way. Resident Evil 4 didn't just revitalise the zombie saga but the survival horror genre as a whole. Every time there's a new "Best Mario Game Ever" another one comes out of nowhere and says, "Hold my beer".

But on occasion, gaming developers managed to whip out a masterpiece on their first try. Not only that, the follow-ups were unable to recreate the magic, forcing them to forever remain in their original's shadow.

This achievement is more impressive after taking into account how much technology has advanced over the years. If a game was created decades ago with minimal time, money, and developers, a sequel should be significantly better if devised with a vast production team, modern tech, and unlimited resources.

And yet, some longtime series have never topped the first entry, no matter how many sequels, spin-offs, prequels, remakes, or crossovers they churn out.

Regardless of how bad or well the franchises on this list turned out, there's no doubt the initial instalment is the best of the bunch.

Around the millennium, shooters like Halo, Deus Ex, and Half-Life began focusing more on story, strategy, and completing objectives rather than charging around boomsticks blazing.

Despite the major shift in the genre, Croteam stuck with their guns (literally,) releasing an old-school blaster in 2001 called Serious Sam: The First Encounter. With its over-the-top action and snarky humour, Serious Sam felt like a love letter to classic gun-toters like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. It offered an awesome challenge, action-oriented gameplay, and testosterone-filled battles. It didn't reinvent the wheel, but Serious Sam offered oodles of fun. 

Sadly, the bombastic fragfest is a franchise that just got worse and worse. The Second Encounter is simply more of the same. Serious Sam 2 (which is the third entry) was too cartoony, lacking the edgy bite of its predecessors. Serious Sam 3: BFE's closed environments and lack of puzzles presented a terribly tedious experience.

At this point, Croteam should've known how to avoid the pitfalls of the lesser sequels to ensure the next instalment was a return to form. Alas, Serious Sam 4 is so lacking in creativity, it's baffling why the developers bothered with it in the first place.