Best and Worst Games of a Series

[kamikazekeeg]

Stealing an idea from Game Sack, but I think it could be a fun topic.  The idea is that you pick a game series, I would put a qualifier that there has to be at least a good 5 or 6 games to the series to pick from, then pick one you think is the best, and then pick one you think is the worst or at least weakest.  You have to have played them too, like if I pick Legend of Zelda, I would of course say one of the CD-I games are the worst, but I've never played them, so I wouldn't count them.

Legend of Zelda
Best: Breath of the Wild - This is a contentious pick even for me, as nostalgia wants me to pick Ocarina of Time, and I would actually say the better, more well rounded, game is Twilight Princess, but BOTW did something I always wanted with the series with its open world scale and while I had stuff that bothered me like the amount of proper dungeons, lack of proper bosses, and the musical score, I was so engrossed in this game.  I'm hoping the sequel really builds off the first game so that it can become my favorite Zelda proper with some *asterisks at the end of the one.

Worst: Tri-Force Heroes - I've not played every Zelda game, like I've not played the Tingle one or the DS games with the touch controls, and I'm sure there's something I'd maybe like less, but I thought this was a kinda goofy game, but it is one of those more...spinoff feeling Zelda games.  It's kinda mission based from what I remember, it has this gimmick without outfits, and it's more a co-op game, so as someone who primarily does singleplayer, it just didn't do much of anything for me.

Battlefield
Best: Battlefield 4 - I wasn't sure what game to pick for this one, as BF2 is such a classic, and Bad Company is the only real good singleplayer they've had and introduced the awesome destruction aspect, but I think BF4 was kinda the best all around game.  The levelution feature is awesome, I know it bothers some people, but having a mechanic that drastically changes the map as you play is just awesome, it plays really well as the Bad Company games weren't really the best in terms of like movement and gunplay (It's weird going back to Bad Company 2, I tried lol), lots of customization to weapons with a lot of variety, and it was sorta that last real good BF game as they struggled abit after it with Hardline, BF1, and BFV.  Still holds up very well too as it's 7 years old at this point.

Worst: Battlefield Heroes - Take a relatively realistic first person shooter series, and then make it a cartoonish third person, F2P experience, and you get one of the goofiest BF games possible lol It was kinda doing what Fornite is doing now, but like nearly ten years before that.  It's funny outfits, emotes, F2P microtransactions, and the gameplay is very bullet spongey and goofy.  It's still practically a BF game, like you have tanks, jeeps, planes, and even a helicopter, and it's generally about capping points still I think, it's just got this very cartoonish action happening.  It's not specifically a bad game, I remember playing it a bit, its just not what any BF fan wants from the series.

[shawndude82]

Mass Effect
Best: Mass Effect 2 - I almost put 3 up instead, I liked both, but 2 has Zaeed in your crew  

Worst: Mass Effect Andromeda - I played this after the character model upgrade and I still hated it.  I never even finished, it was boring.  I don't like any of the characters, and oh yes the dialogue is still horribly acted.

Final Fantasy
Best: Final Fantasy IX - Strictly opinion, but I enjoyed everything about this game.  It was a nice callback to the Fantasy part of the series (Non-human party members, sci-fi is minimalized if present).  It was the last true Final Fantasy before it all went downhill. (minus the online games, which are great)

Worst: Final Fantasy XV - Bet ya'll thought I was gonna say XIII didn't ya?  While I did hate 13 and it's sequels, I loathed XV.  There was no variety in the party members, you start the game with them and they're with you to the end, and they can't even be bothered to wear different clothes from each other.  It's a boy band, guys.  The story was dull, the villain wasn't interesting... and that fracking car!  So much for "fantasy".  Also screw Prompto.  Ya'll only like him because you forgot how much Zidane can outwit, outfight, and outflirt the masses.

Metal Gear Solid
Best:  Metal Gear Solid 3 - Daddy Snake's backstory, great setting, young Ocelot... what's not to love?

Worst: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker & MGS V: The Phantom Pain - I gotta throw these two together just because of the Outer Heaven base mechanics.  It was unnecessary and unwanted in a game that is supposed to focus on stealth and story.  I didn't ask for a simulator.  As far as the Phantom Pain, "open world" just doesn't work with every game.  Hideo called it wrong on that regard.  But mostly screw Konami for cutting his vision short.

Honorable mention:

Legend of Zelda
Best: Majora's Mask - Twilight Princess comes close for me, too, but I have a good reason.  There is no Ganon in Majora's Mask.  Yup, we actually have to fight someone else, whose power may actually be greater than Ganon's.  I like that every villager has a story, and you get to learn them all one at a time.  It is also the game where the infamous Tingle makes his debut.  But you only have to deal with him if you choose to pop his balloon...

Worst: Skyward Sword - I know there are worse entries out there, but I wanted to try to keep it within the main franchise.  Skyward Sword is bunk.  It has an interesting idea that gets quickly ruined with it's mechanics.  I'm not a big fan of the Wii on a good day, the controller is awkward and as I have a bad back, I mostly play my games lying down or in a reclining seat.  It isn't built for people like me.  The detection sucks.  Then there's the game itself.  It's different, which can be good, but I feel like it's too different.  It doesn't seem like a Zelda game to me.  There's no real travel.  The places you can go by bird don't connect so you can't get there by foot.  This would be better if it wasn't a Zelda game, honestly.  It's like they Doki Doki Panic'ed the characters over a different title. 
And yes, I think Fi is annoying.

[kashell]

Mega Man X

Best: Mega Man X4 - This feels like the pinnacle of the series. The first one is great, but X4 really exemplifies what I hoped the series would become. It's one of the games I try to go through at least once a year on various consoles. It's always fun to play, and it still has one of my favorite game soundtracks.

Worst: Mega Man X7 - I knew before even going into it that the transition from 2D to 3D would be a shitshow. I was right. Things only got worse. You have to unlock X as a playable character. The voice acting is horrendous. The new character's ability to shapeshift isn't exciting in the least. I have nothing good to say about this game other than it doesn't crash.

SaGa

Best: SaGa Frontier - This is a great starting point for folks new to the series. Longtime fans of the series get everything they hope for. The game is still heavily discussed because of all of the variety it offers and all the fun to be had with speedruns, mods, etc. No two games are ever the same because of all the freedom you get from the jump, but it doesn't have an overwhelming sense of "what do I do next?" Throw in beautiful artwork and another wonderful soundtrack by Kenji Ito, and we've got one of Squaresoft's masterpieces. It's still my favorite game of all time over 20 years later.

Worst: Unlimited Saga - There are two good things about this game. The first is the music. The second is the Final Fantasy X2 movie preview on the title screen. It's clear that Square was trying to try something new and different in making an RPG, but all of that ambition falls flat. There's zero fun to be had here even after you understand how the game works.

[kamikazekeeg]

Worst: Final Fantasy XV - Bet ya'll thought I was gonna say XIII didn't ya?  While I did hate 13 and it's sequels, I loathed XV.  There was no variety in the party members, you start the game with them and they're with you to the end, and they can't even be bothered to wear different clothes from each other.  It's a boy band, guys.  The story was dull, the villain wasn't interesting... and that fracking car!  So much for "fantasy".  Also screw Prompto.  Ya'll only like him because you forgot how much Zidane can outwit, outfight, and outflirt the masses.

Worst: Skyward Sword - I know there are worse entries out there, but I wanted to try to keep it within the main franchise.  Skyward Sword is bunk.  It has an interesting idea that gets quickly ruined with it's mechanics.  I'm not a big fan of the Wii on a good day, the controller is awkward and as I have a bad back, I mostly play my games lying down or in a reclining seat.  It isn't built for people like me.  The detection sucks.  Then there's the game itself.  It's different, which can be good, but I feel like it's too different.  It doesn't seem like a Zelda game to me.  There's no real travel.  The places you can go by bird don't connect so you can't get there by foot.  This would be better if it wasn't a Zelda game, honestly.  It's like they Doki Doki Panic'ed the characters over a different title. 
And yes, I think Fi is annoying.

Funny enough, FFXV was the most fun I had with a Final Fantasy since like 10 lol It's a disaster of the game, but I liked the gameplay shift, I liked the close knit crew even though Final Fantasy is better with a larger grouping and variety of characters, I liked the scale of a number of the fights and summons, and I liked the open world setting.  I can absolutely understand why people hate it though due to what a mess that game is.

And Skyward Sword was my most likely choice for worst, as it's more outright not a good game, Tri-Force Heroes is just this goofy side game I have no need to return to, while there were ideas I liked in Skyward Sword, but yeah, it's mostly bad for me for the controls and decisions related to the world and Fi.

[oldgamerz]

The series I'm going ot rate is The Sims on PC versions and with every expansion installed

best currently I like The SIms 2 and expansions better than 3 and it's expansions. The Sims 2 on PC lets you build and control most of the people in the city. and build you own city from the ground up, and  unlike on the 3rd series you can go inside everything you build. In the sims 2 for PC. Unlike in the sims 3. Anyway? the sims 2 is belter with some essential mods installed, though, and it pays to know what you should and should not do in that game, For example you should never delete game characters or you will permanently mess up that particular world.. also know that there is a hidden cheat in the sims 2 that lets you build apartments, dorms and even hotels in which you can't do without entering  a cheat code. also you should have the Hoodcheacker program from mod the sims website installed to find and remove natural errors the game causes by just normally playing the sims 2.

The sims 3 currently in my 2nd place, because of the lack of world that come in with expansion packs, and the fact you need to download a map editor if you want to make your own world, also need a username and password and a registered copy of the game or you cannot download any fan made worlds off EA's website

The Sims 1 is 3rd in my opinion, while I think, that the  The Sims 1 People simulator game was the best game ever for it's time, it was good for it's time. But The Sims 2 blows the sims 1 out of the water.  in the sims 1 they live forever, kids stay kids forever and adults stay alive forever too without ageing up. the sims 2 and further on PC all sims age up, unlike the first game and most of the console games

Worst, The SIms 4 on PC. The Sims 4 is a limited game that pretty much killed the whole building aspect of a town from scratch. instead it is like the condole games. absolutely terrible, no excuse on EA's part while building is way easier from what I seen on Youtube there still is not much you can do as far as building goes, 

(edit) I am not talking about SimCity series in case you do not know The Sims and SimCity are too completely different games,  The sims focuses on architecture and life in your world rather. The Sims is not  at all like Simcity

[pzeke]

I honestly don't feel like adding a "why", so just take my word for it...these are just our opinions anyway.

Mega Man
Best: 3
Worst: 2

Mega Man X
Best: X4 (I'm biased toward the first one, though)
Worst: X7

Metal Slug
Best: 3
Worst: Advance

Pokémon
Best: Gold/Silver/Crystal
Worst: Sword & Shield

Armored Core
Best: For Answer
Worst: Nine Breaker

Mario Kart
Best: DS
Worst: 64

Super Mario
Best: Galaxy
Worst: Missing and Time Machine (I don't care if they're supposed to be educational games, they suck)

Metroid
Best: Fusion
Worst: Prime series

Final Fantasy
Best: IX (VII will always be near and dear to my heart...)
Worst: XV

Kingdom Hearts
Best: II
Worst: III

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Best: Turtles in Time
Worst: Arcade Attack

Batman (I haven't played the Arkham games yet...)
Best: Returns
Worst: Beyond

Spider-Man (I've yet to play the 2018 game, so spare me...)
Best: Spider-Man (2000)
Worst: Arcade's Revenge and Lethal Foes (the only thing I like about these two are their cover art, which were drawn by two legends of the comicbook industry)

Hulk
Best: Ultimate Destruction
Worst: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

X-Men
Best: Mutant Apocalypse and Legends
Worst: The Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine: Adamantium Rage
Spawn from Hell: The Ravages of Apocalypse

[wartoy]

Grand Turismo

Best: 3
Worst: 2

Ace Combat
Best: 4
Worst: Assault Horizon

Halo
Best: 2
Worst:5 Guardians

Legend of Zelda
Best: Link to the Past
Worst: Zelda ll The Adventure of Link

Legacy of Kain
Best: Soul Reaver
Worst: Defiance

Super Mario
Best: Super Mario World
Worst: Super mario Bros.

Resident Evil
Best: Code Veronica
Worst: Resident Evil 6

Final Fantasy
Best: X
Worst: Tactics

Need for Speed
Best: Mosted Wanted
Worst: Pro Street

Battlefield
Best: Bad company 2
Worst: Hardline

[sworddude]

Starfox

Best: Starfox 64
Worst: starfox adventures

Smash bros

best: Smash bros melee
Worst: smash bros 64

Mario Kart

Best: Mario kart wii
Worst: super mario kart gba

Pokemon

Best: Heart gold soulsilver/ Black & white 2
Worst: Pokemon let's go pikachu and eevee

Zelda

Best: twilight Princess
Worst: Tri force heroes 3ds I have played the cdi games but they don't count as zelda games imo

Megaman X

best: Megaman X2
Worst: X7

Mario 3d

Best: Mario galaxy 2
Worst: super mario 3d World Wii u

2d mario

Best: Super mario world
Worst: new super mario bros U

Fire Emblem

Best: fire emblem shadow dragon/ FE6 Binding blade
Worst: Fire emblem tree houses

2d Sonic

Best: Sonic 3 & knuckles
Worst: sonic the hedgehog 4

3d sonic

Best: Sonic adventure
Worst: Sonic boom

Dragon quest

Best: Dragon quest V heavenly bride
Worst: dragon quest IX

Street fighter

Best: Super Street fighter II turbo
Worst: street fighter 1

King of fighters

Best: King of fighters 98 ultimate match
Worst: King of fighters maximum impact 1

Castlevania

Best: Castlevania Bloodlines
Worst: castlevania legends gameboy

Mario rpg

Best: mario & luigi bowser inside story
Worst: Paper mario sticker star/ paper jam bros

[Cartagia]

Best
Resident Evil 2 Remake.  The greatest remake ever, maybe?  This game feels like a total thesis on how learn the right lessons from your previous games and combine them to make a greater whole.

Worst
Resident Evil 6.  The exact opposite.  They learned all the wrong lessons and put them into this game.

[kypherion]

Castlevania:

Lots of people say Symphony of the Night, at least for the metroidvanias. The game has a ton of attention to detail, great gameplay, solid controls and the best pixelated graphics out of any of the metroidvanias.

Best Classicvania:

Super Castlevania. 8 different directions to whip, moonwalking, a great soundtrack and good challenge. Solid choice.

WORST CASTLEVANIA GAME:

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. The definition of a fangame first, actual good game second. Tons of balancing issues, unfriendly to new players, and the tier list is so broken that Soma invalidates every other character and some characters are just dogshit tier and there's nothing you can do about it. Only pro is it's really easy to modify your save because this godforsaken game requires untold amounts of grinding to get every last good item (Valmanway+1, Sonic boots, Claimh Solais+1)

[vivigamer]

Best
Resident Evil 2 Remake.  The greatest remake ever, maybe?  This game feels like a total thesis on how learn the right lessons from your previous games and combine them to make a greater whole.

Worst
Resident Evil 6.  The exact opposite.  They learned all the wrong lessons and put them into this game.

While RE6 is a bad RE in the traditional sense it makes for a fantastic Co-op action game - Arguably the best we've had in years. Also the RE6 Mercenaries mode is brilliant arcade fun. Yes the story is bombastic but I've certainly had a lot of fun playing it with friends over the years.

I agree with you on the RE2 Remake, though was VERY impressed with RE7 this gen, looking forward to seeing where they go with 8.

Resident Evil
BEST - RE2R (Brilliant re-imagining with tense 3d person combat and dark atmosphere)
WORST - RE Zero ( I liked the opening train section but that was it. Found the character switching mechanic beyond tedious - wish it was co-op like Outbreak)

Final Fantasy
Best - X (while not my personal favourite I think X excels in every aspect - Gameplay, Combat, Story, Music etc.)
Worst - Type-0 (Incoherent Trash. If I had to choose an entry from the numbered series it would be XV - Also a very messy production and finished in a book...)

Metal Gear Solid
BEST - MGS2 (Huge step-up in the gameplay, the enemy AI is still some of the msot impressive I've seen to this day! Also I don't mind Raiden)
WORST - MGS5PP ( In development conflict and the open world structure broke all sense of scenario writing for generic missions + The Ending plot twist sucked.)

Tekken
Best - Tekken 3/Tekken Tag 1 (Tekken 3 had the best combat & TTT1 is basically Tekken 3 in high-end PS2 graphics)
Worst - Tekken 7 (Great Story Mode but after 4 hours I was done, no Survival Mode nor reason to go back and play it)

Kingdom Hearts
BEST - KH2FM (The Final Mix made this game phenomenal, the Digital Organization XIII battles are a beast of a challenge - Great Worlds to explore)
WORST - ReCoded (Glad it was turned to a movie along with 358/2 Days)

Crash Bandicoot
BEST - Crash Twinsanity (Brilliant game! With some of the best comedic writing in gaming and great dive into the worlds lore. Nice openworld level structure too)
WORST - Crash of the Titans (Big Identity Crisis! I will say that Mind Over Mutant is a big improvement though.)

Sonic
BEST - Sonic Adventure 1 (Rough around the edges I know but I love the experience, hub worlds and story!)
WORST - Sonic CD (Sorry, I've just never enjoyed this. Always found the level design just messy.)

Yakuza
BEST - 3 (I loved the orphanage sections!)
WORST Judgment (Hated the fighting styles and felt it was too safe of a departure from Yakuza)

[ignition365]

I considered not taking part but here we are with my controversial opinions.

Metal Gear
Best - Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain.  I'd love to say I'm biased because V was the first one I played through entirely, but I just didn't enjoy the controls from the older games and QoL wise they are pretty hard to go back to.  I did beat Metal Gear and I had played Metal Gear Solid 1/2 before the release of MGSV, so I know I just didn't enjoy the original controls.  like I loved Resident Evil 2, but I can't say it's the best because the controls make it hard to go back to.  All that said, MGSV has so much in the way of QoL improvements over previous entries and just is an amazing game to play mechanically.  I know I've seen the complaints about the move away from the traditional structure of MGS games, but I'm honestly a huge fan of the traditional structure, so I enjoy this game.  This game lets you choose to do missions in so many different ways, it's very open in that sense.
Worst - Metal Gear Solid 4.  I'd love to say Metal Gear was the worst, but it's hard to judge a game that I only remember as being so old, so I choose to ignore it.  MGS4, however, being a modern game, was just terrible at both sides.  It didn't do stealth very well and it didn't do action very well.  I know my playthrough I couldn't get through anything without setting off alarms and such, no clue what that was about and the controls were atrocious for the action side.  It was a step in the right direction of gaining more casual consumers, but I think it just confused everyone.

Final Fantasy
I'm gonna be super controversial with this one
Best - VIIR/XV.  I had initially written XV, because I forgot 7R existed.  I enjoyed the crap outta XV, so much so that I played until I got the platinum trophy.  Functionally (ignoring the car) XV and 7R are similar games, 7R is amazing because of the characters and world, but it loses points for being a fraction of the story and it does in fact have its frustrating moments.  XV is amazing because of the characters and world as well, but it loses points for the car and car related things... mostly the fast travel costing money, not using fast travel having auto-drive but still taking forever as like a punishment, and the inability to like drive if a monster shows up.  That being said, again the QoL improvements by a more action oriented system make these two games the best.  I've never been a fan of the traditional "turn based" ATB system, ATB system works moderately well in an action oriented combat system.
Worst - VI.  I'd love to say 8 is the worst, but I honestly haven't ever played 8.  Maybe I'll play 8 one day and it can earn its place as the worst, because of its stupid system where enemies and bosses level with you so grinding can actually make the game harder.   That said, 6 is pretty fucking terrible.  High encounter rates, low xp gains, revolving team members, confusing menus and mechanics.  Sabin's skills can waste turns.  Gao requires sending him off on a grind to learn new moves.  So many instant kill enemies that you have to dump all your gil/gold into phoenix downs.  Just an unenjoyable experience.

Yazuka
Best - 5.  This game has a lot of the major QoL improvements of late entries to the series, but it has so much content, character, and story.  Don't get me wrong, 6 is great, but it's short.  0 is pretty amazing, but it falls just a bit short of 5.
Worst - Dead Souls, 1, FotNS. I threw 3.  Dead Souls being the first worst for just being almost irrelevent.  1 for being the oldest and lowest QoL of the mainline entries plus terrible VO.  FotNS because I just couldn't get into it, I really wanted to, but it just felt wrong.

Resident Evil
Best - 2 Remake.  I wanted to put 3, but 3 is shorter and has more of the frustrating things that 2 had.  Overall an amazing remake and I look forward to future titles in this vein.
Worst - 0/6.  0, I consider the worst for it just being so dated.  6 for being just not a Resident Evil game and more like Army of Two or something.  6 might honestly win, for just being a waste of time largely.

Mega Man X
Best - X.  I know I'm biased, I like X
Worst - X7.

Zelda
Best - Breath of the Wild
Worst - Zelda 2

Battlefield
Best - Battlefield 1.  The story mode was amazing
Worst - Battlefield 2: Modern Combat.  Gawd was this game atrocious

Need for Speed
Best - Most Wanted (2005)
Worst - Need for Speed (The recent reboot)

Super Mario
Best: Super Mario World
Worst: Super Mario Bros 2.

Soulsborne
Best - Dark Souls (Remastered)
Worst - Dark Souls III

[pzeke]

Metal Gear
Worst - [...] I'd love to say Metal Gear was the worst, but it's hard to judge a game so old, so I choose to ignore it. [...]

Zelda
Best - Breath of the Wild
Worst - Zelda 2

Super Mario
Best: Super Mario World
Worst: Super Mario Bros 2.

How is an old game hard to judge? I mean, you have Zelda II and Super Mario Bros. 2 listed as worst. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I'm just curious given these games are contemporary to each other. You even listed Final Fantasy VI as the worst, which for all intents and purposes is an old game.

[ignition365]

Metal Gear
Worst - [...] I'd love to say Metal Gear was the worst, but it's hard to judge a game so old, so I choose to ignore it. [...]

Zelda
Best - Breath of the Wild
Worst - Zelda 2

Super Mario
Best: Super Mario World
Worst: Super Mario Bros 2.

How is an old game hard to judge? I mean, you have Zelda II and Super Mario Bros. 2 listed as worst. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I'm just curious given these games are contemporary to each other. You even listed Final Fantasy VI as the worst, which for all intents and purposes is an old game.

Fair assessment.  I'll reword it.  My recollection of Zelda 2 and Super Mario Bros 2 (That is SMB2 USA) is stronger.  I've played both games multiple times.  I've played Metal Gear once and I don't really remember much other than it being an NES game.  I don't want to call Metal Gear the worst just because it's an old game.  Zelda 2 and SMB2 I can say for certain are my least favorite games in their respective franchises of the games I've played.

[pzeke]

That's fair enough.