10 Games With The Longest Break Between Sequels

As The Last of Us Part 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2 have shown, crafting the best video game sequels of all time can take some time. You can't always be like Activision or Ubisoft coming out with a Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed game once a year or once every other year. But how long is too long?

10 Best Games That Survived Development Hell

You'll be glad these games survived development hell.

Some video game developers don't get so lucky to make a sequel at all, while those who hold onto the hope of it getting made must wait countless years, sometimes decades passing since the last video game. These are some of the most extensively long wait times for noteworthy sequels.

10 Doom 3 And Doom (2016)

12-Year Wait For The Doom Slayer's Debut

Id Software is a developer that largely sticks to its genre of fast-paced movement shooters, and Doom is one of its most well-known properties alongside Wolfenstein and Quake. 2004 was the last time you'd be in the shoes of the Doomguy before being rebranded as the Doom Slayer in the 2016 reboot.

Simply titled Doom, it managed to come back better than ever and top all the previous installments of the series, the graphics, animations, gore systems, and world-building receiving a complete makeover. A lot of the gameplay improvements are also owed to the game running on the advanced id Tech 6 engine, allowing an incredibly immersive flow of FPS combat.

9 Alan Wake And Alan Wake 2

13 Years Away At The Typewriter Polishing The 'Return' Manuscript

Alan Wake 2 certainly shows the gap between the first game in Alan's features. He grows a thick beard and has longer hair, as he's spent over a decade in the writer's room of the Dark Place working on the final draft of 'Return' to bring himself back.

13 Best Horror Game Sequels

These games are even scarier the second time around.

It may have been a long wait to see the Champion of Light battle the Herald of Darkness, but Remedy delivered a sequel that surpassed expectations with its well-timed jumpscares, new mechanics, effective level design, mind-blowing story, and even a playable musical sequence. There are lots of elements that changed between the two games that now solidify Alan Wake 2 as among the greats in the survival horror genre.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare was a canon entry in the Alan Wake Remedy universe, but not a direct sequel like the 2023 game.

Alan Wake's sequel was first teased in Remedy's 2019 IP Control, with Alan Wake 2 further expanding how the two games are part of the same universe.

8 Duke Nukem 3D And Duke Nukem Forever

15 Years Before Duke Could Get An Ego Boost

Duke Nukem is a like-minded FPS game series to Doom, but the wait in between sequels proved even longer, skipping out on the 2000s period entirely. The previous installment, Duke Nukem 3D, launched in 1996, and there wouldn't be the cleverly titled fourth game, Duke Nukem Forever, until 2011.

The game was announced in 1997 but went through an infamously severe case of development hell before making its way into players' hands. The graphics changed significantly from the '90s versions, and Duke got a hilariously fitting Ego Boost mechanic, but everything else made it the final nail in the coffin for the Duke Nukem series.

7 Psychonauts And Psychonauts 2

Not Even Raz Aquato Could've Foreseen 16 Years Without Psychonauts

Double Fine is one of the rockiest developers in the industry, as most of its beloved games are thanks to dedicated fans who want to see them made and contribute through crowdfunding measures. The studio creates some of the most whimsically unique characters and worlds, but games like Psychonauts failed to be a commercial success, making it hard to have a sequel in the works.

There were lots of hurdles Double Fine experienced, as well as changes in publishers, before the launch of Psychonauts 2 in 2021 with Xbox. But Raz Aquato was officially back and the platformer adventure sequel was the graphical improvement equivalent to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. The environment designs of the mindscapes never looked and felt so amazing to explore.

6 Shenmue 2 And Shenmue 3

18 Years Until You'd Be Back In The Martial Arts Open World Of Shenmue

Much like the crowdfunding story of Psychonauts 2, without its successful Kickstarter campaign, 2019's Shenmue 3 would never have existed. After the second game in 2001 didn't prove as successful as the original, Sega gave up on the series. Shenmue has only since been outshone by consistent Yakuza/Like a Dragon titles that took off from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, which share similar gameplay ideas.

7 Great Games That Deserved Better Sequels

These games are fan favorites, but the follow-ups just never hit the same standard.

However, the director of the Shenmue games, Yu Suzuki, never gave up on his vision for more Shenmue and bringing protagonist Ryo Hazuki back into the open-world environment of 1980s Guilin, China. The story is a direct continuation of the previous games, and the gameplay retains the iconic quick-time events.

5 Baldur's Gate 2 And Baldur's Gate 3

23 Years Of D&D Campaigns Before Being Re-Immersed In The Video Game Version

The Baldur's Gate video games based on D&D began in 1998 from developer BioWare of Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Knights of the Old Republic fame. This studio would handle the first two Baldur's Gate video games, with Divinity: Original Sin developer Larian Studios gifted the reigns to develop the acclaimed 23-year-old sequel that was Baldur's Gate 3.

Wizards of the Coast had many developers in the running to develop the next Baldur's Gate, though thankfully, they went with Larian's vision in the end, which not only amassed a litany of accolades but tons of player support, even from non-D&D players. How different Baldur's Gate 3 would've turned out were it not for Larian's brilliant character writing and highly re-playable narrative design.

In between Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate 3, there was a spin-off series known as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Snowblind Studios helming the first game and Dark Alliance 2 developed by Black Isle Studios (the publishers of the first Dark Alliance and original Badlur's Gate games).

4 Streets Of Rage 3 And Streets Of Rage 4

26 Years Without The Classic Beat 'Em Up's Best Installment

Streets of Rage is a classic beat 'em up series that began in 1991 and yet another Sega series that would wait a long time before finding a new development home and getting a proper sequel. Streets of Rage 3 would be the final Sega entry in 1994 before Dotemu would take over several years later to deliver 2020's Streets of Rage 4.

And it quickly became one of the best beat 'em up games that put Streets of Rage back on the map, a sensational effort that did justice to the classic design with a new spin that even got a Game Awards nomination for Best Action Game. And yes, original fighters Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding, and Adam Hunter return!

3 Wasteland And Wasteland 2

26 Years To Return To inXile's Turn-Based Strategy Nuclear Holocaust Wasteland

Wasteland is a post-apocalyptic turn-based RPG from studio inXile Entertainment, and the series had a third installment that launched in 2020, a much shorter gap than the first two games. If you're playing Wasteland 3 and wondering how old this series actually is, that number is approaching four decades.

8 Game Sequels With The Biggest Graphical Jumps

It's impressive how much the graphics improved between these sequels.

The original Wasteland debuted in 1988 with very old-school pixel graphics and UI for the Apple 2 and Commodore 64, as you could expect, which also received a remaster in 2020. Wasteland 2 wouldn't arrive in its more modern turn-based form until 2014, with a bit of crowdfunding help as well, and then even going on to earn the title of Game of the Year from PC World. Go figure!

2 Windjammers And Windjammers 2

28 Years In The Air For The Flying Disc To Reach The Sequel

The original Windjammers marks its 30th anniversary in 2024, starting as a competitive flying disc arcade game that mimics the gameplay of air hockey in a volleyball court-esque arena. It's also been ported to consoles like the PS4, PS Vita, and Nintendo Switch before its official sequel came out in 2022.

Windjammers 2 is sort of that very niche game that probably not too many are familiar with since it was only on arcade systems in the '90s, making it one of the most surprising sequels in gaming history. It was also created by developer Dotemu, the one behind the console ports of the first Windjammers, and brought many new characters and updated animations.

1 Getsu Fuma Den And Getsu Fuma Den: Undying Moon

35 Years For Konami's Long-Forgotten Gem To Finally Reemerge

Upon first glance at the image of Konami's 1987 game Getsu Fuma Den, you might think it's a Castlevania spin-off, but in actuality, it's like the black sheep cousin. Since it came out around the same time as the first Castlevania, the graphics, platforming environments, and enemies all look identical, with some assets even being reused in future Castlevania games.

What sets this series apart from Castlevania is its focus on Japanese mythology and Hell, with a samurai-inspired protagonist at the center. This becomes more apparent in the art direction of the Undying Moon sequel, inspired by the classical ukiyo-e woodblock style, which took an unprecedented 35 years to happen.

10 Great Sequels That Launched Just One Year After The First Game

Nowadays big video games take several years of development. But some time ago, we could get incredible sequels in under a year.