Video games do the same thing that movies and TV shows often do, and that’s beating a horse until it’s long dead and buried. In terms of spin-offs, there have been tons of games that have followed suit. While many actually end up being pretty good, there are a handful that just had no need to exist.
These games can be pseudo sequels that just made no sense in existing, or games that star a side character that pretty much nobody wanted to see more of. It can often sour the feeling gamers have on a franchise as a whole.
We’re going to check out games that wouldn’t end with a great single entry, but decided to keep the money train going with a spin-off that nobody asked for.
8 Shadow The Hedgehog
Isn’t He Cool, Kids?
The mid 2000s were a fascinating time in gaming. If you weren’t around for it, it was a contest for every company on who could be edgier. Everything became dark, and gray colored with the vibrant palettes of the 1990s left in favor of something that felt more adult focused.
Shadow the Hedgehog was a casualty of this horrific trend. Sonic was already cool, but hadn’t had too many great games in that recent time span, so Sega decided to get cooler and go with Shadow as the protagonist for this spin-off.
Instead of the awesome Sonic powers, we get….guns. Yes, Shadow the Hedgehog uses guns and talks in a tone that says none of this is taken as a joke. The story is in dire need of some levity, but you’ll find little as this tale to discover Shadow’s origins is taken deadly seriously. While the gameplay is decent, it just doesn’t feel like a game that needed to be made, and sales reflected just as much.
7 Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
Not Cool Enough
1997 was like the puberty phase for video game developers. The tech was new, people weren’t sure what exactly would work for gamers, and overall, experimentation was sky-high.
Enter Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. This was going to be an entire spinoff franchise, but mercifully, it only lasted this one game. The idea was to make Mortal Kombat a side-scrolling beat ’em up, and while that sounds fine in theory, the execution was just awful.
I remember renting this due to the Mortal Kombat name, and immediately, it was clear the effort was very low. The combos are limited, the graphics look completely uninspired, and overall, the game just isn’t that fun.
It wasn’t the end either, as Mortal Kombat would go back to the well for many more spin-offs.
6 Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
A Genre Twist
Capcom was far from the first franchise that tried to make a successful Wii spinoff, but they certainly had one of the biggest names to try one.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles takes the survival horror of classic Resident Evil games and throws it into a light gun game. It’s a wild genre switch, to say the least, and one that doesn’t particularly work that well.
It’s just far too easy. All the horror is gone when you can just point your gun and kill the things in front of you. It’s a bit more sophisticated than the likes of say, House of the Dead, but still, without having to grapple with an aiming system and the like, it takes away what makes the series special in the first place.
It made sense to try it, but it just felt too arcadey to work as a Resident Evil game. Luckily, years later a proper VR mode for multiple Resident Evil titles would get this very right.
5 Uncharted: Fight For Fortune
Uncarded
When you think of Uncharted, you think thrilling set pieces, sharp dialogue, and incredible graphics. So, naturally, Sony thought it would make a great card game.
While that idea is not great to say the least, we’ve seen card games take off that are based on action-based properties like Gwent or Heartstone.
The reason those work, though, is that those worlds are fantastic and filled with weird creatures and magic. Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, on the other hand, is basically Magic The Gathering starring a bunch of regular people.
It sounds as interesting as it is. The mechanics are Magic-lite, and while there is multiplayer, the single player is so bare bones, and they had the nerve to add DLC to this thing.
If you’re desperate for PS Vita games, I guess you could have fun with this one on a car ride. But for the majority of the world, stay away.
4 Dragon Ball: Ultimate Tenkaichi
Give Up Control
The Dragon Ball Z franchise has had countless video games, but none have captured the feel of the show quite like the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
But that series ended on the PS2 era consoles, so in 2011, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi came out, and people immediately saw the name and thought this could be the new generation of those games.
Not quite. In fact, the game barely resembles the Budokai Tenkaichi series and instead presents a weird mix of quicktime events and basic combat that even a toddler could master.
All the complexity and challenge that was present in the previous games in the series disappeared in this ambitious, but incredibly disappointing spinoff.
The problem is control, or, rather, the lack thereof. You can barely get a few hits in before embarking on this incredibly cinematic but ultimately shallow QTE back and forth.
While it looks cool in action, you’re pretty much a spectator for the majority of it. If that’s going to be the case, you might as well go watch the show instead.
3 Bomberman: Act Zero
Bomberman Grows Up and Sucks
Bomberman: Act Zero suffers the same fate as the aforementioned Shadow the Hedgehog: Mid 2000s, addiction to everything being edgy, and so on and so forth.
Bomberman was definitely one of the more unique games in its N64 heyday, but it was clear that the cutesy style wouldn’t gel with the adult-focused, mid 2000s video game boom. So what did they do? They made it ugly as sin, changed little to nothing about the gameplay loop, and added the word zero to the title. Great.
That went over about as well as you’d imagine. The gameplay was completely boring, and graphically it honestly looked far more visually appealing on the N64. Add a hilariously self-serious story and, yeah, needless to say, this one bombed on arrival. That pun was as bad as this game was.
How To Kill A Franchise
Metal Gear Survive is a disgrace to the Metal Gear name. Not only did Konami shove Hideo Kojima out the door, but they decided to desecrate the only decent property left in their library.
This game is everything Metal Gear is not. It’s not clever, it’s not fun to play, it’s not fun to watch, and it sure as hell is not a compelling story.
This is the name of the franchise and then a pile of garbage to support it. While it claims to be a survival game, the survival elements are weak compared to its contemporaries. Its one saving grace is the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain engine, which at least makes it feel okay to move around in.
But that engine can only take you so far. Instead of infiltrating enemy compounds, you’ll be defending your base camp from crystal zombies. Which, I guess that’s not too crazy for the series, but there is little there to support it. Poking at them as they climb up a fence is fine the first few times, but you quickly realize there is little else this game has to offer.
You can play through the whole thing in co-op, which is great, but you could also go with a friend into shark-infested waters and likely have as good of a time.
1 Left Alive
Not How You Bring Back a Classic
Confession time. I actually don’t hate this game, but I can acknowledge that it is not good in any way shape or form. It’s a spin-off of the already niche Front Mission series, so right off the bat, it doesn’t have a lot going for it.
The gameplay in Left Alive is basically TEMU presents Metal Gear Solid. It’s got stealth, silenced weapons, and mechs, but none of it feels particularly good to play.
It’s all very stiff feeling, and it took tons of updates to even make the game playable, as the initial difficulty was so outrageous that you basically had no chance to win any encounter.
You’ll play as multiple characters from different perspectives in the war, which is interesting. But unfortunately, the gameplay itself isn’t all that interesting. You’ll sneak around, take cover, take some headshots, rinse and repeat with the occasional janky mech section where you’ll get to pilot a Wanzer, but even that is underwhelming.
If you’re dying for a stealth action game, Left Alive could possibly work for you as the options these days are thin to say the least, but it’s not a well-made game by any metric.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
