disappointing sequels
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In almost every case, movie sequels are worse than the originals. For games, usually, it's the opposite. Part 2, 3 and beyond are not met with the same eye rolling and sliding down into the chair as their cinematic cousins, but rather more of a "Sweet!". We most often don't feel burned by game sequels. Track & Field 2 was a marked improvement, Megaman 2 was at least as good as part 1, Street Fighter 2 was imeasurably better than the first. Even so, mistakes are made. Miscalculated risks, failures of logic, loss of creative control have all been known to turn sure things into head-scratching WTFs. These are the stand out few that, over the years, have disappointed me. That doesn't mean they are bad games. per se. Just that they failed to do what most game sequels do. |
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Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter 
X-Men vs. Street Fighter was really quite a game. The tag-team dynamic that it presented, an opportunity wholey missed by the early games of the KOF franchise,
ratchted up the enjoyment for scrubs and technical players alike. It had a speedy exuberance and a nice feel, along with a great cast.
The failure of this sequel was apparent the instant I started playing. Sitting there at the character select, I realized
that there is no one I REALLY want to play. No Juggernaut, no Sentinal, no Ironman, no Rogue. This alone was by no means a deal breaker, but it was an
inescapable feeling. Of course it was only the beginning of the disappointment...
In what can only be construed as an attempt to make the game more 32-bit console friendly, frames of animation had been cut. This may seem like a minor detail, but realize that character animation was practically the foundation of Capcom's X-Men series. Cyclops' ridiculously fluid run now looked "framey". Those wild Hulk arial raves don't look quite so wild. A sequel that is actually less technically impressive than its forebearer? Combos themselves were also curtailed. Perhaps as a response to the rash of infinite combos found in XSF, Capcom decided to make the combo system more ridged, more pedestrian and, ultimately, less interesting. The game is slower as well. Not since the red-headed Super Street Fighter 2 has a sequel been slower. What was Capcom thinking? Was XSF "too much"? Was MSF "kid friendly, mother approved"? 
Back to the characters. Dan is by nature a joke, an in-joke at that, and cannot be considered a selling point. Cyber Akuma? All of the other Marvel/VS series games culminate in a David vs. Goliath match (Apocolypse, Onslaught, Abyss), but this one ends with the goofy Cyber Akuma? It has the stale stink of a cut-and-paste job, which is a nice segue to the "secret characters". These are in fact more like secret costumes, as they are mostly pallett swaps of standard characters. What purpose does U.S. Agent serve, except to give us the small silly joy of a team super K.O. with Captain America known as the "Star Star"? |