5 Brilliant Video Game Spin-Offs

The Wario Franchise

First appearing on our screens in 1992 as Mario’s antagonist in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Wario ended up taking the title of the 1994 third installation, known as Wario Land, where he switched to become the protagonist.  He starred in many Wario Land games since then including titles such as Wario Land 2, 3 and 4, Wario World and more recently Wario Land: Shake It! for the Nintendo Wii in 2008.  The WarioWare series of games extended his franchise even more with a mini-game party style series including WarioWare: Twisted! on the GameBoy Advance, WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii, and the game that started the series off, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames!, again for the Advance.

Earthworm Jim – The TV Series

Anyone who ever played the original Earthworm Jim video games from 1994 will know that both the characters and plots were bizarre, abstract, and at times, completely insane.  However, that’s what most people loved about it and fortunately, the TV series kept it all and then some.  As well as a ridiculously catchy theme song that we can all still remember today, the show broke boundaries and we would often find the characters seemingly talking directly to us from behind the screen.  Appealing to both adults and children, the show featured the voice talent of Dan Castellaneta as Jim – known to most of us as Homer Simpson – and was a huge success in the United States and the UK.

Portal

Today, we know Portal as the hugely successful first-person puzzle game, with a 2011 sequel so popular it was named by many as the Game of the Year and featured voice talents such as Stephen Merchant.  Today, millions of Aperture Science fans are waiting in anticipation for a third instalment of the series.  But originally, this game was just a spin-off and a new entry as part of Valve’s ‘Orange Box’ that housed Half Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress.  It was added as an ‘extra’ in a sense.  However, Portal became the surprise star attraction of the box set, creating a new cult following through it’s dark humor and challenging gameplay.

Luigi’s Mansion

Ordinarily, when leading protagonists’ sidekicks take centre stage in their own video game, it doesn’t usually end up generating large sales.  In fact, most of the time we see why the main character is in fact, the leader, as we experience mediocre gameplay, weak characters and a general sense of loss for our leading man or lady – take Sonic’s Tails’ Skypatrol for example.  However, creepy platform game, Luigi’s Mansion, took us on an adventure to find Mario and we totally bought it.  The graphics and gameplay were innovative with puzzles that made you think rather than being simply added for the sake of it and the smooth level design kept it interesting throughout.  The game achieved recognition all over, receiving the 2002 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for Audio as well as being the most successful GameCube launch title.  It’s popularity secured Luigi another three more starring titles.

The Donkey Kong Franchise

Originally appearing as Mario’s antagonist back in 1981, Donkey Kong led the way in the 1994 SNES classic, Donkey Kong Country, a highly advanced platform game for its time where DK became the protagonist.  His success grew and grew, to the point where he even received his own spin-off characters such as Donkey Kong Jr. and Baby DK. He’s been in over 30 games, and he doesn’t show any sings of slowing down any time soon.

Do you have a favorite video game spin-off? Let us know in the comments!

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This post was originally written by Claire Pulpher.