Great Trilogies in Gaming, Part 1

Trilogies in gaming are hard things to pull off. The wait time between entries can be maddening for fans. Developers have to find ways to improve on the franchise while still holding on to what makes the game special.

This week we’re embarking on a three part journey to commemorate some of the very best trilogies in gaming. Just like corduroy and socialism, we’re starting off in Europe.

1. The Witcher

I bring up the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in conversations a lot. Here at Handsome Phantom, we included a couple Wild Hunt characters on our list of the great gingers in gaming, loved Roach despite her faults in great horses, and are patiently awaiting the upcoming Witcher Netflix series. While Wild Hunt soaks up a lot of our love, the previous two entries combine to make a stellar trilogy from CD Projekt Red.

The first game gets the least attention from the gaming community at large, yet it still cleared an 81 on Metacritic and sold hundreds of thousands of copies after its release in 2007. The complex and morally grey writing of Polish developer CD Projekt Red paired beautifully with the original world designed by novelist and Witcher creator Andrzej Sapkowski.

The second game immediately overshadowed the success of the first. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings cleared an 88 on Metacritic and improved on nearly every facet of the original game. When the dust settled, Witcher 2 brought the series up to 8 million sold units. And damn it all if Witcher 3 didn’t outdo it again.

Wild Hunt aggregated a 93/100 on Metacritic, an insanely good score. In a bout of wonderful internationalism, Wild Hunt debuted #1 in Japan, and sold 4 million units in the first two weeks. The success of the Witcher is a story of an underdog from Poland building themselves into one of the most successful franchises in the 21^st century, and they did it with an amazing costumer focused attitude. While we would love a new Witcher title, we can’t wait to play whatever CD Projekt Red puts out next. Fans of the franchise can check out this special 10th anniversary message from Geralt. Warning: may be accompanied by strong emotions.

2. Naked Snake

The Naked Snake trilogy is the first of a few games we’ll be commemorating that don’t constitute a sequential trilogy. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid V would be released over the course of a decade on several different systems, with other franchise entries in between. For our purposes, we’re also lumping Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain as one complete title, as it can be purchased on PlayStation 4. We’re bending the rules a bit for this one, but most gamers will agree that Naked Snake’s titles belong on this list.

Snake Eater was a PS2 game that managed to make a notoriously complex, quirky stealth game even more complex and quirky. The game is easily considered one of the best of that generation. Peace Walker stumbled in sales outside Japan, no doubt due to the overall poor performance of PSP sales in North America and Europe at the time. The game itself would provide most the set up for the impending, massive project that would be Metal Gear Solid V.

Ground Zeroes was a weird launch. Light on content, mastermind Hideo Kojima wanted to give fans something to play while they waited for Phantom Pain. Despite complaints of this unusual marketing, Ground Zeroes provided a bite sized way to test out what was new to the series, and its purpose as a prologue for Phantom Pain is welcome in Kojima’s complex universe.

As for Phantom Pain, it’s a masterpiece in a series of masterpieces. The game is the first in the Metal Gear franchise to feature an open world, putting players in the dusty mountains of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan or the war-torn no-man’s-land between Zaire and Angola in the 1980’s. The gameplay is engaging and encourages replay, while the esoteric story blends surrealist fiction with espionage homages liberally. It simultaneously makes one wish Kojima were returning to the series and excited for his new project, Death Stranding. Whatever he does next, gamers can look forward to whatever this legend of the industry does with appropriate hype.

3. Todd Howard’s The Elder Scrolls

Like Hideo Kojima, Todd Howard is one of those names nearly ever gamer knows. He’s always charming at conferences, and he’s been a creative force at Bethesda Softworks since the early 90s. Today we’re looking at the Elder Scrolls games that Todd Howard headed. We’re starting with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, because it’s debut on the original Xbox brought so many new fans into the fold.

Each new entry in the Elder Scrolls generates more and more fans. Bethesda always offers high quality content after launch. Despite, or perhaps because of, long development cycles, fans are always ready to hype Bethesda’s next projects.

That’s not to say the games are without criticism. Bethesda’s games under Todd have attempted to simplify gameplay and become more accessible in a way hardcore fans tend to disagree with. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is being or has been re-released on PS4, VR, and the Nintendo Switch. This recycling without clear plans for continuing the franchise are starting to wear on fans. But we all know in the next few years, Todd Howard will charm his ass off at E3 with a new game. Smiling, he’ll announce to fans, “it just works.”

4. Bioshock

Bioshock is happily celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. To be honest I felt hesitant to include the franchise as a trilogy on this list. Bioshock 2 lacked the direct leadership of Bioshock’s Ken Levine, and sales didn’t meet 2K’s projections. But it’s not a bad follow up.

The game offers players a chance to return to Rapture both as a sequel in the main campaign, and prequel in the multiplayer. It adds on to the lore modestly without displacing the first entry. Bioshock 2 doesn’t spawn a Godfather type debate over which is better, the sequel or the original. But it lives up to the tough standards set by the first game.

Bioshock Infinite was a spectacular example of a game going in a different direction at just the right time. Without beating the original to death, Infinite provided a fresh take on familiar concepts. Plasmids became Vigors. Terrifying Big Daddies were replaced with Motorized Patriots and the Handymen. The complex narrative themes and references were all there. The story even looped into the original Bioshock in a surprising way. It’ll no doubt be the last we see of Bioshock for a while. But be assured that in a universe of constants and variables: “there is always a lighthouse, there’s always a man, there’s always a city.”

5. The Super Mario Bros.

It’s impossible to overstate the impact the original Super Mario Bros had on gaming. It was huge. It was so huge it spawned an unkillable franchise that’s going strong after thirty damn years. Mario shares a near worldwide iconography on the level of Elvis Presley or Mickey Mouse. Mario is a cornerstone of modern culture. It all started with an 8-bit Italian man murdering Goombas by stomping them to death. Love it.

The second game expanded on gameplay, offered more characters to play as beyond Mario Mario and his brother Luigi Mario, and is the third best-selling game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Mario 3 gave gamers the racoon-like tanuki suit, and for that reason alone is nearly as iconic as the original.

When we talk about the great icons in gaming history, Mario is probably number one. The financial success of the series kept alive the idea of a popular games industry. The games and the imagery are something all gamers recognize, and millions of non-gamers recognize as well. Not to mention the incredible fan theory of the Mario trilogy that Super Mario Bros. is the original plot, while Super Mario Bros 2 is a dream sequence, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is a play. Read about the fan theories here.

Making a good sequel is hard enough. Keeping a franchise relevant while consistently improving seems like a herculean task. These five games are just a few examples of gaming trilogies done right. Be sure to tune in as we go through more of our favorites.

But we want to know what you think! What trilogies do you think deserve recognition? What trilogies don’t belong on this list? When will Valve commit to a third game of ANY OF THEIR FRANCHISES? Let Handsome Phantom know your thoughts and you could get a shout out on the Adventure Mode podcast!