Series that are one hit wonders?

[excelsior]

Here's a question. Are there any series you consider one hit wonders? I'm not talking about sales in this thread though, but on a quality/perceived quality basis. So kind of the opposite of a series having one black sheep entry. Whether there is just one particularly good entry or just one worth playing at all.

For the record, I was thinking of Star Fox when I made this thread (yes, I went there). Any other suggestions?

[vnisanian2001]

The original Earthworm Jim. The other two games have a lot of frustrations.

[dsparil]

Some series are really just piggybacking off a successful first game for a quick buck so there's plenty of these. Alone in the Dark is a big one. First is a big hit made on a shoestring budget, but the designer-programmer left afterward as Infogrames was not a great place to be. The second and third games are just worse and worse and none of the reboot attempts have been good either. Maybe the upcoming fourth(!) reboot won't be garbage, but the GBC version of the 2001 reboot is the closest the series has gotten to actually being good again after the original.

[spanky]

Final Fight? The original was a big influential hit, but all the sequels seem like they are playing catch up with Street of Rage. Past the original, all the series really been used for is providing characters for Street Fighter.

[excelsior]

Good suggestions. All of which peaked on the first one. On that note perhaps Dead Rising? I loved the first personally, but 2 seemed like a considerable departure. I didn't play any further but it seems the series never captured the magic again as far as popular opinion.

[spanky]

Dead Rising is a good choice though I remember enjoying the second one. The first one was a big deal though, being an early game in that generation, hitting at the height of the zombie fad and being a cool demonstration of the new technology. Scope in games(in DR's case, 100+ character models on screen at once) is something that always impresses me.

RE: Star Fox - has anyone at Nintendo figured out if they just make Star Fox 64 again, without any gimmicks or on foot stages, that people will love it and it will sell a billion copies??

[excelsior]

spanky - The weirdest thing about Star Fox is Nintendo have put out several similar games over the years outside of that series. Sin & Punishment 2 and Kid Icarus Uprising likely had lower sales potential than a new standard Star Fox arcade style of game. New Pokemon Snap makes more sense, but there certainly wasn't so loud of a fanbase asking for it.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Rocket Knight Adventures is easily the best of those games, although I still like the 16-bit sequels (Sparkster SNES one more so).

Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Shinobi World is good, it's just not really an AK game to me. 

Without having played all of the sequels I would say Yoshi's Island. Same with Cannon Fodder and Actraiser.

Not quite OHW:
Seiken Densetsu 1 is easily my fave, a bit more controversial perhaps. Haven't played SoM with two other players, only 2-player, I just prefer the dungeon design of 1.

Monster World 2/Wonder Boy 3 was the best in that series until Monster Boy, which is on par relative to when it was released but should've been patched to fix some stuff.

For 2D Ninja Gaiden, the best game is Ninja Gaiden for SMS. NG3 comes pretty close but only the JP ver, and NG2 is a pretty good game as well (with save states).

Shinobi 3 is the best 2D Shinobi but I still enjoy the others.

Star Fox, because the first is still a great game with some technical issues. 

[chronotigger65]

Would Destroy All Humans count? The first two games I believe were well received but the series went downhill after that.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

Star Fox has at least two games that people like/remember, the first one and 64, though 64 is clearly the more popular. The GCN games are also supposed to be good, for those that give them a chance, apparentely. Even SF2 is pretty decent I believe.

Oh, and I think you're underestimating how many people wanted Snap 2. Outside of wished to do with the mainline series, I think that might've been the most requested pkmn-related thing.

[personman]

Yeah I'd say Star Fox has at least three high quality titles with the original, 64 and 2. Really even Adventures I hear is decent and Assault did have its merits with really good rail shooting, they just got over shadowed by the half baked on ground stuff.

Its a bit of a weird case because I don't feel it all crashed and burned as badly as people make it out to be. While Command and especially Zero were failures I get the feeling there is more animosity toward Star Fox because Nintendo just refused to give people what they wanted the series to be for so long.

[retr0gamer]

Gunstar Heroes. Gunstar Super Heroes for me was fairly bland.

[retr0gamer]

Jul 26, 2023 5:23:53 GMT -5 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 said:

The GCN games are also supposed to be good, for those that give them a chance, apparentely.

It's really not good at all. Most of the levels are set up arenas and feel like a very basic fan made hoard mode slapped together in unity. There's 3 traditional Arwing levels and people say they are good but they aren't, they're only good when compared to the rest of the game.

The game was obviously made to be a 4 player multiplayer games with the single player missions slapped in, more than likely into the multiplayer arenas.

[lurker]

Jul 27, 2023 15:00:17 GMT -5 personman said:

Yeah I'd say Star Fox has at least three high quality titles with the original, 64 and 2. Really even Adventures I hear is decent and Assault did have its merits with really good rail shooting, they just got over shadowed by the half baked on ground stuff.

Its a bit of a weird case because I don't feel it all crashed and burned as badly as people make it out to be. While Command and especially Zero were failures I get the feeling there is more animosity toward Star Fox because Nintendo just refused to give people what they wanted the series to be for so long.

Zero was mainly held back by control issues and that dual screen gimmick where you had to alternate between looking at the Wii U screen and the tv.

[excelsior]

Thanks for the other suggestions. I really wasn't trying to make a discussion around Star Fox. Just for clarification I see it as a series where one entry is considered a classic well above all others, even if some of those are liked well enough. Heck, I even liked Star Fox Zero and was the person that played and enjoyed Star Fox Guard. I see the original has a bit of a reputation for being a prototype for what came later and kind of became redundant. 2 is a weird case where it was retrofitted back into the series so it's difficult to count. I doubt people clamoring for the series largely even played it. Hence I wondered if any other series reputation was based largely around one entry.

Any more suggestions for one hit wonder series?