Worst Game to Play First in a Franchise

[Spirit]

I thought this would be a fun little thread.

Essentially, which games in which franchises don't give an opening for new gamers just getting into the series.

For me it was resident evil 2, the opening which saw you standing in a burning street surrounded by zombies, i had never played RE1 before and didn't realise how weird the walking controls were. It took me numerous deaths and trial and error to try and dodge zombies to figure out walking controls before starting the actual game proper.

Anyone else have problems like this? With games that assume your familiarity with them?

 

[Ventus]

Do not start off with Kingdom Hearts 2. You will be confused; it's best to start off in series release order (don't play chronologically either). There is so much going on in KH2, from Nobodies to Heartless and so on, not to mention Xiggy giving cryptic hints referring to the Big Three.

 

[Ghirahimiscool]

I don't really have a worst game ever played...

 

[Krazy4Krash]

I'm having trouble getting into the Metal Gear series. I have no clue where to start off.

 

[Mases]

This might seem like the obvious one... but Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

This is a catch-22 type question. Take the Uncharted series. Part 2 is just so much better than part 1. So naturally, if you told somebody who never played the series that they should play part 2, they would probably play it, beat it, and have a good time with it. Then if they go back and play Part 1, they'd be disappointed. Thus for me, sometimes it is better to start with games that aren't necessarily the best in the series.

 

[Awesome]

Castlevania 64....it's just awful. If I had played that first I'm not sure if I would have ever gave Castlevania another chance

Mario is missing......never figured out how to play that game

Any of the CDi Zelda games.....don't think there really needs to be an explanation here

Hey You Pikacu!....bought that game by mistake, because I was young and didn't know any better

Aerofighters Assault....it's not that this game was bad, it just didn't feel like Aerofighters

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat....Microsoft I will never forgive you for stealing RARE away from Nintendo and then letting some of my favorite series die. The Gamecube was not kind to DK

That's all that I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure there's a lot more.

 

[nareky]

hmmm i dont think its a franchise but the worst for me would be holy magic century...dafuq is that game!

Would go with resident evil of the games i've played, first one was nemesis that i played and while i enjoyed it! i was rather clueless at the start

 

[Spirit]

Ah, i was thinking entirely about gameplay, i forgot all about story. Yay, I get to answer in my own thread.

Hmmm, game that assumed my familiarity with its storyline... hmm, i can't think. I guess maybe but not really but sort of I'd say; Metroid Other M.

The game introduced you to Mother Brain and Samus and all of the characters (however badly), but with Sakamoto trying to usurp himself with Super Metroid and Retro Studios with Metroid Prime, the full effect of playing Metroi Other M first is lost if you have never played a Metroid in first person or played Super Metroid and fought Mother Brain.

Also playing Other M as a first Metroid would turn anyone off the franchise.

 

[arkvoodle]

I think the rule is for any game series (at least ones that have a continuous storyline), "Do not play the last game in the series first". It'll be incredibly confusing and messy, and it will spoil your experience if you have absolutely no idea about what's going on.

I personally have never had this experience as I usually research that aspect beforehand. I always make sure to play the first game in the series first, just to avoid potential confusion/mess.

Three series that could be incredibly confusing if you play them out of order are the Kingdom Hearts series, the Metal Gear series and the Half Life series. You'd have absolutely no idea what's going on or what they're talking about if you played them backwards (newest to oldest) or from the middle to the end.

 

[Nanalie]

I first played the Kingdom Heart for the Gameboy and it was kind of confusing of what was going on and I was like who are these people.

 

[Zelda-Rocks]

kingdom hearts 2

 

[JamesBond007]

Zelda - NES and CDi games.
Mario - every game with time limit in every level.

 

[Reaca]

Don't start with Final Fantasy 2, 3, 5, 8, or 13 before the others. Those five are the hardest in the series, IMO.

 

[Beeker]

Kingdom Hearts for sure. Played 358/2 first and I didn't have much of an idea of what the heck was going on.

Gameplay wise, I would say Star Fox Adventures, since it doesn't play too too similar to other games in the series.

 

[New Link]

Sonic unleashed, luigis mansion, any spin off pokemon, epic yarn, four swords adventures, Mario sunshine,

LOVE ALL THESE GAMES!!! (exempt sonic unleashed) but these are bad examples of the franchises