Once a game franchise gets going, its fans generally know what to expect. Devil May Cry is all about hacking and slashing stage by stage with the odd puzzle. Tekken is about picking one character and beating up another in one-on-one bouts. Tetris is about arranging blocks into neat lines without making too many gaps or running out of space.
Still, some franchises end up branching out into other genres with spin-offs. Sometimes, their developers are seeking out new audiences, experimenting with the formula, or simply licensing out their series for extra revenue. Whatever the reason, here are a few video game spin-offs that went beyond their main series’ genres.
10 Metal Gear AC!D
It would’ve been easy to point at Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and the game's less reverent, hack n’slash take on the sneak ‘em up series, but the Acid games feel a step or two further removed from Metal Gear’s basis. Developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Metal Gear AC!D was a turn-based tactical RPG released on the PSP in 2004.
In it, Solid Snake and Teliko Freeman draw cards to move, sneak, attack, and more to save a US Senator from terrorists. It caught on well enough to get a sequel, AC!D 2, the following year, but their reception paled once the PSP got more traditional Metal Gear games in Portable Ops and Peace Walker.
9 King Of Fighters for Girls
King of Fighters is a famous series of fighting games. Though it's also known for having a more stylish and handsome cast of characters compared to its rivals. So, in a joint venture with Victor Entertainment, SNK developed King of Fighters for Girls, a dating game where a nameless young woman had to work with one of six teams of KOF’s finest. The game was released for Android and iOS phones and was pretty much the same as any other otome game.
Only it had some questionable options in men, like two literal children in Bao and Chris. The game shut down operations in 2021. Luckily, the Nintendo DS had a whole series of SNK-themed otome games called Days of Memories, and one was all about charming KOF’s grown men. They were Japan-exclusive, so it’ll give players a reason to dust off their Duolingo app.
8 Death By Degrees
Still, that last game was a little demeaning. Isn’t regular King of Fighters for everyone? What if a girl wants a virtual dust-up as well? Kidding aside, there are other fighting games that would welcome them in, like Tekken and its premier femme fatale Nina Williams. She’s been cracking necks and cashing checks since the first game in 1994 and has been a series’ staple ever since.
Namco capitalized on her appeal by making Death by Degrees in 2005. It was an action game where the Irish assassin takes on foes in a Metal Gear/Splinter Cell kind of way. It sounds promising, except its wonky controls took the ‘By Degrees’ part literally as all of Nina’s moves involved messing around with the analogue sticks. Plus, Tekken 5 came out in the same year as its release. Why play Nina’s broken game when they could play the good one? As such, Death by Degrees faded fast.
7 Cannon Spike
If one blonde assassin from a fighting game couldn’t hack it in the action genre, what hopes did the others have? Preceding Death by Degrees was Cannon Spike, an Arcade & Dreamcast title by Psikyo where Street Fighter’s Cammy blasted a series of enemies in a Smash TV-esque multi-directional shooter.
It was pretty well received on its release in 2000 and featured more playable characters than just Cammy. Fellow Street Fighter Charlie Nash turned up to deliver some Somersault Justice. As did Arthur from Ghosts N’Goblins, Shiba Shintaro from Three Wonders, Baby Bonnie Hood from Darkstalkers, and Megaman from Megaman Soccer. Wait, what?
6 Megaman Soccer
Developed by Sun L, and produced by Ghosts N’Goblins creator Tokuro Fujiwara, Megaman Soccer took the Blue Bomber, his friends, and his foes and put them in a soccer sim for the SNES in 1994. There is a story about Megaman having to foil Dr Wily after he invades a soccer game. But there were no endings for any of its modes (not without a Pro Action Replay code anyway), so it didn’t matter.
It got a reasonable reception at the time, though it pales next to other 16-bit efforts in the genre like Sensible World of Soccer or the original FIFA game. The gameplay was too sluggish, and it was prone to slowdown when too many sprites appeared on-screen. Between this and the equally iffy Megaman: Battle and Chase, Capcom’s hero doesn’t seem to do well outside his comfort zone.
5 Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy is as famous for its music as it is its gameplay, with composers like Nobuo Uematsu gaining unparalleled yet deserving acclaim. So, using the series for a rhythm game wasn’t the craziest idea in the world. Developed by indieszero for the Nintendo 3DS and iOS, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy let players pick four Final Fantasy characters and follow the beat of the series’ top tunes to win challenges.
They could involve defeating enemies to the beat, reaching the end of a stage before the song ends and more. It got itself a sequel, Curtain Call, in 2014, and a Dragon Quest-themed entry in 2015.
4 Doom RPG
Ever played the original Doom and wished it played much more slowly? Its co-creator, John Carmack, worked with Fountainhead Entertainment in 2005 to produce an RPG based on the famous FPS. Now the player has to move turn by turn, square by square, talk to scientists and access computer panels to get ahead instead of sticking to the artillery.
Enemies are now color-coded to show their difficulty, some of whom come from Wolfenstein 3D. The game also confirmed the Doom Guy is the same person across Doom 1, 2 and 3. Though if this entry isn’t ringing any bells, that’s because it was released for BREW and Java-compatible mobile phones only. It was quite acclaimed at the time but has since faded into obscurity.
3 Pokemon Snap
Pokemon seems a little too family-friendly to be turned into an FPS, but in 1999, HAL Laboratory found a way by replacing the guns with a camera. Released for the Nintendo 64, Todd Snap helps Professor Oak out by going to a variety of locations and taking photos of the local Pokemon there.
Set on rails, the player has to look carefully around each area that turns up, and quickly snap any Pokemon. If they catch them doing anything unique, or snap a particularly rare Pokemon, they earn more points. The game became a cult hit and gained a sequel, New Pokemon Snap, on the Switch in 2021.
2 Crash Team Racing
Also released in 1999, Naughty Dog’s Crash Team Racing wasn’t originally going to be based on their most famous marsupial. They weren’t against putting Crash Bandicoot and the gang in it, but if their then-higher-ups Universal and Sony said no, they’d have made original characters for it anyway.
Thankfully, they gave it the go-ahead, and it’s since been regarded as one of the best mascot karting games around, on par with similar spin-offs like Diddy Kong Racing and the Mario Kart series. Unfortunately, its sequels failed to live up to its promise, with just its Nitro Fueled remake reclaiming acclaim in 2018.
1 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Super Mario Kart may have been the original platformer-turned-kart racer, but Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games offered up an odder twist on not one, but two classic platformers at the same time. When Sega became a 3rd party developer, people thought a crossover between the classic rivals would become more likely.
They were right, but most of them probably weren’t expecting it to be an athletics game. Created by Sega Sports R&D for the Wii in 2007, players can pick from a range of Mario and Sonic characters across 24 events inspired by the Summer Olympics. It caught on well enough to get installments right up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.