The only (main)series that gets better and better is...

[ace99]

Haven't played, but isn't this a FIFA-type of deal?

Not even close. It's a rhythm-based music game, most of the music coming from Konami's own music label. It's played with a DJ-style turntable, with seven buttons and a record to scratch. It makes the difficulty of games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and DJ Hero look like playing on a Fisher-Price toy guitar.

It is a Japan-only release, so few people in the rest of the world have actually played all of them. I have played all of the PS2 versions, (3rd Style to IIDX16 Empress) and every newer version has new songs, new modifiers for the gameplay, and extra modes, such as Dan Mode.

Go look up some gameplay on Youtube. Prepare for your mind to be blown.

[markbarkins]

Elder Scrolls

[Elmdor Rizer]

Not even close. It's a rhythm-based music game, most of the music coming from Konami's own music label. It's played with a DJ-style turntable, with seven buttons and a record to scratch. It makes the difficulty of games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and DJ Hero look like playing on a Fisher-Price toy guitar.

It is a Japan-only release, so few people in the rest of the world have actually played all of them. I have played all of the PS2 versions, (3rd Style to IIDX16 Empress) and every newer version has new songs, new modifiers for the gameplay, and extra modes, such as Dan Mode.

Go look up some gameplay on Youtube. Prepare for your mind to be blown.

Oh, sorry I knew full well what the game was like, I've seen people play it. What I meant was, isn't it a series where they just add more/new content and tweak the gameplay a bit (like, for example, FIFA and to a much lesser extent series such as Dynasty Warriors)? Oh, right, you even said it was like that. I feel it's so easy to claim that series of that kind keep getting better and better, so as I mentioned in the first post I chose to overlook them.

Elder Scrolls

Way to make a case there, man. I recall a lot of people complaining about Oblivion, saying Morrowind was better, but I wouldn't know. Also, is Battlespire and Redguard part of the main series? I thought they weren't well liked at all.

[crusher]

So, listing two series games.... HM.

Contra: Hard Corps! The genesis game is extremely good, but I'd say the PS3 version is sort of superior.

And... that's all I can think of right now. Quite the list war, this. Oh, oh, oh, what about Ducktales? Chip 'n' Dale maybe?

Hard Corps is still Contra so nuh-uh! Duck Tales maybe but then we have the remastered version which arguably isn't better than Duck Tales 2. And not sure if Chip 'n' Dale 2 is better than the first. But it sure as hell does not have DAT FINAL STAGE MUSIC.

Fyi, I'm nitpicking like hell here.

[Corey]

Not sure how many entries are required to be included, but wasn't Deus Ex notable for getting way better over it's...3(?) entries?

Aside from that I disagree with just about everything in this thread. No series has had a flawless track record that I can think of.
I would say Castlevania because I'm a fanboy, but there was the 64 game that most people didn't like.

If you consider only the oldschool platformers main series and the metroidvanias as spinoffs then it certainly fits, but that isn't really the point of this thread now is it? (Not that I don't prefer the metroidvanias, there were just some stinkers in there.)

[Zorlon]

Batman Arkam Series... just as the 3rd one is out with a 4th one due (Not counting the Black Gate game out today on 360/PS3, was out on 3DS/Vita before that)

I thought people didn't like the third one as much. Still haven't played any of them though.

You thought wrong, don't be silly

[markbarkins]

Alright fine, now I have to justify my post. Let's see if I can make this sound plausible.......Elder Scrolls in the context that Bethesda started out way back with Arena with a vision that was held back by technological limitations. And each iteration in the series has brought them closer to removing those limitations. The Morrowind > Oblivion transition was the closest. Because they made some changes for the worse. But there were a crap ton of improvements as well. The Arena > Daggerfall transition was similar. Daggerfall had way more bugs than Arena, but it was a more focused game. So considering all aspects, Daggerfall was only slightly better than Arena and Oblivion was only slightly better than Morrowind. But Morrowind was a profound step forward and again Skyrim is much better than previous entries.

[FlavaFlave]

Not sure how many entries are required to be included, but wasn't Deus Ex notable for getting way better over it's...3(?) entries?

Aside from that I disagree with just about everything in this thread. No series has had a flawless track record that I can think of.
I would say Castlevania because I'm a fanboy, but there was the 64 game that most people didn't like.

If you consider only the oldschool platformers main series and the metroidvanias as spinoffs then it certainly fits, but that isn't really the point of this thread now is it? (Not that I don't prefer the metroidvanias, there were just some stinkers in there.)

I don't know about Deus Ex - I played the original when it was released and it was phenomenal, but the sequel was a serious step backwards. I did like it, but it was pretty linear and was missing a lot of the customization the original had.
Human Revolution I thought was a great addition to the series, but it still doesn't capture the magic or open-ended gameplay the original had. It's a great effort and far better than the second game, but there's still room for improvement. Just my two cents though.

As far as what I think gets better?
Diablo and Metal Gear. Probably both been mentioned but I'm lazy and can't backread
Diablo 1 was great - Diablo 2 improved on the original in many ways (personally I wasn't a big fan because I felt a little let down after a 5 year wait, but it is technically a better game), and Diablo 3 has really taken it to the next level now that it's been improved due to user feedback and tweaks.

Metal Gear, regardless of what you think of the storyline, has improved leagues over each iteration. Each game has better gameplay than the last, and isn't that what this is all about?

Now if you wanna talk about series that have regressed, just look at Dead Space for a good example. Each game got worse and what started as a survival horror turned into a 3rd person action romp. Mass Effect pretty much pulled the same trick.

[Zorlon]

Aside from that I disagree with just about everything in this thread. No series has had a flawless track record that I can think of.
I would say Castlevania because I'm a fanboy, but there was the 64 game that most people didn't like.

Not even a close one and I'm a big fan of Castlevania myself

I will not include the GameBoy Games in this to be fair to the series

Arcade Haunted Castle just sucks badly (I would not blame you for not including that though)
SNES Castelvania X is a very very poor version of Dracula X on the PCE that was a great game
Bloodlines although a great game was not better than Dracula X that came before it or even the Sharp X68000 game that came before Dracula X (Later released for PSX under Chronicles, but Bloodlines was a close one over Chronicles, possibly on par with it)
The N64 games are not bad to be honest, but not an improvement either

Nothing since has been as good as Symphony of the Night though a few close to ones

GBA Castlevania: Circle of the Moon not a touch on Symphony of the Night
GBA Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance improves on the the last one easy
GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow much improved again a great one and has the feel ish of Symphony of the Night but not as good

PS2 Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, I enjoyed this but I would not rate that better than Aria of Sorrow

NDS Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow another well done on this one, still not as good as Symphony of the Night but very very close

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, again enjoyed it and it does improve on the last 3D adventure but the NDS ones are better

The next and last NDS games are very good games but does not improve so much as have a different feel to them, I think they are just as good as the first NDS game

Castlevania: Judgment I would not count that it's just a beat em up on the Wii

Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth is a bit backward in that it is more like the classic Castlevania's (It re-tells the story of one of the GameBoy games, but I would not consider it a re-make though)

There are a few others now on modern systems PS3/360 (more 3D adventuring) [almost forgot about the 2D one but that you can forgive me for and is not a main stream game in the slightest] and 3DS (3D graphics bit the classic style 2D platform game engine)

Castlevania as much as I love it, is/was all over the place

[Elmdor Rizer]

Not sure how many entries are required to be included, but wasn't Deus Ex notable for getting way better over it's...3(?) entries?

Aside from that I disagree with just about everything in this thread. No series has had a flawless track record that I can think of.
I would say Castlevania because I'm a fanboy, but there was the 64 game that most people didn't like.

If you consider only the oldschool platformers main series and the metroidvanias as spinoffs then it certainly fits, but that isn't really the point of this thread now is it? (Not that I don't prefer the metroidvanias, there were just some stinkers in there.)

Ohh, you could be on to something with Deus Ex! But, alas, I really have no idea. Flava doesn't agree though!!!

Like Z I can't go for the 'Vanias. The streak is ruined by the second game, after all.

You thought wrong, don't be silly

Sorry, I don't know stuff!!!! Think I have the first game lying around in a drawer somewhere though...

Alright fine, now I have to justify my post. Let's see if I can make this sound plausible.......Elder Scrolls in the context that Bethesda started out way back with Arena with a vision that was held back by technological limitations. And each iteration in the series has brought them closer to removing those limitations. The Morrowind > Oblivion transition was the closest. Because they made some changes for the worse. But there were a crap ton of improvements as well. The Arena > Daggerfall transition was similar. Daggerfall had way more bugs than Arena, but it was a more focused game. So considering all aspects, Daggerfall was only slightly better than Arena and Oblivion was only slightly better than Morrowind. But Morrowind was a profound step forward and again Skyrim is much better than previous entries.

Fair enough. And I suppose that answers the question about whether Battlespire and Redguard are part of the main series.

I don't know about Deus Ex - I played the original when it was released and it was phenomenal, but the sequel was a serious step backwards. I did like it, but it was pretty linear and was missing a lot of the customization the original had.
Human Revolution I thought was a great addition to the series, but it still doesn't capture the magic or open-ended gameplay the original had. It's a great effort and far better than the second game, but there's still room for improvement. Just my two cents though.

As far as what I think gets better?
Diablo and Metal Gear. Probably both been mentioned but I'm lazy and can't backread
Diablo 1 was great - Diablo 2 improved on the original in many ways (personally I wasn't a big fan because I felt a little let down after a 5 year wait, but it is technically a better game), and Diablo 3 has really taken it to the next level now that it's been improved due to user feedback and tweaks.

Metal Gear, regardless of what you think of the storyline, has improved leagues over each iteration. Each game has better gameplay than the last, and isn't that what this is all about?

Now if you wanna talk about series that have regressed, just look at Dead Space for a good example. Each game got worse and what started as a survival horror turned into a 3rd person action romp. Mass Effect pretty much pulled the same trick.

Tsk, Gameplay, gameschmay. I probably said I don't have an opinion on the MGS series earlier (or atleast let Zorlon make the same case as you), but I suddenly realized that I don't care a lot for the second instalment. Or the fourth, but yeah, I should give it a real go sometimes.

[MuayMan]

I think the NBA 2k series keeps getting better.

[sdm_9999]

Like many other people I will have to say the GTA series as well. I personally feel that each game in the series was a notch better than its predecessor.

[Zorlon]

Like many other people I will have to say the GTA series as well. I personally feel that each game in the series was a notch better than its predecessor.

I hope you are excluding the Stories and China Town

Personally I feel San Andreas PS2/Xbox beats IV PS3/360 not for the engine/graphics but just on the game play and the huge contents San Adreas has, even V I would put on par with San Andreas though the engine and graphics totally improve IV and V

P.S. Stories are great games just not on the PSP, but on the PS2, that is a direct port but have PS2 controls saying that they don't improve on the last released GTA in the slightest but do add to the stories and on there own are very very good games

[sdm_9999]

I hope you are excluding the Stories and China Town

Personally I feel San Andreas PS2/Xbox beats IV PS3/360 not for the engine/graphics but just on the game play and the huge contents San Adreas has, even V I would put on par with San Andreas though the engine and graphics totally improve IV and V

P.S. Stories are great games just not on the PSP, but one the PS2, that is a direct port but have PS2 controls saying that they don't improve on the last released GTA in the slightest

I did exclude China Town. But I thing GTA IV was better than you or many other people think. I personally think it was a step ahead from San Andreas. But to each his own obviously

[skullpoker]

Oblivion was only slightly better than Morrowind.

Absolutely incorrect. Oblivion is shit. And for some insane reason, Morrowind is possibly the only game in existence that is better on the console. So much quicker interface. I own 3, 4, and 5 on Steam and never actually play 4. It's one of those games that you buy because Morrowind is so amazing, only to be swiftly and with great force kicked in the testes. If it wasn't Elder Scrolls, nobody would have played Oblivion. Skyrim, of course, is so much simpler and more accessible. It isn't really a better RPG, per se. It is just a lot easier to pick up and get in to. Morrowind is so much deeper and more of what an RPG should be. Think of it as Morrowind is an action RPG, where Skyrim is an ACTION rpg, while Oblivion is shit.