The best trilogy in gaming? Doesn't have to be direct sequels.

The three games that come to mind are Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9. All three came out within a few years and were great games. That was back when Square Enix had their A game. I think it's pretty hard for a developer to have three quality titles in a row, especially for the same IP. It takes a lot of luck in my opinion. So what do you think, SW? Best trilogy in gaming? It doesn't have to be a direct sequel. Can be back-to-back releases.

Max Payne and Metro.

MGS 1-3.

GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas

Crash Bandicoot 1-3

Resident Evil 1-3

DMC 1, 3, and 4

Uncharted 1, 2 and 4

God of War 1-3

Gears of War 1-3

Super Mario Bros 1-3

Gran Turismo 1-3

By era...

8bit:

• Ninja Turtles
• Double Dragon

16bit:

• Sonic
• Streets of Rage

32bit:

• Resident Evil
• Tomb Raider

PS2/GC/XB:

• Prince of Persia
• Resident Evil 0, Remake, 4
• GTA

PS3/Wii/X360:

• Uncharted
• Mass Effect
• Assassin's Creed

Current Gen:

• Tomb Raider
• AC BF, U, S

Persona 3FES (I like persona 3 Portable more actually), Persona 4Golden and soon, Persona 5 Royal.

Disgaea 1, 4 and 5 for me. My 3 fav games of all time.

I 'member Die Hard Trilogy and Aliens Trilogy on PS1, fun games.

Two contemporary favorites, Mass Effect and Dead Space series, which both have controversial last games but overall still enjoyed them a great deal.

Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 immediately spring to mind. Such an awesome trilogy.

Mass Effect 1, 2,3

God of War 1,2,3

Ratchet and Clank on PS2. I might prefer Deadlocked to the original but w/e

Burnout 2,3 Revenge

Midnight Club 2,3, LA

• Max Payne
• SSX to SSX 3
• GTA3 to GTA:SA
• Mortal Kombat to UMK3

Direct sequels i go with Mass Effect as for consecutive games for a series, I agree with OP with the three numbered Final Fantasy on the original Play Station, they were so different yet all of them really good.

Mass Effect trilogy.

@warmblur: yeaah SSX for sure, i even liked on tour and the one on 360 as well, SSX never had a bad game as far as i remember, i popped ssx in the 360 this week actually, would be nice to get a new one, steep is alright, but not not as fast and off the wall like ssx

THPS 1-3

Halo 1-3

Dead Space 1-3 (3 was weaker but oh well, i love this series)

Def Jam, vendetta, ffny, icon

the first 3 spyro and crash games

NBA Street 1-3

NFL street 1-3

Max Payne 1-3

Splinter cell 1-3

GTA, (3, VC, SA)

i liked these

@vfighter: how do you mention DMC and leave out 5 :P.

Metroid Prime Trilogy

Diablo Trilogy

Yeah that's a good one, thought MGS could do no wrong up to that point.

I'll throw Metroid Prime trilogy out there. Even if 3 wasn't nearly as good as the first 2, still enjoyed it.

Wouldn't call it the best three in a row in gaming tho. Would take SMB3 - SMW - SMW2 over Prime trilogy for example. And including FGs, would be plenty.

Metro

Bioshock

Max Payne

Dead Space, though not sure if it counts because I've so far only played 2 :P

Shoutout to Zero Escape, easily two and a half of the best game stories ever told.

Warcraft 1-3

Contra 1 super C alien wars

Castlevania 1/3/4

Mario 1-3

A trilogy are pieces of three works that are connected, so they have to be direct...no?

God of War 1-3
Mass Effect 1-3
Warcraft I-III
The Witcher 1-3

• Time Splitters
• PoP: Sands of Time
• Metroid Prime
• Mortal Kombat 9-11. I loved MK 1-3 when I was a kid, but those games do not hold up well.
• Motorstorm
• F-Zero

I'll agree with you about FF7, 8, 9. Those are my favorite FF games.

I also want to mention TES 3, 4, 5. Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. People rightly give those games a lot of crap, but I had a whole lot of fun for a long time with those games.

Megal Gear Solid 1-3

Super Mario 3, World, and 64

Mass Effect Trilogy was also great - I don't even remember the ending of 3, nor do I really care. The games were fun.

Spyro Trilogy on PS1

Yeah for sure. Disgaea is great, and so are those games specifically. I love the story of the original game.

Mario Party 34, 35, and 36

The Metroid Prime Trilogy

The Pikmin trilogy

The Batman Arkham Trilogy by Rocksteady

Halo and Max Payne, nothing else even comes close.

• Streets of Rage 1-3
• Sonic 1-3 & Knuckles + Rush trilogy
• Metroid Prime Trilogy
• Ace Attorney Trilogy

@r-gamer: Lol, I haven't played it yet. Own it, just haven't gotten to it yet.

Uh MGS 1-3 , Quake 1-3, Streets of Rage 1-3, Doom 1-2, 4

Rayman 1-3 solid.

Though the original games is brutally hard.

Tomb Raider II - IV

Gran Turismo 2 - 4

Resident Evil 2 - 4

Tekken 2 - 5 (excluding 4 & Tag)

Dead or Alive 1 - 3

FF 7-9 is easily the best time I've ever had with gaming.

Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Xenoblade Chronicles X (my Favorite RPG of all time), and Xenoblade Chronicles 2/Torna the Golden Country.

I just LOVE Xenogames. So much better than Final Fantasy series in my opinion.

Silent Hill 1-3.

Road Rash 1-3

Strike games 1-3

Sonic 1-3

Shining Force 1-3

Forza Motorsport 1-3 then 4-6 & 7 lol.

Forza Horizon 1-3 + 4

Just Cause 2-4

Micro Machines 1-3

Panzer Dragoon 1-Saga

MK 1-3

I could go on lol.

I really like your answer, but I'll add Breath of Fire 1-3, Contra 1-3 (not counting Force), Dragon Warrior/Quest 2-4, or 6-8... you know what, I could easily keep going and can't just pick one...

Hands down the best of the best...

Halo 1, 2, 3

Mass Effect 1, 2, 3

For me it's Thief. It starts so well with Garrett being an homeless orphan stealing to survive who is rescued by the brotherhood of keepers. He uses their skills to steal better as he grows older. Despite trying his best to stay neutral and not getting involved in matters bigger than him, he always ends up going deeper in the rabbit's hole just like Geralt from the Witcher. After everything is done, you end up being in the same place towards the end of the trilogy where the first game began, but you end up being in someone else's shoes this time around. A complete circle. Epic journey.

After that, it's The Witcher for me. Honorable mentions: Mass Effect, Starcraft 2 trilogy. Would've mentioned Max Payne if 3rd game's plot wasn't a mess.

Donkey Kong country

Half life 1,2 and expansions

Mass Effect, though i never got around to finishing 3

Resident Evil 1-3 for me. Although its a consistently excellent series whatever people will tell you. 4, 5 7 and code veronica are all good/great. 6 and revelations series are okay and I actually think 6 is slightly underrated. And resi remake 1 and 2 hd are fantastic. Only one i'm not too fussed on is resident evil 0 and umbrella corps series. Cant wait for resi 8 and resi 3 remake.