Game series with the best "spinoff" titles?

[PDorr3]

You all know those games out there that have those few off-spin titles, like metroid pinball. But which game franchise to do think has the best line-up of these games? To me it would be mario, I mean mario kart, tennis, paper mario, etc. All of them are all very enjoyable games. My second pick would be the kirby games, such as the recently released canvas curse on ds, and especialy kirby's dream course on snes, and even the puyo knockoff kirby's avalanche.

So I am curious about what your picks would be for best spinoff games in a franchise.

[Snapple]

I don't think of the Mario non-platformers so much as "spinoffs" as they are "stuffing a popular license into every genre Nintendo can think of."

That's not to say most of them aren't good games, but most of them don't really have much in common with Mario either, aside from the graphics.

I mean, look at Dr. Mario. Great game. But take the mustache off the doctor, and it's not even a Mario game anymore. It's just a good puzzle game.


On the other hand, I would consider games like Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Pinball to be spinoffs, as they share gameplay elements in common with the original franchise. "Catching all the Pokemon" being the biggest in common.

So it's hard for me to answer the question. I'll think about it.

[Ed Oscuro]

The Gargoyle's Quest/Demon's Crest(/Blazon) game series that Capcom spun off of the Ghosts 'n Goblins series. What a great series it is.

I don't know if you could call the Mario Kart/Smash Bros. games spin-offs, but Mario Kart is one of my dearest favorites in the history of Urth.

And of course, Front Mission: Gun Hazard seems to be a spinoff of the RPG series. Wow, here's one of my favorite action games of all time, and it's a spinoff!

[Roi]

Mario! And not the Mario Party games but the Mario Karts, Mario Tennis and the Super Smash games.

[bargora]

Mario! And not the Mario Party games but the Mario Karts, Mario Tennis and the Super Smash games.
Wow. You totally didn't even read any of the posts in this thread, did you?

Neat topic, BTW.

Anyway, The House of the Dead has The Pinball of the Dead and The Typing of the Dead, both very solid titles. And the Megaman games spun off the Megaman Legends games which in turn spun off The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, which is another good one.

I don't know if anyone here really loved Grobda, but it was a Xevious spinoff.

Of course there was Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, which gathered characters from the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers games and superdeformed them to do battle using falling crystal blocks. Later the cute-ified fighters went back to 2-D fighting using a simplified control system in Pocket Fighter.

I still wonder how Klonoa Beach Volleyball turned out. And was Twinbee a puzzle game that spawned a shooter or a shooter that spawned a puzzle game?

Then there were the Panzer Dragoon games that gave rise to the Panzer Dragoon Saga RPG, a big crowd-pleaser and ebay prize.

I'm still waiting for a Steel Battalion spin-off where you use a standard Xbox controller to control a regular tracked tank or wheeled mobile battery and you just get owned repeatedly by players in the vertical tanks (mechs).

[Haoie]

The best spinoff I can think of the top of my head is the wonderful PS game, Misadventures of Tron Bonne. Of course it follows the story/setting basically from Megaman Legends, but I think it's a lot more fun. Especially the bank heist levels.

[Teo]

Hey if Roi didn't read the posts in the thread then I didn't either LOL

If Mario Kart isn't a spinoff than I don't know what is. I mean c'mon it's not a random game in a genre with Mario license slapped on it, it's got turtle shells mushrooms and fireballs, coins and question blocks and the track names are themed after character development, ala koopa Beach and soforth.

[njiska]

Hey if Roi didn't read the posts in the thread then I didn't either LOL

If Mario Kart isn't a spinoff than I don't know what is. I mean c'mon it's not a random game in a genre with Mario license slapped on it, it's got turtle shells mushrooms and fireballs, coins and question blocks and the track names are themed after character development, ala koopa Beach and soforth.

Mario kart is not a spin off so much as it is a kart racer with mario graphics. It uses the lisence well but it's not a true spin-off. A spin off usually ties in with the main series through the story in some way, shape or form. Not just the same characters. Games like Gun Survivor 4: Biohazard - Heros never die (aka RE: Dead Aim. I just like the japenese title because it's so damn long and unnessacary) and Death by Degrees Staring Nina Williams are spin offs in the truest sense. Much like the Jeffersons was a spin off of All in the family.

Right now there isn't really a good spin off game using those rules. However if DOA 4 explains the Ayane tie-in in Ninja Gaiden then it becomes a spin-off and therefore would be the best one ever. But until Itagaki ties it in there really is no best spin-off in the truest sense of the word.

[Teo]

I see, there is always that. I forgot to mention on royal raceway and at the end in Mario Kart 64 we see the Mushroom kingdom castle exactly as it is in Mario 64. And as far as Mario's Story well, that's like comparing different Batman movies. But in the end it's hard to say what's being spun off of what whith titles like Smash Bros.

[Moon Patrol]

Wouldn't it be technically correct to say Donkey Kong started all of the spin-offs? From there we went to the Mario Brothers arcade game/atari game, to the NES SMB/DH we know, and so forth.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

The Parodius series. Nuff' said.

[SkiDragon]

Off the top of my head I'd say either Final Fantasy with Tactics or Mario with Super Mario RPG. I agree that it is difficult to determine what counts as a spinoff, but I think those do.

[bazariah]

the puzzle bobble/ bust a move games spun from the sublime bubble bobble

[jslithy]

It has to be Ultima. The Underworld games are a great series in their own right. The Worlds of Ultima games, too, were solid RPGs.

[Snapple]

Hey if Roi didn't read the posts in the thread then I didn't either LOL

If Mario Kart isn't a spinoff than I don't know what is. I mean c'mon it's not a random game in a genre with Mario license slapped on it, it's got turtle shells mushrooms and fireballs, coins and question blocks and the track names are themed after character development, ala koopa Beach and soforth.

Mario kart is not a spin off so much as it is a kart racer with mario graphics. It uses the lisence well but it's not a true spin-off. A spin off usually ties in with the main series through the story in some way, shape or form. Not just the same characters. Games like Gun Survivor 4: Biohazard - Heros never die (aka RE: Dead Aim. I just like the japenese title because it's so damn long and unnessacary) and Death by Degrees Staring Nina Williams are spin offs in the truest sense. Much like the Jeffersons was a spin off of All in the family.

Right now there isn't really a good spin off game using those rules. However if DOA 4 explains the Ayane tie-in in Ninja Gaiden then it becomes a spin-off and therefore would be the best one ever. But until Itagaki ties it in there really is no best spin-off in the truest sense of the word.

I agree 100%. That's what I was trying to say with my other post, but I think you worded it a little better. Mario Kart to me isn't a spinoff. Death by Degrees is definitely a spinoff.

I might call Mario the greatest spinoff series, *if* you consider it a spinoff of Donkey Kong. I'm sure that "if" is debatable.

[TheRedEye]

Wario Ware for the win!

[Ed Oscuro]

Mario kart is not a spin off so much as it is a kart racer with mario graphics.
Do you guys even know what a spinoff is?

Just because I'm lazy, here's what wikipedia has to say in regards to spinoffs (on television):
"A spin-off in television is a new series which contains either characters or theme elements from an old series. They are particularly common in situation comedy."

So that actually means that the Mario platformers are a spinoff of the old Donkey Kong games, as you said. That's funny.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

There's a few Final Fantasy games which I suppose could be considered as "Spin-offs"

Mystic Quest
Chocobo Racing
Chocobo Dungeon I & II
Ergheiz
Tactics (I suppose)
Crystal Chronicles
Kingdom Hearts I. II, & Chain Of Memories

And why on Earth was Chrono Trigger doubled with FFIV on Chronicles??? Are they trying to say that the Crono Trigger series is a spin-off of FF? Or was it simply because they are both Square games?


I would also class games such as Mario Party as a spin-off series. Same goes for any Wario game, which I suppose would be the spin-off of a spin-off...

Smash Bros. And Smash Bros. Melee are also great spin-off's of certain series from Nintendo.


Sims has had The Urbz.

Mega Man has had Tronne Bonne.

Dragon warrior had Torneko, as well as a slew of GameBoy adventures...

Street Fighter had the VS series as well as Pocket Fighter and Puzzle Fighter.

Sonic has had Chaotix; Sonic Shuffle; Shadow The Hedgehog; Mean Bean Machine; And Tail's Adventure Etc...

Resident Evil has also had a few different series of spin-off's, such as the Gun Survivor series, and Code: Veronica, and a couple of GameBoy ones too...

[esquire]

Here are some "true" spin-offs as defined by Ed:

Mario Bros. from Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Country from Donkey Kong
Diddy Kong Racing from Donkey Kong Country
Yoshi's Story from Super Mario World/Super Mario 64
Wario Land from Super Mario Land
Luigi's Mansion from Super Mario 64/Super Mario Bros.
Mega Man Zero from Mega Man
Mega Man & Bass from Mega Man
Half-Life Blue Force from Half-Life
Half-Life Opposing Force from Half-Life
Knuckles Chaotix from Sonic & Knuckles
Starcraft Ghost (if it ever comes out) from Starcraft

But I think defining spin-offs, as in a spin-off from one game genre to another is also correct.

Resident Evil Gun Survivor from Resident Evil
DOA Beach Volleyball from DOA
Sonic R from Sonic
C&C Renegade from Command & Conquer
World of Warcraft from Warcraft
Lords of Everquest from Everquest
any Kart, Sport, Pinball, RPG from Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, etc. series

[Ed Oscuro]

Esquire, I didn't actually "define" spinoffs to exclude genre switches (I just posted a wikipedia quote) and I make no distinctions between "true" and "sorta" spinoffs. I don't see why you'd think Resident Evil: Gun Survivor isn't a real spinoff, seeing how it changes genre.

I also don't see how Mega Man Zero and Bass are spinoffs from Mega Man, but I'm not very keen on the series. Somebody who can give a reason for that will have to speak up, I can't say one way or another ;)

[njiska]

Resident Evil has also had a few different series of spin-off's, such as the Gun Survivor series, and Code: Veronica, and a couple of GameBoy ones too...

Actually Code: Veronica is a considered core cannon. It's part of the main story and not a side story like Gun Survivor or Outbreak. Code veronica is pretty much a direct sequel to RE2.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

What would you class Gun Survivor II as then? In that case, GS: Code Veronica should also be classed as cannon...

But then you may as well say that FF Tactics and Tactics Advance are also cannon, and are prequels to FFXII...

[Wavelflack]

"Jughead's Fudge-Packing RC Cars"

[spooie]

Bionic Commando... not only is the Gameboy version the greatest game ever created, but it's spun off from... well... Commando.

:P

[Ed Oscuro]

Bionic Commando... not only is the Gameboy version the greatest game ever created, but it's spun off from... well... Commando.

:P
Really? The Japanese version of Commando is Senjo no Ookami, Bionic Commando is Top Secret (something else). I don't see any evidence that'd be the case.

[njiska]

What would you class Gun Survivor II as then? In that case, GS: Code Veronica should also be classed as cannon...

You bring up a good point. The original RE: Code Veronica is cannon. The story is a direct tie in, the gameplay is the same and Capcom even considers it part of the main series and not a spin off side story. GS 2 on the other hand is a bit hard to classify. While it is the same story it's also not a real RE game. It is clearly a part of the Gun Survivor series first and an RE game second. In short the story is part of the main cannon, but the game isn't. It's not even something i like to classify as a spin off. GS and GS4 are spinoffs because they feature a side story that is directly tied in with the main series (referenced in RE4). GS is not really a spin off because it's a retelling of the main story with a different method of gameplay. I guess i'd have to classify it as neither.

See the tricky thing with the GS series is that it's really a seperate series of games that use lisences. GS1 and 4 are spin offs of RE, 3 is a spin off of Dino Crisis, but GS2 is an oddity. The fact that i haven't played Gun survivor 2 is making it hard for me to answer this question. I don't know if they changed the story much.

I really can't give a clear cut answer other then the story is but the game isn't. I guess it would be best to class GS: Code Veronica like REmake. It's a remake of Code veronica from a different play prespective. However since it's a GS game the original RE: Code veronica takes precidence story wise.

How's that for an answer? It's the best way i could spell it out without just saying, "Well it just isn't real cannon."


But then you may as well say that FF Tactics and Tactics Advance are also cannon, and are prequels to FFXII...

Yeah i'm not touching that one. See i'm not an FF fanboy, but i have enough sense to know that saying anything that will start an arguement amongst FF fanboys is about as smart as jumping balls first into a pit of rabid wolverines. Actually that might even be smarter.

[Aussie2B]

I don't know if anyone here really loved Grobda, but it was a Xevious spinoff.

Grobda, now that's a manly man's game. :) I'm not even much of a fan of Xevious, but I love Grobda.


And was Twinbee a puzzle game that spawned a shooter or a shooter that spawned a puzzle game?

Shooter series that spawned a puzzle game. There's also a TwinBee RPG.