More Than A Sequel: The 25 Best "2" Games Ever

What's the easiest way to make a good game even better? Give your loyal gaming minions even more. That's essentially what FM2's selling point was: 349 driveable cars, the latest in HD graphics, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of customization options. If you're into car porn, consider this game your Boner Jams ’03.

It may not have the jiggle physics that today's fighting games employ—nay, demand—but Tekken 2 signaled a step away from its 2D predecessors, which dominated the arcades, and toward 3D fighting games on home consoles. This one added on the ability to reverse attacks and a few additional throws, as well as eight new characters.

Space simulator games like Wing Commander and X-Wing helped shepherd the genre through the ’90s, but it wasn't until FreeSpace 2 that a real narrative was attached to all of the deep space mayhem. An offshoot of the Descent series (see No. 19), FreeSpace 2 put you in the ship of a rebel Terran (no relation to the StarCraft race) fighter pilot 32 years after the Terrans sold out and allied with the traditional enemies, the alien Vasudans. Heavy stuff, for sure.

It was a bit surprising to see Sony put so much muscle and hype into the sequel for a game that seemed like a middle-of-the-road experience at best. But when we got our hands on Killzone 2, we knew why. K2 might not have the most enthralling of stories to tell—in fact, its main characters are mostly forgettable—but the action is undeniably attention-grabbing. An arsenal that puts many national armies' to shame is what awaited those who ventured into the multiplayer; it made killing, if we may paraphrase Rambo, as easy as breathing.

Captain Olimar and his legion of Pikmin managed to squeeze a sequel out of Ninty in early 2004, and it didn't disappoint. Pikmin 2 challenged you to use the various Pikmin and their powers in order to collect treasures spread out across the Pikmin planet. The game surpassed the first one in every way, from ingenious new challenges to the addition of multiplayer. Who knew playing as spermlike Teletubbies could be so much fun? Besides, us, we mean. We totally knew it could be.

The grinding of meat was never meant to be this fun, yet Cliffy B. and the developers at Epic Games lived up to their names with the follow-up to their smash hit. Marcus Fenix and the gang returned to take down the Locust once again, with an even more formidable foe, the Lambents, showing up for the party as well. More baddies just means more alien flesh to rip apart with your lancer's chainsaw. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Love how you're able to aim and shoot at will with your PS3 Sixaxis controller? Then give some credit to Interplay's Descent II for introducing six degrees of freedom to video games back in the Windows 95 era. The game allowed you to move your ship in any direction on a 3D plane—a first at the time—and it was a damn fine game to boot. Players had to infiltrate mines in deep space—which, while it doesn't have the space terror of a Dead Space title, nonetheless provided for a thrill ride.

If we were to count up the number of quarters we spent feeding the machine back in the day just to play this game, we'd probably be ashamed. Who needs college, though, right? SFII brought the franchise into the mainstream (the first one only kinda-sorta did) and essentially created the fighting genre as we know it today. This second installment spawned a cult-like following that still goes on today as they debate the nature of combat techniques, timing mechanisms, and whether or not they can actually see Chun-Li's butt crack when she does her spinning bird kick. Hey, it's research!

It seems like everyone and their mother plays Black Ops these days. (Seriously, our mom is on like ninth Prestige.) But Activision's formula of going all-in with a multiplayer FPS experience—packaged with a tacked-on single-player campaign—can be traced back to Battlefield 2 in 2005. Electronic Arts' version of "modern warfare" thrust you into the middle of a world war where you helped drive America (f#%& yeah!) and Europeans (not-so-f#%& yeah!) through the heart of the Middle East and China. The robust multiplayer offered squad-based combat, leaderboards/achievements, and support for up to 64 players. That's, like, a lot. And no Hardline Pro exploits!

Sure, Bungie left us hanging like a bad wingman at a bar at the end of this one, but there's no denying that the second in the trilogy brought some exciting moments to the series—including, of course, online multiplayer. The introduction of the game on Xbox Live would go on to influence gaming's next step in hardware, demanding that consoles provide online capabilities like friend lists, lobbies, and chat. And really, this alone warrants a spot on this list.

We'll admit it: The original StarCraft took up way too much of our time back in the day. In fact, it nearly single-handedly flunked us out of school, which is why the recent sequel (a very faithful one at that) deserves some recognition on our list. StarCraft II took what made the original so great—the addictive mineral gathering/command base building, the strategic elements, the scantily clad alien chicks—and took it to new levels with the introduction of a new campaign and units. It's a shame the developers decided to split it up into a trilogy (especially bad for those without enough minerals), but hey, we'll take a new StarCraft wherever we can get one. Roll out!

At one point, Team Fortress 2 was getting the Duke Nukem Forever treatment—that is to say, it seemed like it was never going to be released. Alas, after nine years of continuous refinement and development (a ridiculous amount of time for anything to be made), it was released to the masses. Lo and behold, Mikey liked it. While it doesn't really have a "killer app" feature of any kind, the cartoonish class-based multiplayer shooter distills the elements of fun action to its elements and executes them well. Not bad for a game Wired once labelled as "vaporware" for number of years. And almost four years later, we AH STILL FULLY CHAHGED!

The later ’90s/early ’00s brought us a flurry of real-time strategy games that all seemed to feature the same kind of gameplay. Yet, Age of Empires II stands out for its meticulousness and accuracy, down to incorporating soundbites for each of the 13 civilizations. Being called a "fanculo" by the Romans is a good thing, right?

The third one may be what everyone is talking about, but the Marvel vs. Capcom series owes its success primarily to the second in the series, which became a quarter-eating classic. The impressive roster—56 characters from the Capcom and Marvel universes—and unique 3v3 gameplay featuring tag-ins and tag-team super-combos made it a hard game to master, but at least it had pretty flashing lights to entertain you while you got your ass kicked, 999-hit combo style.

If there ever was a series that demands a console port, it's NOLF, a James Bond spoof with a funny bone. Cate Archer (whoa, a funny spy named Archer? Shame on you, FX!) stars as the undercover operative of U.N.I.T.Y. as she uses disguises and sexy skirts (especially sexy skirts) to take down the malevolent and Dateline NBC-level-creepy H.A.R.M. agents. Oh, and there's a midget mime that rides a unicycle. So, all in all, pretty much like our daily commute.

We asked 2K Games, "Would you kindly create a sequel to our favorite game of 2008?" In inimitable fashion, they responded with one of the most entertaining games of 2010. Mixing controversial political commentary on communism/socialism and the idea of the collective struggle, BioShock 2 built on the previous game by putting you in the size-35 shoes of a drill-wielding Big Daddy and mixing up the combat with the introduction of stackable plasmid powers. Fiery tornados FTW (no 2012).

World of Warcraft may be ruling the kingdom of role-playing games right now, but its massive campaigns and addictive missions take a page out of this PC game from 2000. Baldur's Gate II was a monster of a game, stuffing dozens of hours of dungeon crawling and looting within a winding but still digestible plot. It served BioWare well later on, when they took their talents to the South Beach of video game development—third-person shooters—and created a little indie franchise called Mass Effect.

Perhaps no other franchise on Sony's console kept its fan base as locked and loaded—or as whipped and chained—like God of War. Everyone's favorite Greek god killaaaaa returned to take on Olympus' mightiest, eventually leading to the (literal) cliffhanger showing Kratos climbing the mountain alongside the Titans. In terms of a No. 2, it was a stellar title, and one which sent the PlayStation 2 into the abyss of unsupported game hardware.

Remember when Tony Hawk video games weren't synonymous with "wet pile of whale dung"? Neither do we, yet, amazingly, one of them is considered one of the best games of all time...despite a Papa Roach song appearing on its soundtrack. THPS 2 was a pioneer of skateboarding games, introducing Create-a-Skater, the park editor, and a number of popular tricks to perform like manuals, noseslides, and a whole gang of grinds. The game was so popular it spawned a number of ports, most recently for the Apple's iOS, and convinced Activision that Guitar Hero wasn't the only franchise they could run into the ground.

MGS2:SOL is a thinking man's game. While most games before it focused on creating exciting gameplay, series creator Hideo Kojima wanted to mix it up a bit and incorporate a very heavy plot environment into his franchise. The result: One of the most debated games in the history of home entertainment and one which heavily relies on the examination of political and social conventions. Blondie McBlonderson (a.k.a. federal agent Raiden) is introduced for the first time in the series and is the sole protagonist in this mostly stealth game. That turned off many who bought the game hoping to, y'know, play as the guy it was named after. But we all managed to live with it...somehow.

We're beginning to think the crew over at Naughty Dog must have something in their drinking fountains that gives them the special ability to do no wrong in video game development. The creators of the Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Dexter series...es hit the bullseye yet again with the debut of our favorite Drake (sorry, Aubrey) in 20007's action-adventure banger Uncharted. The follow-up, Among Thieves, took the cinematic experience to another level, providing non-stop action while giving gamers the diarrhea tour of Kathmandu, Borneo, and Istanbul. Pepto sold separately.

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Commander Shepard thought the day was saved when Saren and his ship of doom, Sovereign, met their Maker. But, he/she (depending on how you chose to customize your character) returned in yet another intergalactic dogfight, this time with the whole collective species of Reapers, in Mass Effect 2, with a narrative driven by the mysterious Illusive Man. The game was heralded as one of the best of 2010 (we actually named it the best), with refined role-playing elements intertwined with awesome biotic powers and murderous third-person mayhem. If there's one thing mama taught us to appreciate, it's murderous mayhem. Thanks, ma!

Did you know that Sid Meier wasn't even remotely involved with this game titled after him? It doesn't even matter—Civ II was an amazing game in every sense of the word, giving you controls of an entire civilization as you took it through 6000 years of history in a mere couple of hours. Then, you looked up and realized it was actually 4 a.m. and you had actually been playing for 14 hours straight. With simple micromanagement controls and interface, it's no wonder turn-based strategy games are measured by the gold standard set by this 1996 classic.

HL2 continued to the story of Gordon Freeman, who was freed from a state of stasis by the idiosyncratic G-Man. The most notable innovation was the debut of the gravity gun, which showed off the game's unparalleled physics engine eventually used for the company's Portal series. Not only was this the best No. 2 game to ever be developed, it it right up there as one of the best experiences in interactive entertainment. High praise, for sure, but that's to be expected for a game that had won 39 Game of the Year awards. We know what you're thinking: What a pathetic showing.