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It is generally considered a fact that, in movies, sequels are never as good as the original. In video games, the opposite tends to be true, as game developers improve upon the ideas of the original without sacrificing the magic that made the original a good game. With both rules, however, there are exceptions. For example, Francis Ford Coppola's celluloid masterpiece, The Godfather, spawned The Godfather, Part II, an opus that is arguably better than the original (see my previous post on the Top 5 Best and Worst Movie Sequels). Interestingly, The Godfather also spawned a rare abberation, a licensed video game--based on a movie--that is actually a pretty well-made game. What does all this say about the video game based on The Godfather, Part II? Does it hold true to its cinematic counterpart and the rule of thumb about video game sequels, or does it amount to another exception?

Unfortunately, the answer isn't so simple. The Godfather II does make vast improvements over The Godfather: The Video Game, but it oddly takes some of the polish away at the same time. Many of the things that made the original game so notable are missing in the sequel, so the improvements are bittersweet. This does not necessarily mean that The Godfather II is worse than the original, but it's also not better.

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