Six sequels which never should have been made

There's been many a time when I've reached the end of a game, and found myself clamoring for more. Whether it was through style, narrative, or mechanics; something about the game enchanted me. I wanted a sequel. I know I'm not alone in this. A great many incredible franchises have been born this way. Final Fantasy, Halo, Pokemon, Metal Gear...the list goes on, and on, and on.

Sometimes, though, a sequel isn't warranted. Sometimes, it's best to just let a franchise die; better to leave a concept tucked away than see it fleshed out. Unfortunately, the games we're looking at today represent instances where the development team didn't do that. Some of them are black sheep in an otherwise excellent franchise, others are games we didn't want in the first place, still more are titles that lived up to exactly none of our expections.

Their only unifying features is that they're terrible - almost universally so.

6. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2

The Force Unleashed was a rather awesome concept, albeit one which fell somewhat short in execution: you are Darth Vader's secret apprentice. It was unique, enjoyable, and didn't wreak too much havoc with the already-established lore of Star Wars canon. Then The Force Unleashed 2 came along. While not necessarily a horrible game, it wasn't an incredible one, either. More than anything, it was just...bland. It lacked a great deal of what made the original enjoyable, and happily mired itself in all the technical problems which plagued its predecessor.

5. Duke Nukem Forever

It was a sequel many of us had been waiting years to see; a title which was stuck in development hell for almost a decade-and-a-half. The problem, perhaps, was that Duke is a gaming icon from another era - one in which he likely should have stayed. The game was ultimately brought down by poor level design, bad controls, long load times and dated mechanics, with a sense of humor that today seems less edgy and hilarious than it does juvenile and irritating.

4. Mega Man X7

I love the Mega Man X series, but X7 was quite honestly a complete and utter abortion Clunky frays into the third dimension, horrendously-written dialogue and voice acting that made me want to tear out my ears combined into a cocktail which was, quite frankly, downright insulting. X7's only redeeming feature was the music - and that was barely enough. On the plus side, X8 was good.

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