Oh man, I thought I was the only one. I got into Assassin's Creed late, and remember that everyone considered the second game was a masterpiece. So I played the first game, and really enjoyed it. It was monotonous at times, sure, but it was different and new and very immersive. I enjoyed the slow burn. Then I booted up Assassin's Creed II, expecting something even grander. But I found myself frustrated by the backtracking, the unexciting and repetitive side-missions, the padding. It felt like instead of improving on the fundamentals, Ubisoft just made a bigger world with more chores to do.

Spider-man 2.

Meaning the movie tie ins.

The first one was just meh. Honestly, I think it was viewed as better than it was just because of the incredibly low bar for super hero games at the time. The second one was shockingly good and much more ambitious than it had any right to be. Really laid the foundation for the PS4 game and in certain respects is still better.

Yeah, there are more of us that feel this way than it seems to appear - I pretty much quit on AC after the second one due to similar reasons.

Even at the time I never really liked the Ass Creed series that much due to all the monotonous busywork and padding. Tried the first game, didn't like it, never bothered with the sequels.

Yeah, sorry, but no. As someone who was there, AoE was great success, both critically and commercially, and felt very fresh compared to usual RTS offerings of that time - it's far cry from "poor first game".

Mega Man 2 comes to mind. It is maybe harsh to call the first one bad, but the second one is just so much more polished.

Same goes for Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I don’t really think I like the first game outside of the first zone, which is iconic.

Almost tempted to say Pokémon, but nah, that would be too harsh on Red/Blue. It is kind of broken in many ways, and Gold/Silver destroys it, but Red/Blue is still really good, just not a game I’d go back to.

Titanfall 2 is a good example, mostly because I couldn’t care less about playing the original, I dislike online gaming.

I really can't think of many games that were "poor" and went on to have successful franchises.

The originals weren't poor by any means, but I can think of several second games that were a huge improvement on the first: Smash Bros Melee, Crash 2, Ratchet 2, SSX Tricky, Wipeout 2097...

Probably Assassin's Creed

What about TMNT II: The Arcade Game?

I see a comeback as more of a first game that is successful with some follow-ups that were less so, and then a spectacular return.

But for a series that started off quaint with many considering a bad game; you don’t need to look far for someone calling it “the worst game I ever played”. The second was a big improvement, raising a lot of eyebrows. The third game is not only considered among the best RPGs ever made, but is the best selling RPG of all time.