Video Game Spin-Offs

I was spending a recent evening watching The Fugitive.

If you don't know the movie is about a doctor who is framed for murder and attempts to find the real killer. One of the major characters is a US Marshall played by Tommy Lee Jones in his best role ever. Five years later Jones' character would be given its own spin-off movie, US Marshals.

Television has had plenty of spin-off shows, for movies, it's a bit more uncommon, but what about video games?

Which games have had major, or maybe more successful, spin-offs?

Shin Megami Tensei to Persona is pretty wildly successful, enough to overshadow the main series. Plus Persona itself has had plenty of its own spin-offs with recent games. And there's still like a half a dozen other spin-offs of SMT out there.

Final Fantasy has also had innumerable spin-offs, which vary wild in success and popularity. Tactics is certainly held up pretty highly though.

Mario, Zelda, Sonic, etc, have had plenty of spin offs.

Really, I feel like any long running franchise has had at least a few spin-offs here and there.

I think we may need to define how "spin-off" is distinct from just another entry in a franchise. In my mind, a "spin-off" specifically takes a single character, ideally a lesser side character, from one game and focuses on them as the main character in a new game. The WarioLand or Yoshi's Story games for example seem like examples of proper spin-offs from the Mario franchise.

If a genre change alone counts, then I think Warcraft is a prime example going into WoW, Hearthstone, and Dota.

Tribes, Privateer, Freespace and Red Alert are probably more well known than the franchises that spawned them - Earthsiege/Starsiege, Wing Commander, Descent and Command & Conquer respectively (arguable for Wing Commander and C&C, I suppose, but at least when it comes to C&C the Red Alert stuff seems to be synonymous with the brand name for most, even though that was just a spinoff of the main Tiberium/Kane/NOD stuff, but most people are definitely not aware of the roots of Starsiege: Tribes).

Luigi's Mansion is a spin off of Mario. I'd say it's pretty successful.

@chaser324: This may not count but the most well known spin off that overshadowed a title it was already previously in was when the character Jumpman had his own game separate from Donkey Kong and became Mario.

Had no idea those movies were related.

I guess Metal Gear Revengeance is up there for one of my favorite spin offs. Thronebreaker features a bunch of Witcher stuff but not sure if that counts since Meve wasn't featured in the games (that I recall). The Mega Man Zero games definitely count and kick ass. Uncharted: Lost Legacy might fit this discussion, too, although I wasn't into the open world section.

Then you have the other ones like MK: Mythologies and Special Forces. Or Tekken's Death by Degrees.

The Dragon Slayer series is a whole mess of convoluted side stories and spinoffs. World of Warcraft, arguably the biggest game of all time, was a spinoff. Mario Kart and the like are also spinoffs. Wouldn't be Giant Bomb if no one mentioned that the greatest soccer game of all time, Mega Man Soccer, was a spin off.

Dang, videogames have lots of spinoffs. Almost like the medium is risk-averse due to the high cost of production and flatlining sales prices.

I'm not sure if Dead or Alive counts as a spin-off but it's set in the same universe as Ninja Gaiden. In the same vein Final Fight is a spin-off of Street Fighter.

Banjo Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day could be considered spin offs of Diddy Kong Racing. Nier is a spinoff of Drakengard.

Oh right I almost forgot Hunt Down the Freeman much like Portal is a spin-off of Half-Life.

Captain Commando and Saturday Night Slam Masters are spinoffs of Final Fight.

@csl316:

Meve never appears in any of the main games, but in Witcher 3 there are a couple times when Geralt can mention the Battle of the Bridge and being Knighted by Meve (one instance is in Blood and Wine). Though, I'd say Thronebreaker is much more related to the books than to the previous games seeing as the aforementioned scene is, I believe, the only instance of CDPR adapting a specific event from the books in any of the games. The closest otherwise is like a 10 second flashback to the short story "Something More." in Witcher 3.

The Builder games are fun Dragon Quest spin-offs

Is Giant Bomb a spin-off of Gamespot?