Overwatch 2 - Gaming Sequels DON'T WORK

It’s A Sequel, Jim, But Not As We Know It

This isn’t to say, of course, that there isn’t a place for traditional sequels in video games at all. In the case of a lot of single-player, story-driven titles, the format makes perfect sense. It just has to be handled very carefully.

The key here is to link the strands together, to continue a story gracefully. In the case of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, it’s been 22 years since the last numbered title (Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped in 1998) released, but in one hilariously snarky trailer, the team assuaged all those doubts perfectly.

It’s About Time retconned everything post-Warped out of existence in one fell swoop (with Crash and Coco insisting they’ve only defeated Cortex three times before, despite their new companion being sure it had been more than that), seemingly picking up the story from where things left off as though the furry orange funster had never been away.

With remasters and reboots being the order of the day in gaming, it’s tough to reconcile the differences between a true sequel and a reboot. It can lead to awkwardness such as 2011’s Mortal Kombat being referred to as Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat IX and Mortal Kombat 2011, depending on context. It was then followed by 2015’s Mortal Kombat X and 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11, further complicating matters.