A video game spin-off can be a risky endeavor. Whenever developers decide to take a side character from a popular game or introduce new mechanics and heroes to a beloved world, there’s always a chance that they will upset passionate fans. Sometimes it will pay off, like turning Yoshi into a bonafide side-scrolling platformer star or giving Luigi the chance to clear a mansion full of dastardly ghosts.
But this list is not about those games. This list is about the upsetting instances where franchises spun off into games that were so vastly different from the source material, they may as well not have been linked at all. And in the most dire of these circumstances, the titles utterly failed to understand what made the core games interesting and fun to begin with. These failures would, in most cases, ensure that the series would stick to what it was known for, never daring to experiment again. At least not in a way that was such a departure from their earned fame.
These unfortunate spin-offs can be the results of many different factors. Sometimes it’s to explore a minor character more in depth or to bring in a different type, or wider, audience. And sometimes these games fail because they have a completely different team working on them than those that built up the original franchise. Regardless of the reason, many of the games on this list exist now as warning signs for future developers on what not to do when crafting a spin-off. And that’s the only way many of them should be remembered. Here are 25 video game spin-offs fans pretend don’t exist.
25 Shadow The Hedgehog
Ah, Shadow. The edgier, darker version of the classic Sonic. The character was an interesting addition in Sonic Adventure 2, so interesting, in fact, that Sega decided to give him his own game.
Unfortunately for players, him being edgy also led to the decision to give him a gun.
Outside of the awkward pairing of third-person shooting and modernized Sonic platforming, there were more serious aspects that hurt the game’s quality. Such as the tremendously unremarkable level design, which seemed to include the same tired layouts of every Sonic game and the control mechanics for weapons and vehicles.
24 Metal Gear Survive
The Metal Gear series has been on shaky ground since the public falling out of Konami and series creator Hideo Kojima in 2015. The first title in the series to be developed after he left was always going to receive negative reception from certain fans.
It didn’t help that that title was a spin-off featuring zombie-like enemies. While there were some light stealth elements, they were nothing compared to what the series was known for. Konami opted for style and action over substance, and the game was only further hindered by micro-transactions and the requirement to always be online.
23 Mass Effect: Andromeda
After the disappointing end to Mass Effect 3, players were excited to return to this universe and explore new features and characters as this entry would not focus on Commander Shepard.
The game was worked on by a different team at BioWare and is nowhere near the worst game on this list. It was praised for quicker-paced combat and a larger world, but many of its positive features were bogged down by a slew of technical bugs. The broken facial animations are what the game is now best known for, though many also felt the story was painfully slow.
22 Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
There are two distinct reasons why this series has stuck to its roots over the years and this is one of them. Released for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 in 1997, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero told the prequel story of everyone’s second favorite ninja in the series.
It featured the 1v1 gameplay from the rest of the games but had side-scrolling platforming sections in-between fights. The controls for these sections were incredibly awkward as there was a specific button used to change the direction Sub-Zero was facing. Also, the live-action cutscenes are gloriously dated with cheesy acting and effects.
21 Resident Evil: Survivor
The Resident Evil light gun spin-offs didn’t begin on the strongest of footing. Released in 2000, Resident Evil: Survivor strove to give players a more fast paced approach to eliminating zombies.
The only issue was that the gameplay for each genre clashed horribly.
Resident Evil had built itself up as a slow-paced, survival series. And every light gun game in existence requires quick reaction time to shoot as many on-screen enemies as possible. Capcom blended the slow pace of the series but the gameplay mechanics, like infinite ammo, of light gun games. This resulted in an unbelievably boring game.
20 Hey You, Pikachu!
While there are some spin-offs like Pokémon Snap that were praised for approaching Nintendo’s adorable monsters in different ways, there are so many others that were panned. Hey You, Pikachu! definitely resides in the latter category.
It was meant to be a pet simulation game where the player built up a bond with Pikachu through certain activities around their house of “nearby areas.” The gameplay, which already didn’t include training or battling, was made even worse by the packaged microphone. Pikachu oftentimes wouldn’t respond to commands which made for a rare blend of monotonous and frustrating.
19 Mega Man Soccer
Well, if Mario could star in sports games, why not Mega Man? Released for the SNES in 1994, Mega Man Soccer let players choose between the Blue Bomber and his various robot bosses to duke it out on the field.
Each character has their own special shots based on what their power is, which is pretty cool.
And that’s about the only fun thing here. The controls are entirely too slow for a soccer game, the game itself slows down with too many sprites on the screen, and your simple-minded opponents make the game too easy.
18 Street Fighter: The Movie
A game based on a movie based on a game. And as if that movie wasn’t sublimely bad enough, the game was the abysmal cherry on top.
The arcade version was received well-enough, but the console release is another story.
It was criticized for being a shameless cash grab as it was simply a port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, just with digitized graphics for the film’s characters. What’s worse is that it was a poorly made port with bad voice acting, long loading times, and gameplay glitches and low frame rates that crippled the normally spot-on controls.
17 Death By Degrees
Though not quite as negatively received as the Mortal Kombat spin-off games, the choice to give Nina a stand-alone action-adventure game over others in Tekken is still an odd one. The plot revolved around the life-taker infiltrating a dangerous criminal organization at the request of the FBI and MI6.
It’s a somewhat generic story that would’ve been okay if not for the long load times and annoying camera angles. What’s worse is you used one of the PS2 controller’s analog sticks to perform attacks instead of buttons, which was sadly paired with repetitive goon-fighting gameplay.
16 Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
There are probably a few key things that pop into someone’s head when they think of Pac-Man: a maze, eating yellow dots, and running from different colored ghosts. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures has none of that.
This would be fine if it had anything else worthwhile, but it doesn’t.
Instead, it’s a side-scrolling point-and-click adventure game where you can’t even control the main character. All you can do is click on obstacles and items to help Pac-Man progress through each section. Not being able to control the main character made many players justifiably angry.
15 Bomberman: Act Zero
If you’re not familiar with Bomberman, he’s normally much cuter than this. Gameplay consists of fighting other bomber people in a maze-like arena by laying bombs to trap them and deal damage. That basic aspect was kept when Konami published this woeful 2006 reboot.
But gone was anything cute. Bomberman was darkened with grit set in a dystopian world. Every stage was bland and colorless and every music track was forgettable rock music. Even the classic gameplay was hurt by poor collision detection and it’s generally thought of as one of the worst reboots ever.
14 Sonic R
Sonic R was neither the first nor the last racing game to feature the hedgehog and his friends, but it is definitely the worst. The first to be in 3D, it was initially praised for its visuals. Although, like many 3D games from the same time period, they haven’t exactly aged well and look rather coarse by today’s standards.
But even in 1997, players could still tell that the controls were off. They were inaccurate at times, making it hard to pilot your racer. The replay value was also significantly low, making for an overall shallow title.
13 Dirge Of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII is one of the most beloved games not only within the series, but of all time. So spin-off games were naturally going to be a bit tricky to get right. While the PSP’s Crisis Core was received fairly well, Vincent Valentine’s PS2 adventure set three years after the main game was less so.
It blended action RPG with a third-person shooter and surprisingly did that pretty well. The problems lied outside of the gameplay. A severe lack of variety in enemy types, as well as a generic story and characters, make it a lackluster entry in the franchise.
12 Pokémon Channel
If you’d like to play a game where your character just watches TV, then Pokémon Channel might be the game for you. It’s a spiritual successor to Hey You, Pikachu!, which is already a bad sign before even starting.
The sad excuse for a story has you helping Professor Oak refine his TV network by watching channels with your Pikachu. It’s another digital pet game of sorts and you report different events back to Oak. Each channel features a specific Pokémon who can only say their names. For anyone over the age of five, it’s a boring and annoying chore.
11 Command & Conquer: Renegade
Fallout 3 is a great example of bringing a classic series into the modern age by making it an FPS. 2002’s Command & Conquer: Renegade, on the other hand, is not. But while the former still kept elements that made the older games classics, the latter took the RTS series and made it more generic than it deserved.
Unlike many games on this list, Renegade wasn’t hated upon release. However, dumb AI and repetitive gameplay made it easily forgettable. It’s the only FPS in the series and it’s planned sequel was even cancelled.
10 Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero is a bad game. But Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is downright awful. It was an action-adventure spin-off for Jax released for the PlayStation in 2000 and feels like it could have been part of an entirely different series.
It’s played from a top-down perspective, which is about the only interesting change the game made.
The gameplay, which has you punching and shooting your way through drab and poorly designed levels, was mundane to say the least. The absence of the gore and violence the series was known for was also a common criticism at release.
9 Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
Other than the name, this is not a Street Fighter game. The story, gameplay elements, and Japanese release prove this point. The NES game follows Ken (named Kevin in the Japanese version), a cyborg in the far-off year of 2010.
The gameplay is that of the side-scrolling action-platformer variety and it is very apparent that the name Street Fighter was just slapped on in order to sell more copies. Outside of this and the very high difficulty, the game is pretty unremarkable and solely exists now as a video game oddity.
8 Soulcalibur Legends
The words “Wii exclusive,” at least when it came to third-party developers, didn’t instill the highest hopes. There were versions of some games whose Wii ports were far lesser than their intended versions and some original games which were seen as second rate when compared to those on other consoles.
For example, while PS3 and Xbox 360 owners were getting excited for Soulcalibur IV, Nintendo fans had to settle for this action-adventure spin-off starring Siegfried and Ivy. It wasn’t terrible, but from everything to the gameplay to the story, it was completely bland.
7 Castlevania: Judgment
Another Wii exclusive, yet a much worse game, was this fighting spin-off of the respected, exploration-heavy side-scrolling platformer series. Outside of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Wii wasn’t really known for its fighting games.
And with titles like this, it’s easy to see why.
Not only was the art direction uninspired, but the camera was disorienting, making for an all-encompassing disappointing looking game. But the controls, which included the Wii’s motion capabilities and couldn’t be customized, were what really hurt it. It’s hard to land precise attacks when you’re waving your arms around like a madman.
6 Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Over the past couple of years, Nintendo has shown that they are listening to what their dedicated fans want. The Switch has seen a parade of fantastic titles come through its library since it was released.
But we had to go through a bit of a dark time to get here.
During that period, Nintendo released Metroid Prime: Federation Force for the 3DS. One of the most despised aspects of the game was that you couldn’t play as Samus. Players controlled marines in the Galactic Federation and it leaned heavily into the FPS genre, which no one really wanted.
