The Top 7... who's buying this crap?

Another year, another mindless sequel. Make it stop

Words: Brett Elston, GamesRadar US

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4 - Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Number of games in series - 11
Average score from Metacritic - 7.2

Take the same premise behind Dynasty Warriors and replace all that button mashing action with carefully planned out menu selections. Overthrow a feuding China by gently tapping the confirm button countless times as sleepy classical music hums in the background. Marvel at the 16-bit graphics on your PS2 and think how great it is to pretend you own most of the tiny squares that pepper the tile-based landscape. Recruit kinda-historically accurate officers to reap wheat, invade neighboring cities or train your brainless army. Wait don't leave, we're not done lulling you to sleep with all our Romance knowledge.

So here's a game that works perfectly fine on its own, but as a whole, across 11 entries, has done little to nothing to attract a new audience. The scores usually hit in the "you like it or you don't" area, and that's been the case since the series' inception. Microscopic changes here and there do not a new game make, yet here we are with a series that includes "3D graphics!" as a selling point. Um, how about some energy in the presentation or something?

It doesn't have to be rock anthems and weedly-deedly guitar riffs, just something to spice up the gameplay. Put something in there that makes you go "damn Romance XII makes Romance IV look like Romance XI!" Otherwise this is just another Koei series that's more concerned with slapping a number on a box and shipping it than creating something truly new for the player. Then again, if they're happy buying the same thing over and over, where's the incentive to innovate? The ball's in your court, Romance fans.

Above: There are as many Gundam games as there are fish in the sea

3 - Gundam
Number of games in series - 15 (US)
Average score from Metacritic - 5.9

To the average Japanese gamer, insulting the Gundam universe is on par with socking their mother in the face with a flaming crowbar. Anyone who's spent five minutes in Japan knows how entrenched this franchise is within the general populace. Multiple stores within spitting distance of each other stock countless racks of robotic merchandise ranging from models to toys to socks to balloons to toothbrushes. If it's white, pointy and can hold a gun, it sells. Gundam is Japan's very own Star Wars, a world within a world that will never go away.

Despite its legendary status, the games are downright terrible. The Gundam universe didn't make its grand US entrance until 2000, yet since then we've already seen 15 games blob onto store shelves. That ludicrous number is ignoring the countless Japan-only releases that go as far back as the NES and as wide as the Wonderswan Color. And, just like Armored Core, somehow the concept of giant robots wielding arm cannons and laser swords manages to be dull, lifeless and repetitive. How in the world is that possible, and why do people keep lapping it up? Take a stand and let one or two of these turds flop so the developers get the hint. Even the PS3 game, Crossfire, which should have knocked our eyeballs into our ankles, failed to impress in any way at all. Zuh?

There's another one on the way for PS3 and more still for Wii and 360, but will there ever be a definitive giant robot break 'emup?