Can a game be your favorite if...

You've loved the game all your life, and every game in the series, but then a new game in the series comes out that rewrites your favorite game's story and makes it hateful and takes the series in a direction you don't want it to go, and you seek help from the game's community on how to handle this, but they turn out to be evil and literally force you to like the new game and disregard every other game in the series (including your favorite game), and the company that makes the series refuses to help because they're swimming in money and fame, plus they rigged the new game with all their favorite stuff which they wanted in the beginning, most of which you don't agree with.

Should your favorite game still be your favorite despite the new game, plus the community and developers being against you?

One game in a series can be your favourite game, even if the series as a whole is not your favourite.

Hmm, I always thought of picking favorite games that way, but was afraid it wouldn't turn out good.

But you know what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures...

Sure.

The game I want to make my favorite game is Mortal Kombat II. I know I made a thread weeks ago that said "Mortal Kombat will never be my favorite game of all time again", but it's because of the issues I'm about to tell you that made me say that:

I've loved Mortal Kombat all my life, and II is my absolute favorite game in the series. But then Mortal Kombat 2011 came out and ruined everything for me with its new story. Sub-Zero is my favorite (and best) character in all of Mortal Kombat, but they just HAD to go and do all that bad crap to him, like turning him into a robot, then killing him (and just about all the good guys), and then they rubbed it in by making him (and the others) evil zombie slaves in the Netherrealm. There's more, but that basically made the story hateful and took the series in a direction I wished it wouldn't go.

I tried talking to the MK community on how to handle this, but they turned out to be evil Opinion Nazis. Basically, they think the only Mortal Kombat games people should play are UMK3 and MK2011, only because they're the two most balanced games in the series and thus widely used for tournaments. So they tried forcing me to like the MK2011 even though its storyling was offensive to me, and disregard every other game in the series. I revolted against them, only to get ridiculed and banned. Then I tried contacting Ed Boon on twitter to see if HE could help me with this, but he just ignored me. I don't think that would have been a good idea anyway, because the fact is, Boon and Netherrealm Studios like to play favorites. I respect them having favorite characters and fatalities and other parts of the series, but with this game, they abused the privelage of having favorites. Why do you think they did all that bad crap to Sub-Zero? Because Scorpion is Boon's all-time favorite character, and he wanted everyone to stop liking Sub-Zero and make Scorpion their favorite character instead. That's not right, but he's probably too egotistic right now to realize that.

However, I was able to save my love for Mortal Kombat by creating my own custom interpretation of the storyline. Recorded from another forum:

Before I state my take on the story, I want to explain why I'm doing it:

-Because I'm more of a retro gamer and mostly like retro games better than new games.
-Because this way I don't end up hating Mortal Kombat 2011 and fearing the direction the series is going.

There are three versions of the Mortal Kombat storyline:
1. The canonical story of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3 + Ultimate + Trilogy, and 4 + Gold. The story progresses as it originally did, and when Liu Kang defeats Shinnok at the end of MK4, Earthrealm is saved forever, and everyone lives happily ever after. The End.

2. The "What-If?" story of Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon. In my view of the canonical story, Quan Chi is captured and killed by Scorpion at the end of MK4, thus Scorpion truly avenges his family and clan. But since I consider MKDA a "What-If?" story, Quan Chi is allowed to form the Deadly Alliance with Shang Tsung in this new timeline, thus starting the chain of events that lead to Armageddon and Earthrealm's impending doom. Which leads to...

3. The "Alternate Take" of the "What-If?" story, a.k.a. Mortal Kombat 2011. In my view, the Alternate Take can't really be the canonical story all over again, partly because things were already messed up BEFORE Raiden messed things up. For example: Nightwolf, Kitana and Jade, Sektor and Cyrax, Jax, Quan Chi, and Baraka were never part of the original tournament. So I base it on the "What If?" story, because that's where it fits better.

That's my take on the storyline. You're welcome to disagree with me, but just remember: I've loved Mortal Kombat ever since I was a child, and by doing this take, I'm trying to defend that love and keep it going, whether the series goes for better or for worse.

With this interpretation, I can basically disregard the story and everything about it from Deadly Alliance onward, Sub-Zero can stay my favorite character, and Mortal Kombat II can truly be my favorite game of all time.

Most Star Wars fans say the last three films were crap. But probably none of them will say that Star Wars sucks. So yeah, you can still be 'stuck' on previous entries. Quite natural. Plus, usually the story for the sequels isn't made until the game is a succes in which case story is added to produce a sequel. If you ask me, not acknowledging added story to the original story isn't something that's outragous. After all, it's stuff that's added later.

I hated Halo: Reach at first. Bungie wanted to go out with a bang with the last Halo. What they meant to say is they put in the stuff they wanted to put in all along but didn't have the balls to do so before hand. I still love Halo: Reach anyways but I'll never regain the fun of Halo 2.

Xenosaga EP1 is one of my favorite games

THen they changed it up in EP2 and EP3 and didn't release the DS version. But that is okay, I still enjoyed them all ^.^

I favour this! Crash Bandicoot comes to mind.. The first few games were my favourite, but when 'Travellers Tales' disapeared over the horizon and 'Siera' walked through the door introducing strange looking mutants, well' I just boycotted the franchise to be honest..

Bring back the Crash Bandicoot we are all used to, the fool does'nt even look the same.

Your favourite game can be whatever you want. Don't let the fanboys change your mind. Super Mario Brothers 3 iswidely regarded the best Mario game ever made but I preferred Mario Galaxy, Mario 64, Super Mario World and Super Mario Brothers 1.

Some people like their favourite game to be the one that was the best for its time, or was the largest part of their gaming life. That's cool. I prefer to judge all games as if they were released today, and choose my favourite game by doing that, so my 'favourite game ever' has changed about8 times in my life so far andeach time I've thought to myself "I'm not sure how anything could beat this..." but it eventually happens.

Your favourite game can be whatever you want. Don't let the fanboys change your mind. Super Mario Brothers 3 iswidely regarded the best Mario game ever made but I preferred Mario Galaxy, Mario 64, Super Mario World and Super Mario Brothers 1.

Some people like their favourite game to be the one that was the best for its time, or was the largest part of their gaming life. That's cool. I prefer to judge all games as if they were released today, and choose my favourite game by doing that, so my 'favourite game ever' has changed about8 times in my life so far andeach time I've thought to myself "I'm not sure how anything could beat this..." but it eventually happens.

TheLordHimself

Fallout 2 is my favourite game every created, yet I don't really like Fallout 3, so yes, a game can be your favourite regardless if you like the rest of the series.

Spyro The Dragon, I enjoyed playing that when I was little but now the series are completely ruined and not fun at all. But still I love the three first Spyro games for the PSX.

Crash Bandicoot, the same as above.

Pokemon, I loved pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, then came Ruby, Saphira and Emerald. I didn't hated them, but I don't think they weren't much fun. Then came Pearl and Diamond and I hated them. And now comes Black and White. I still love old pokemon from the first 2 generations.

Final Fantasy, kind of. I loved the Final Fantasy VII-IX. Then came X and X-2, I wasn't really excited by them, but they turned out to be pretty fun, then came Final Fantasy XII, which is good but the story and the main character are a bit floppy. Now Final Fantasy XIII, doesn't really looks all appealing, I mean I miss the games before Playstation 2 era. Although I've played Crisis Core (Final Fantasy VII prequel) and even despite is an action rpg it is very very fun and the story is brilliant.

The thing is, you don't need to love the entire series. I love the first spyros, the first crash bandicoot, the first pokemon and some final fantasy games, that doesn't mean I have to love all of them. Because if I remember the thread title is 'Can a game be your favorite' and not 'Can a game series be your favorite'

So the question is whether one game in a series as opposed to an entire series can be your favorite? Of course it can. I see nothing wrong with that.