Spinoff games from various titles are nothing particularly new. From the simple puzzle-based titles or multiplayer racing games featuring famous faces of the gaming industry, these games have been around since the late '80s, and are typically enjoyable deviations from the series they come from. That being said, there are plenty of spinoffs that put their lead characters or franchises in some rather wild situations.
From putting them in Minecraft-styled open worlds to wadding them up into spheres and plopping them into pinball machines, some spinoff games have run the range of quirky to outright strange. Sometimes these hybrids are works of art, but sometimes they just have to be played to be believed.
Link’s Crossbow Training (68)
While it was a tad gimmicky, Link's Crossbow Training on the Wii was an enjoyable way to kill a little time. That being said, a rail-shooter in the land of Hyrule is a concept that seems outright foreign in a fantasy kingdom known for its magic, princesses, and deep dungeons.
Archery is part of Link's skillset, but it seems mildly shoehorned into a spinoff game that feels more like an enormous minigame or arcade title than a true separate title. It's not a bad game, but will not have much gameplay time.
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (72)
There are ways to make good rail shooters, and Rush of Blood is a good one, but the game it spins off from really isn't one many players would expect to have such a title carrying its seal. Until Dawn is a story-heavy horror game with some seriously gruesome scenes and outcomes. That doesn't really sound like a game where players shoot evil clowns on a rollercoaster.
It still maintains a slight sprinkle of psychological horror seen in the original title, but having a carnival shooter set in something like Until Dawn would be like having a dating simulator with the cast of Five Nights At Freddy's. It's a little bit absurd.
Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix (74)
Disney is no stranger to bizarre games, but crossing over with the Dance Dance Revolution franchise feels way out of left field. Especially since they could have very easily made their own dance pad game without venturing into another franchise. DDR is already loaded with strange characters and visuals, so seeing the likes of Mickey and Donald in the mix feels a little forced.
The title delivers exactly what players are probably expecting, a dancing game with Disney characters and music involved. It's not an awful spinoff, but it is a strange case of "what you see is what you get."
Typing Of The Dead (75)
Zombies are a very malleable and adaptable species of monster, and they've been squeezed into a variety of games from turn-based strategy titles to tower defense games with colorful cartoony plants. But a typing instructor fused with one of the gnarliest horror shooters doesn't exactly sound like something that would work.
Typing of the Dead is a spinoff of Sega's House of the Dead where accurate typing helps the player blow their way through hordes of zombies in a creepy mansion. It's as gruesome and gory as any zombie game should be, but it's not exactly a common hybrid of genres.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody Of Memory (74)
To explain the intricacies and patterns of thought that go into understanding the Kingdom Hearts series would be a feat all on its own, but even a rhythm game feels really strange amongst this hodgepodge of different elements. In a series whose games include a mobile RPG, a card-collecting battle, and other complicated formulas, a music-based title feels strangely odd.
Taking a page or two from Guitar Hero's playbook, the game has players running through a musical track and interacting with notes from memorable compositions from the Disney/Square series. If fans enjoy the music, the rhythm-based gameplay, or just need a dose of Disney, the appeal is definitely there.
Gwent (80)
In a story-heavy hack-and-slash RPG series, a deck-building card-combat game shouldn't really be something that rolls right off Wild Hunt soon got its own individually released spinoff title.
While it lacks the epic story and open world of its inspiration, it expands on the minigame and creates a brain-twisting card-based strategy game. Since there's an audience for everything, the spinoff has definitely accumulated its share of fans.
Dragon Quest Builders (83)
Dragon Quest is a series that helped define the JRPG genre, as well as video game RPGs as a whole, but it's no stranger to spinoff titles as well. While it has had more than a few spinoff games that fall into the RPG genre, a Minecraft-inspired crafting game feels a bit random.
It comes with high marks, but to say that it wasn't jumping on a bandwagon would be untrue. That being said, it does the builder-themed genre surprisingly well as it sprinkles in RPG-inspired combat and progression to keep things interesting. While the skeletons and slimes might be a tad less hostile than the Creepers, the crafting and building are given a new and colorful life.
Cadence Of Hyrule (85)
Cadence of Hyrule is the result of a gaming combination like mangos and chili powder, two elements that don't seem like they should work, and yet they do. A rhythm-based dungeon-crawler sounds like the randomization of different gaming themes, but Zelda's crossover with Crypt of the Necrodancer is more than just an experiment in genre.
The Legend of Zelda games have dungeon-crawling down to a science, and the fusion with the rhythm-fueled series gives it a unique flavor that will satisfy both camps of fans. Watching Octoroks and skeletons dance across the gridded screen as the heroes fight their way through dungeons is certainly satisfying.
Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle (85)
Mario and the Rabbids represent two franchises that don't seem like they would ever cross paths, not even in the Smash Bros. games. But the union of these two unlikely sets of characters brought a zany turn-based battle game into the hands of switch-owners everywhere.
Nintendo's portly plumber is no stranger to spinoff titles, especially sports games, but fighting alongside the squealing and squalling Rabbids in an XCOM-styled strategy-combat game feels really weird. That being said, it works like a charm and proves to be a balanced blend of brain-teasing strategy and head-scratching absurdity.
The Beatles Rock Band (89)
Musicians getting their own games isn't an odd practice, and everyone from Aerosmith to Michael Jackson has at least one title under their belt, so it's no surprise that the Fab Four got their own rendition in Rock Band. But if fans were expecting playing Beatles songs in iconic concert venues as the famous band, they'd only be half right.
The storyline of the game essentially follows the best of the Beatles' career from the Cavern to the roof of Apple Studios, but it also features a selection of dreamscapes inspired by their more psychedelic songs. The chapters covering 1966-1969 are a Magical Mystery Tour of trippy sequences that any Beatles fan will adore.