7 Video Games You Didn’t Realise Were Sequels

If you played Earthbound as a kid, did you know it was a sequel?

It's almost unheard of for a video game sequel to be remembered more than its original. By definition of warranting a second game, the first entry needs to be popular in the first place, often meaning its always in the conversation.

Because of this, it can go overlooked when something that takes off is actually a sequel, as you’ve likely already heard of the first game in the series.

Sometimes however, on very rare occasions a game will become well known, even though the previous entries in its franchise are overlooked by the masses.

There are a few ways this can happen.

The first game in a franchise isn't always released outside of its country of origin. Maybe a game is released on a dead console, yet the idea had enough promise to be tried on a system with an actual playerbase.

There are of course other reasons this can happen, which will become clear throughout the article. It must be lonely in the shadow of your own successor.

It's easy to forget that Conker's Bad Fur Day was originally going to be a child-friendly game like the rest of Rare's platformers.

It was worked on throughout the majority of the N64's lifecycle and it wasn't until quite late in its development that it became the mature game that we know it as today.

The thing is, if you want to take a look at the child-friendly equivalent of Conker, you don't even need to look at early builds and behind-the-scenes videos, you can just play the actual first Conker gam: Conker's Pocket Tales.

On Game Boy, Conker's Pocket Tales was in development alongside Conker's Bad Fur Day (at the time known as both Conker's Quest and later Twelve Tales: Conker 64). Unlike its home console counterpart, it wasn't delayed and came out on time, long before Rare decided that Conker should be something for adults.

It's probably good that Conker's Pocket Tales is forgotten. If it was a hit then imagine the confusion on kids faces as they went to pick up the next adventure starring their favourite animated squirrel only to be met with a sunflower with boobs.