Nintendo Okie

Have you ever noticed how video games have more sequels than any other medium?  There are plenty of movie sequels out there but how many movies can you think of that have a 4 or 5 in the title?  How many books make it over 3?  Now, if you apply that to video games you can probably think of several right away.   Television shows are episodic by nature and don’t really have sequels.  Instead they have spin-offs more than anything else.  What about music?  Have you ever heard of an album sequel?  They may exist but I have never heard of one.  I think games produce more sequels because they are so technical.  A game can combine the story of a book with the visual presentation of a movie and it is accompanied by all types of music.  On top of that, the whole thing works with an interactive input.  That is a whole lot of ducks to have in a row.

Thinking about all this made me wonder what gaming would be like if sequels didn’t exist.  That was immediately followed by the question, “Would I only have one Metroid game?”  That is a scary thought.  Asking that question about your favorite franchise forces you to really define what a sequel is.  Obviously, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a sequel to Super Mario Bros., but is Super Mario Galaxy?  Sure it may have the same characters and take place in the same continuity, but the games are almost nothing alike.  For movies a sequel simply builds on the story from its predecessor.  Each successive Star Wars movie (or book) built on the universe that the original film started.  Often times with movies, sequels do not live up to fan expectations.  I imagine this is because a movie sequel can only really improve on a story.  Video games are unique because each sequel has an opportunity to improve on the interaction between game and player.

Developers typically use sequels to make adjustments to the controls, taking out aspects that didn’t quite work and adding new things that improve on the system in place.  The more they are iterated on, they become more refined.  The same can be said for the graphics and physics engines of a game.  Over several years, technology evolves and so do video games.  This is how we have seen Mario go from the pixilated grounds of the Mushroom Kingdom to the vast reaches of space.  Super Mario Galaxy may be considered a sequel to Super Mario Bros., but it is only because they exist in the same universe.  If you take away the similar characters the games would have nothing in common.

If sequels were outlawed by some sort of game cop, would we lose lose our iconic characters.   Would Samus Aran and Master Chief not be the powerful figures they are today?  Maybe the trade off would be all new characters that don’t exist now due to companies using the popular characters they have already created.  I also I think games would suffer from a lack of polish if sequels were not allowed.  That’s not to say things wouldn’t improve but games can be so different from each other.  A mechanic that works in one first person shooter, a lock on system for example, might totally break another FPS.

Where do remakes fall in all of this?  Would our game cop allow the remake of Resident Evil for GameCube?  The game is similar in structure to the original PlayStation version, but can you consider it a sequel?  Perhaps our game cop would answer to a court that would hear Capcom’s case of how the graphics have been improved, the story has been expanded and new enemies have been added.  Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is another example of a remake that makes huge changes while retaining the spirit of the original.  These games can’t be sequels in the same way that Mega Man is to Mega Man 2 can they?

I’m not against sequels.  I like Resident Evil 2 more that the original.  I do often hear people complain that sequels don’t present enough to warrant another release.  I have often been one of those people.  While I agree that some sequels could do more, looking at the big picture shows how each small step leads to bigger leaps in the gaming industry.  That’s one small step for Mario, one giant leap for the Mushroom Kingdom.  Without small steps in between, giant leaps in progress would be few and far between.