Considering the deluge of sequels that come out every year, it's always amazing to me that some of the most brilliant and fun games have yet to be serialized. So here is my pick of the ten best games that never got a sequel (or that need a new one):< p>

1) Parasite Eve. The original P.E. game was a brilliant mix of survival-horror and role-playing genres, blended to perfection. The story was ridiculous yet wholly original, based as it was on a novel. However, Squaresoft had to screw up the formula with the next game, doing away with the old battle system and making it play a lot more like Resident Evil. Between that and a weak storyline that again seemed to be cribbed from Capcom's groundbreaking survival-horror series, Parasite Eve II was a real disappointment, naked Aya Brea FMVs or no. SquareEnix has been release an awful lot of sequels lately, yet there's no word on a Parasite Eve III. Here's hoping they wise up and make a new P.E. game that utilizes more of the RPG aspects and doesn't lean on Resident Evil so heavily.

2) Skies of Arcadia. Talk about innovative gameplay and storyline! Sky pirating is fun as all hell, and while Squeenix may rip of the general concept (see FF XII), they can't hold a candle to the RP adventuring of Skies. From the very beginning you can pilot your own ship, flying the skies and blasting other ships with your cannons. While this game did have a few small problems (the enemy encounter rate being too high was one of the worst), even a simple reiteration of the first one with a new story would be welcome. Skies of Arcadia was a great game, so give us more!

3) Earthbound. There is an unbelievable THREE Earthbound games in Japan where the series is actually known as "Mother." Sadly enough, the rest of the world only got one: Mother 2, released as Earthbound. Back in 2003, Mother 1 & 2 were released as a single Gameboy Advanced cartridge. In Japan. If Nintendo isn't going to actually DEVELOP any Earthbound/Mother sequels, at least translate and release the ones that they've already made! Please. Pretty please. (For those who haven't played Earthbound, you are a young boy who must save the world from alien invaders. It's a very quirky RPG set in modern times.)

4) Jet Grind Radio. Roller-blading, spray-painting, cel-shaded punks running amok. Can you get more brilliant than this? And who doesn't love a game where you can make the cops look like the idiotic fascists that they are? This game is screaming out for a sequel. Come on Sega, do right by it. Not just yet another port, a full-blown SEQUEL.

5) Landstalker. Climax Entertainment brought out one of the greatest Genesis games with Landstalker, a brilliant action-rpg game that many have compared favorably to the Legend of Zelda series. And while it might superficially resemble that series (except for being in isometric view) a quick play of the game reveals how different it truly is. For one thing, Landstalker is in many ways more of an RPG than the earlier Zelda games. There are a lot of NPCs to talk to, and their dialogue changes at different parts in the game. The storyline is more involving. But besides being more RPG, Landstalker is actually more of a platform game as well. In fact, a large number of the puzzles involve jumping from one platform to another. This makes the gameplay feel a lot different from the average Zelda game. While two semi-sequels were released (Ladystalker, a Japan-only game, and Dark Savior for the Saturn), we haven't heard from this series in quite a long time. While it's about time Climax came out with another game like this one! Hopefully the remixed port of this game that will be released on the PSP later this year will fuel public interest in a sequel. I have my fingers crossed.

6) Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. This brilliant survival-horror game was released back in 2002. It featured a system whereby the playable character's sanity could be drained by certain actions throughout the game. When the sanity level got too low, the character would start to hallucinate, leading to some really great visual tricks to cause the PLAYER to feel as though he or she were also experiencing a loss of sanity. The things this game would do to mess with your head was nothing short of genius. Well, it's been five years. We've been promised a sequel. Where is it?

7) Stretch Panic. Yet another truly underrated game, this one as bizarre as they come. But what else would you expect from Treasure, makers of Gunstar Heroes, Wario World and Silhouette Mirage? In Stretch Panic, you play the youngest of twelve sisters all of whom are terribly vain (except for you). They make you do all the chores and only give you ugly close and a huge scarf to wear. One day, a box is delivered to your sisters while you're out running errands for them. When they open the box, they are possessed by demons of vanity. In order to save them, you have to defeat them in boss battles, but first you have to gain points in order to access these battles. The only way to gain points is to fight... women with really huge breasts. Beachball sized breasts. How do you fight in this game? By using your scarf (which has also been possessed) to stretch out and grab parts of the enemy's body and snap it. Why didn't this game become huge? And when will we get a sequel?

8) NiGHTS Into Dreams. One of the best Sega Saturn titles released. NiGHTS is a brilliant ... flying platformer?... similar in some ways to the other game Yuji Naka created: Sonic The Hedgehog. The object is to get the highest score possible by collecting items and flying through rings in an attempt to "link" these togethers. It's a very beautiful and highly addicting game, considered to be a true classic, and we've never seen a sequel to it. (The Christmas-themed two-level disc doesn't count.)

9) Vagrant Story. This is another example of Squaresoft branching out into a new, original game, creating something magical, and then just abandoning it. Why hasn't there been a sequel to this truly great RPG?! The fighting style is brilliant! You can target an opponent's specific body parts in order to disable them, and chain attacks together for as long as you can keep going. Add in some platformer-style puzzles and a gothic tragedy style storyline and you have one truly great game. Which is why it's so disappointing that there was never a sequel to it.

10) Kid Icarus. How is it that they never made a sequel to this insanely fun platformer? It has jumping, shooting, item-collection and a fun storyline based on mythology. Come on guys, we need another Kid Icarus!!!

So you see, the game developers have tons of original games to base sequels on. Why we end up with yet another Megaman game is beyond me.