Which gaming series has been the most inconsistent?

The other day I was having a discussion with someone about the Mega Man X series since I saw the collection at a gamestop. Another friend that was with me asked about the quality of the games, and I stated that the first three are excellent titles, while the other three are questionable. This lead into a general discussion about the varying degree in quality of the megaman franchise as a whole.

The short version of the discussion was that we realized the series has to be one of the most inconsistent franchises in all of gaming, some titles (X,MM2,Zero,Legends) are top tier quality games, while others are straight mediocre, and some are just outright bad (MMX7). I understand not every game in a franchise is going to be perfect, but there seems to be a serious lack of quality control in those titles.

After the conversation I was left wondering; is there any other series that has a more inconsistent level of quality than mega man?

I think mega man might be the cake winner, but Zelda has some inconsistencies...I.e. side scrolling, boss change ups...etc

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Originally Posted by Daedalus

I think mega man might be the cake winner, but Zelda has some inconsistencies...I.e. side scrolling, boss change ups...etc

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Please explain, w/out mentioning Zelda 2.

double dragon

I win...

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Originally Posted by NeoSneth

double dragon

I win...

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^This. Especially when they merge it with Battletoads.

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Originally Posted by goombakid

^This. Especially when they merge it with Battletoads.

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That game shouldn't be mentioned. Tradewest/Rare made that trash.

There are better examples other than the Double Dragon series.

Bubsy the Bobcat?
Rocket Knight Adventures

It's hard to think of series of more than a few games that aren't inconsistent.

I disagree with Zelda, though. That's not inconsistency. That's variety.

Fuzzytaco: I can explain it without using Zelda 2 in 3 letters... C...D...I... Sure Nintendo says they aren't Zelda games, what they are really saying is they are not good Zelda games. They were fully licensed, most real and most horrible.

Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon
http://media.nintendo-gamer.net/wp-c...box-art-x2.jpg

Alone In the Dark series.

Sonic came to my head first and foremost

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Originally Posted by Jassin000

Fuzzytaco: I can explain it without using Zelda 2 in 3 letters... C...D...I... Sure Nintendo says they aren't Zelda games, what they are really saying is they are not good Zelda games. They were fully licensed, most real and most horrible.

Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon
http://media.nintendo-gamer.net/wp-c...box-art-x2.jpg

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I think most of us either disregard or repress memory of the CDI games. They are more like bad episodes of the shitty american cartoon or something. Yeah, they are licensed, but they aren't part of the actual game series. I wouldn't include them any more than I would any other piece of poorly made licensed trash, like a bad t-shirt or something.

No one has mention resident evil yet !?

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Originally Posted by SouthtownKid

I think most of us either disregard or repress memory of the CDI games. They are more like bad episodes of the shitty american cartoon or something. Yeah, they are licensed, but they aren't part of the actual game series. I wouldn't include them any more than I would any other piece of poorly made licensed trash, like a bad t-shirt or something.

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So, no Hanna Barbara Dragon's Lair cartoon?

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Originally Posted by Jassin000

Fuzzytaco: I can explain it without using Zelda 2 in 3 letters... C...D...I... Sure Nintendo says they aren't Zelda games, what they are really saying is they are not good Zelda games. They were fully licensed, most real and most horrible.

Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon
http://media.nintendo-gamer.net/wp-c...box-art-x2.jpg

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I don't know what the fuck the CDi was but it wasn't a game console, and those fmv Zelda whatever the fucks were not games. For Christ sake a 7 year old child could draw better than that.

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Originally Posted by Tron

No one has mention resident evil yet !?

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I was just about to agree with you. Especially since Resident Evil 6 isn't even consistent with itself!

Maybe it's not the most inconsistent series ever but I always had problems with how the Castlevania games evolved from the NES days to now. I'm a huge fan of the old platformers on NES, MD, SNES, X68k, etc. while the 3D versions (and SotN) bore me to tears, even though some of them aren't bad games per se. IMO Konami lost it with SotN which brought in RPG-ish elements and thus a large group of new fans who preferred the backtracking stuff over the straight-forward platformer approach. Don't get me wrong, SotN is a good game, I just think that it pushed the series in a wrong direction. That and 3D nailed the coffin shut for me.

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Originally Posted by jeff bogard

Sonic came to my head first and foremost

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eh, at this point a good Sonic game is a rarity, they're like the CD-i Zelda games.

duke nukem

Takumaji: I've gotta say I more or less agree with you about Castlevania. SotN (PS1) is a fantastic game, and I am glad it was made. That being said its not my most fave of the series, that honor belongs to DX (PCE). After SotN I just expected Konami to return to the classic style. They got hung up on RPG style, then turned to 3D... Both huge mistakes IMO! AoS (GBA) and DoS (DS) are good games, but they really added nothing (other then a completely wack story) to the series. Its just more of the same RPG backtracking stuff that was already done perfectly in SotN. I do like the look of the 3DS title that is being made, no idea how it will compare with the true classics however. At this point they have fallen so far, even if this new game is good I doubt it will be enuf to salvage the series long term. Nail in the coffin indeed!

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Originally Posted by OrochiEddie

Another friend that was with me asked about the quality of the games, and I stated that the first three are excellent titles, while the other three are questionable.

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I would have to say that X4 is also great. X5 and X6 well, those are truly questionable.

if anything, mega man is one of the most consistent series ever.

Star Fox

Dunno...King of Fighters?

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Originally Posted by Doctor Shroom

Dunno...King of Fighters?

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Was just about to say KOF. It has some incredible games like 98, 2k2, and KOF13. Then it also has trash like 94, 2k3 and 12.

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Originally Posted by Takumaji

Maybe it's not the most inconsistent series ever but I always had problems with how the Castlevania games evolved from the NES days to now. I'm a huge fan of the old platformers on NES, MD, SNES, X68k, etc. while the 3D versions (and SotN) bore me to tears, even though some of them aren't bad games per se. IMO Konami lost it with SotN which brought in RPG-ish elements and thus a large group of new fans who preferred the backtracking stuff over the straight-forward platformer approach. Don't get me wrong, SotN is a good game, I just think that it pushed the series in a wrong direction. That and 3D nailed the coffin shut for me.

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Agree 100%

I actually came in here to mention Castlevania.

I also agree that while SotN was a great game, it deviated too much from the classic CV formula and tried to apply Metroid like gameplay elements to a series that didn't need it. It was the biggest step forward and the greatest step back in the series. Virtually every handheld CV game after SotN applied the exact same game mechanics to each new title. Castlevania doesn't need a shit ton of back tracking to make a good game. Give me branching level design any day of the week.

I don't even want to bring up the horror that is the 3D CV games. Someone should be dragged out in the street and shot over them.

Rondo is still probably the best in the series followed closely by Castlevania 3 and Chronicles/X68k version.

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Originally Posted by X

I would have to say that X4 is also great. X5 and X6 well, those are truly questionable.

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I hated X4 on so many levels. I think a lot of it came from the awful dialogue, voice acting, and (I know its funny to say about this in a megaman game) the plot, which completely disregarded everything that had happened in the first three games. Up until X4 the X series was doing a decent job of having a semi-coherent plot that followed one game to the next.

I honestly enjoy X6 because of how ungodly broken it is. The end game is just hilarious if you spent the hour or so farming nightmare souls.

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if anything, mega man is one of the most consistent series ever

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In that its average score is somewhere in the middle? The series has some seriously brilliant and also truly awful games.

I love how no one dares bring up X7 or X8

I think MMX8 was decent.

Gran Turismo.

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Originally Posted by broken

Agree 100%

I actually came in here to mention Castlevania.

I also agree that while SotN was a great game, it deviated too much from the classic CV formula and tried to apply Metroid like gameplay elements to a series that didn't need it. It was the biggest step forward and the greatest step back in the series. Virtually every handheld CV game after SotN applied the exact same game mechanics to each new title. Castlevania doesn't need a shit ton of back tracking to make a good game. Give me branching level design any day of the week.

I don't even want to bring up the horror that is the 3D CV games. Someone should be dragged out in the street and shot over them.

Rondo is still probably the best in the series followed closely by Castlevania 3 and Chronicles/X68k version.

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One of the 3D 'vanias on PS2 wasn't too shabby, don't remember which one (Lament of Innocence or Curse of Darkness, guess it was the latter), but it still wasn't a true Castlevania game, more like Diabolo with vampires and skeletons.

The old CVs are like the Hammer Dracula films with Christopher Lee, they're cheesy and kinda trashy but timeless classics that still are a blast to watch, while the new 3D CVs feel like Interview With A Vampire or those hipster vampire series/movies with young and compusively cool goth-type undeads to me. Technically okay but atmospherically flawed beyond repair.

My fave CV is Bloodlines on MD, followed by the NES games (except part two).

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Originally Posted by SetaSouji??

I love how no one dares bring up X7 or X8

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I brough up X7 in the initial post.

X8 wasn't a bad game, not the best, but definitely a fun game.

Am I the only person that enjoyed LoI? I thought it was a great, enjoyable game. It's not revolutionary, but it was well done and very playable. Certainly better than the 3d Metroid trash.

Metroid is very uneven, btw.

The 3d games are really poorly done.
Super is among the best games ever made.
The original is almost unplayable at this point. (Aged Badly)
The GB title was very good
Fusion is below average
ZM is pretty good
One title was cancelled
Other M was laughably bad
Prime Hunters is shit
Pinball is decent (and a PINBALL game)

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Originally Posted by Takumaji

The old CVs are like the Hammer Dracula films with Christopher Lee, they're cheesy and kinda trashy but timeless classics that still are a blast to watch, while the new 3D CVs feel like Interview With A Vampire or those hipster vampire series/movies with young and compusively cool goth-type undeads to me. Technically okay but atmospherically flawed beyond repair.

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Don't you mean Christopher Bee?

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The 3d games are really poorly done.

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No they're not.

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Other M was laughably bad

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That's true though.

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Originally Posted by Doctor Shroom

No they're not.

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I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I'm a "Metroid Purist" and running through MP and SCANNING every fucking thing is insane. Corruption's controls really sucked.

I liked the beginning on MP..had they stuck with that, I would've loved it.

Well I really liked them, the scanning didn't bother me.
>Opinions.

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Originally Posted by Doctor Shroom

Well I really liked them, the scanning didn't bother me.
>Opinions.

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Heh. I have no problem saying I have an opinion, even unpopular.


... noting that it's an opinion and I don't state it as FACT. I've softened up over the years.

I thought it was a generally popular opinion that people dislike Metroid Prime.

I ended up playing Other M and really enjoyed it. I thought the limitation on her weapon use was too meta based on the narrative and I really felt Nintendo and Team Ninja didn't meet the character's long time fans half way on her origin story, but that is independent of the gameplay, which I rather enjoyed. Game is underrated, IMO.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Whitefolks

Am I the only person that enjoyed LoI? I thought it was a great, enjoyable game. It's not revolutionary, but it was well done and very playable. Certainly better than the 3d Metroid trash.

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You aren't the only one that liked Lament of Innocence. I seemed to remember playing it constantly when it first came out. I think I even beat it on the mode where you play as the pumpkin-headed guy. Much stronger than the main character, BTW (forget his name now).

I also happened to enjoy MMX4, though. Not sure why some of you hate it so much. The story is solid, IMO and it definitely stands with the first 3 in terms of gameplay. It also got me really stoked for the next one...boy, was I disappointed. The fact you had to beat the game by playing the levels only a few times (ridiculous considering EVERY OTHER MMX GAME required you to return to previously beaten levels to obtain all the heart tanks, sub tanks, etc.) that and the stupid rescue system that this game introduced and CONTINUED throughout the life span of the X series.

As far as Metroid goes, I enjoy both of the Prime games released on Gamecube but, after that, the series has fallen short. You could definitely tell in Prime 3 for Wii...you KNEW it was going to be bad when there were other people BESIDES Samus on that planet.

Jon

They've been boshing out games for the Worms franchise for nearly twenty years now, and they've all been utter shit. That's some pretty impressive consistency in my book.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (the terrible looking PS2 game) had certain quality to it when it came to gameplay and collectibles. Too bad it fell short in the presentation department. It's definitely not on par with the other games in the series, but it's huge and enjoyable if you liked the RPG's aspect of the Metroidvania's.

While I haven't played it yet, I would always prefer to have Other M over any first-person Metroid. Prime 1 was great from what I heard, but I just couldn't get into the first-person gameplay due to motion sickness. I'm still aiming to play it one day.

I thought Lament of Innocence was probably the lamest, most bland and boring game I've ever played all the way through. Once. Then boxed. Anything lamer, and I would have cut my loses and quit midway. I might have done that anyway if it wasn't for the Castlevania name that kept me hoping things would improve. The N64 Castlevanias were infinitely superior in both atmosphere and gameplay, and that's saying something. Not to mention much better castle/level design. They had a better story, too.

LoI needed at least double the development time to have been saved. I have a hard time believing the cancelled Dreamcast game would have been worse than LoI.

Not a fan of Lament of Innocence either, here.

I thought it was pretty boring, with uninteresting environments that all seemed geometrically 'even' and there was not much variety to the playing field as I recall. I remember running into a lot of square rooms with enemies to kill.

By way of comparison, Devil May Cry had that damnable fixed camera but the environments were much more varied and, in some cases constrained to mix up the gameplay from the typical 'open area combat' elements. The basement of the airplane hanger in DMC was pretty much every combat environment in LoI. Also, the level design was more imaginative on an aesthetic level and the combat totally stomps a fucking mudhole in LoI's ass and walks it dry.

I remember that after playing DMC, I was thinking 'why couldn't a 3D Castlevania be more like this?' It completely stole the PS2 Castlevania offerings' thunder, IMO. And many of my friends, who were hardcore 8 bit CV players, felt exactly the same way. They were all pretty pissed off that Capcom out 'vania'd Konami.

Curse of Darkness is a miserable pile of shit. It's long, boring, tedious and completely uninspired except for the character designs and the soundtrack. The concept of the Innocent Devils could have really worked if they would have been more fun to level up. But even the animations and textures were terrible in that game. At least Lament of Innocence's characters and enemies looked all right. It was like CoD was developed before LoI but were released in reverse order.

I agree that the N64 Castilevania games were superior to either of the PS2 offerings, and that is saying something.

And Lords of Shadow, despite peoples' constant complaining and comparison to God of War, is WAY, WAY better than either of the PS2 games IMO.

The most consistent thing about Castelvania games is the imagery of the titles.

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Originally Posted by OrochiEddie

I brough up X7 in the initial post.

X8 wasn't a bad game, not the best, but definitely a fun game.

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*re-read* oh, yup. There it is. My bad!

Command Mission is bullshit.

Final Fantasy is the clear answer to this thread.

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Originally Posted by Soilwork

Final Fantasy is the clear answer to this thread.

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Low hanging fruit.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Whitefolks

Am I the only person that enjoyed LoI? I thought it was a great, enjoyable game. It's not revolutionary, but it was well done and very playable. Certainly better than the 3d Metroid trash.

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Guess one can enjoy LoI and still rate it as a shitty Castlevania. :)

I have to admit that I'm quite biased when it comes to the Castlevania series. Played Bloodlines and the NES games (specially the first one) like mad and still fire up my MD for a bit of BL action every now and then. IMO there's that certain spark of ingenuity in the old games that I utterly miss in the 3D sequels. They took away what I liked the most and came up with something quite generic that works in one way or another but ultimately isn't what I expect from a game with "Castlevania" in its title.

In case of CV, 3D and the departure from the platformer style is the/my problem. However, 3D versions of former 2D games can be even better than the original concept, just take the Metal Gear series for example. The MSX original was cool and all but there probably aren't a lot of gamers out there who actually prefer it over MGS on PSX or other 3D remakes. That's because the concept of stealth commando missions works better in 3D than 2D.

Not so with Castlevania. In my opinion, the 2D action-platformer thing (and most importantly the general attack timing and overall "groove") was a style-forming and thus integral part of what made the series so great. When they replaced it with rather blunt 3D hack'n'slash action, the series lost its heart and became yet another variant of what we've seen hundreds of times before or after.

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Originally Posted by Taiso

Don't you mean Christopher Bee?

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Heh, had to google that one... now that's some cryptic reference, my respect, Mister Taiso! :D

Silent Hill