No, not really. I played MGS2 before MGS1 and I've played R2 without ever playing the first one.

I played FFX-2 without playing X. I also played RE4 without playing RE2.

I third what that guy said.

note: This is one of the things I love about handhelds. Often times one can get an original thats been ported on a handheld, without having to deal with emulators and roms, if they so desire.

Yep,
Mega Man series: Played it in this order, 9, 2, 3, [Legal cutoff here] 4, 1 (gave up >_<), 7 [Yeah, Mega Manless childhood =/]
Quake: played 3, 2, then some of 1
Multiple RPG games

Dgc1808 played Final Fantasy X-2 without playing Final Fantasy X.

That is so depressing.

Well i played Shadow hearts 2 and 3 and never played the first one,,, but it was a shame cause the second one was super connected to the first,, but i read enough faqs and story reviews in order to connect to it.

Oh yeah, I forgot another game I played without playing its prequel: Blood Omen 2. I only played it cause it was free. It SEEMS like there's a lot of backstory that was in the first game that I missed, but I actually went back and tracked down the first Blood Omen game, and the gameplay was just UTTERLY different, so I haven't really run into a lot of whatever story elements there are yet.

Usually I don't like playing a game that is 2nd or 3rd in the series unless I know that there isn't really much of a plot or storyline to the game to worry about, like Super Mario Bros or Sonic the Hedgehog.

I will... if i can't avoid it really or if it doesn't seem to matter too much.

Then i'll just go back and play the original if the game was good.

I've played Gears of War 2 without playing the first one. I read up on the plot of the first game in about 10 minutes on Wikipedia, and I don't think I would be compelled to play the campaign of the first one anyways.