Yesterday, Konami held a press conference to officially announce that Metal Gear Solid 4 is done and ready for release next month. According to Konami president Fumiaki Tanaka, “Metal Gear Solid 4 surpasses the scale of its previous titles in all aspects, including their story, visuals, and music.” You can read more about this press conference at GameSpot.

A fourth installment to a video game series that doesn’t suck? Thank God. Of all series making it to #4, most of them have crashed and burned. Mostly because people just don’t want to spend their hard-earned cash on yet another rehash. People want to buy something good – something that pays homage to the previous version without being boring. And that, dudes and dolls, is rare.

There have been some good ones, though. It’s tough to make it that far into a series without blowing, but there have been a few that have done it well. Will Metal Gear Solid 4 stand up to the past MGS games? Maybe. Maybe not. But probably. In the unlikely event that Metal Gear Solid 4 DOES suck, however, you can always turn to these classic fourth entries to kill some time…

#4: Mega Man 4

Nobody can argue that the Mega Man franchise started to go into the tank after Mega Man 2. However, if you ask me, Mega Man 4 is the last truly great Mega Man game on the NES. Offering more weapons than any other entry in the (original) franchise was a definite plus, and I like all the send offs to Mega Man II. In hindsight, however, the Mega Man II send offs were probably a warning from the developers; their own little way of telling us “Watch out! We’re about to make Mega Man suck big time!”

#3: Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 is much more than a simple sequel to the classic survival/horror franchise. Rather, it is a complete redesign of the game’s core mechanic which replaced the spooky “horror”, and replaced it with the kind of sheer terror any gamer felt when the first time they were being hunted down by an armored Garrador. Sure, the story remained as little more than excuse to have Leon shoot villagers and the dialogue remained as cheesy and over-the-top as ever, but the redesigned gameplay was more than enough to turn Resident Evil 4 into a timeless classic.

#2: Grand Theft Auto IV

Yeah, yeah. The game has only been out for a few weeks, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Grand Theft Auto IV is one for the ages. A downright beautiful game with an art style that takes New York City and twists it just enough to make it fit flawlessly within the already twisted mirror universe that Rockstar’s franchise is based, the “fourth” entry in the franchise also does something that no previous GTA title was able to pull off: Create a genuinely likable protagonist that the player can feel for.

The online multiplayer is also a blast – when it works, of course.

#1: Call of Duty 4

What can be said about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that hasn’t been said already?

…

I got nothin’. Trying to point out a singular aspect of Call of Duty 4 is nearly impossible. Everything from the downright sickeningly beautiful graphics to the gameplay that brought a new level of intensity and immersion that was too much for some people. Seriously, there has not been a game prior or since that has forced me to put the controller down and gather my nerves. Infinity Ward has outdone themselves with CoD4. More than simply just a game, this is a work of art.

Honorable Mentions:
Sim City 4 – The most in-depth entry in the franchise, and the compatibility with both The Sims and The Sims 2 gave this fourth entry almost infinite replay value.

Mortal Kombat 4 – The first 3D entry in the Mortal Kombat franchise, it still kept the feel of the original games while trying to expand to the 3rd Dimension. What resulted was perhaps the last hoorah for the classic MK we all grew up with.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Never mind the beautiful, fully explorable world or the masterfully written plot – the game was nominated for five BAFTA awards, for Christ sake.

Gran Turismo 4 – Until the full, retail version of Gran Turismo 5 is released, Gran Turismo 4 will remain the most in-depth racing simulator ever created. Besides, how many games give you the chance to race in a 1886 Daimler Motor Carriage?

Worst #4 Of All Time
Twisted Metal 4

Everything about Twisted Metal 4 was just plain wrong. The story was crap. The gameplay somehow felt sluggish and, at times, broken. The characters not introduced in the first two games were generally terrible, and the fact that players couldn’t play as Sweet Tooth pissed a lot of gamers off. In fact, the only thing Twisted Metal 4 had going for it was Rob Zombie as a playable character – and 989 still found a way to fuck it up.

In fact, this was the MO for 989 Studios. A third-party developer would create a unique, interesting franchise that had tons of potential, and the 989 Studios would take over and completely botch the whole damn thing. Don’t believe me? Play Jet Moto… good, now go play Jet Moto 3…

See? I told ya.

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