Shoutout to ODST, Deadlocked and Apollo Justice. Those games are actually great.

Yes, definitely. A key distinction for this list is that "awkward" does not necessarily mean "bad". (But sometimes it does lol)

https://www.backloggd.com/games/mega-man-battle-network-4-blue-moon/ if you wanted to add more.

I am for sure open to suggestions here, but without playing it I'm not sure MMBN4 fits? You tell me. My criteria isn't totally unshakeable, but my thinking is that there needs to be a really clear relationship between the first three and/or a feeling of completeness after them that is disrupted by the fourth which feels out of place. Either a new system or a new engine or a new dev or a totally new storyline, something like that. I've resisted putting some arguably odd 4's on here like DMC 4, Paper Mario Sticker Star, Code Veronica, MVC Infinite, or Dead Rising 4, because to me those series kept evolving significantly with each entry and although the fourth one was a weird direction or a misstep, it was along a trajectory from the first three which themselves don't really feel like a complete 'thing' when lumped together.

Please correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't played them and I'm largely ignorant to the series, but from what I've read about Mega Man Battle Network 4 it seems like it was kind of the same as the first three but just padded and running on empty creatively, and the only new stuff was kind of bad?

Hmm if you were to count Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles as one game (as I believe was the devs original intention) then Sonic 3D Blast would probably count!

MMBN3 was meant to be the ending to the series but they decided to keep continuing the series. They rushed 4 out quickly which resulted in a shit ton of translation errors and typos. It had a really bad tournament arc where you could either miss out or repeat segments for no reason than rng. Most of the segments too were just filler while the main plot got sidelined until the end. You were then forced to play the game a minimum of 3 times to experience everything or if you wanted 100%.

It mostly just felt like a downgrade and unneeded game when the 3rd game had a great conclusion.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is the posterchild for this list

Does Streets of Rage 4 count here? Released 20 years later by a different development studio with a different art style, a different composer, and some new mechanics. Incredible game, but it stands quite far away from the original trilogy.

@retroj lol well yup, if 3 was supposed to be the end and then they did 4 anyway without some of the original people and it sucked then that sounds like a winner

This really is one of Sony's classic moves huh

@Hylianhero777 lol yep and I even forgot one, Killzone!

@letshugbro For me, this list is about odd choices, missteps, or confusion by the rights holders of how to move forward immediately after their original thing kind of ran its course, so that would count out Sonic 4 and SOR 4, which would be on their own 'Lapsed Sequel Pretending the Last 20 Years Didn't Happen' list with Mega Man 9 and whatnot

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Doom 3 (Counting Doom 64 as the third game, ID does too now), and Escape from Monkey Island.

Ah shoot, just as posted my first reply I remembered Dragon Quarter was the fifth BOF so it doesn't count.

You could probably count Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4, although I know many weren't fond of 3 either.

I'd also say Shinobi Legions belongs here.