13 Video Game Sequels Better Than Their 'Classic' Originals

Sacrilege! Pac-Man is one of the defining games of the industry! How can a game of such singular importance ever be considered inferior to a mere sequel?

Well, as we've already learnt in this article, a game's status as 'iconic' largely depends on circumstance.

Pac-Man was a global phenomenon. The nascent gaming world had simply never seen anything like it. A definable character! OK, a yellow circle with a mouth, but a character nonetheless! Honestly, I'm not being facetious whatsoever when I say that this was truly groundbreaking stuff (though again, that sounds painfully sarcastic).

Pac-Man was, and is, legitimately great. But it was because it was so far ahead of the curve at its release that it captured the global zeitgeist so firmly, spreading an epidemic of Pac-Man fever to arcade goers everywhere.

Ms. Pac-Man was equally popular, but the capacity to amaze no longer existed; literally everybody had experienced the wonders of Namco's first maze-muncher. Yet the follow up was so much more than just the yellow pill-fiend with a bow slapped on his head. The sequel introduced new styles of maze, in addition to gently refining the gameplay which had made the original so nefariously addictive. The cabinet promptly became the biggest selling American coin-op of all time.

But when the pantheon of gaming greats is built in the not too distant future, you just know it'll be Mr. Pac-Man who is favoured. That's the rampant misogyny in the game industry for you.