Without the limited days pikmin goes from time management strategy to dungeon crawler.  As a dungeon crawler the game is meh.  1 and 3 are amazing directly because of the time limit (3 is executed by fruit supply, but some idea).  My 2 cents at least.

Interesting.  Thank you for explaining that perspective.

Lol, I feel this! Fifa street is the only soccer game I can play. While I play and watch basketball in real life, I enjoy the street style games much more than the NBA style games, though I can play those at least.

I wouldn't say I hated the previous titles, but Crash Bandicoot 4 stuck out to me as the first game in the series that I genuinely enjoyed.

Halo Combat Evolved

I consider Halo CE one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. I don’t even enjoy the others. I’ve beaten 2-5. Not enjoying reach. But I can replay Combat Evolved on a desert island with nothing else.

Fallout 1+2. I really don't like the direction Bethesda took with the series after the takeover of the Fallout brand. Even prefer Fallout Tactics over Fallout 3 or 4.

but it's a new IP. It's a spiritual successor to 'souls' but it's not a souls game. It's not part of a series/franchise. 

For me it has to be God of War 2018. HAted the PS2/3 games with a passion, thought Kratos was the worst 'protagonist' in the history of video games, I thought the combat was bland and boring and repetitive with little to no need for skill. Just basic game with a terrible player character that I actively rooted against. 

but then God of War 2018 came out and the combat was more methodical and intelligent, the world building and character work far more mature, and its cinematography/art direction some of the best the medium has ever seen. Bar none. One of the best games ever came out of one of the most over-hyped franchises ever. I eagerly anticipate Ragnarok, but I chose to pretend that the series started in 2018. 

If you go through the entire story and understand it fully, then you'll also understand that that's the point (and historically accurate in a sense that he would have been considered a near-perfect hero and role model during ancient Greece. The values have changed so much since then...). At least for the first game. GoW 2 and 3 basically undid everything story-wise that was actually meaningful, and I hate those two for that fact, too. Never played the 2018 title, so I can't judge that one.

It's not on my list of games I like because, like you pointed out, combat is way too bland and repetitive to keep one engaged. I liked the story and Kratos' character arc, I just found the game attached to it very "meh".