Mediocre to bad series that became good to great in following console generations?

[drbunnig]

SanAndreasX said:

drbunnig said:
I'd have to disagree with GTA and Resident Evil. I can certainly see the argument that they improved in the following generations, but no way the first few games are mediocre - bad.

The first two GTA games were panned by critics and certainly weren't sales blockbusters. They were okay at best. 

Average score (according to wiki at least) for the first two games were both around high 60 - low 70%, which is hardly a critical panning, although I gather these scores were likely only based on a handful of reviews. Regardless, I wouldn't personally use sales or review scores to judge whether I thought a game was good or not, but we're probably approaching this from a different perspective.