10 Crazy Video Game Spin-Offs You Won't Believe Exist
Learn to spell with one of the smartest characters in gaming... Mario?
Video game spin-offs have been around for almost as long as the medium itself, serving as a way for developers to try something different with a popular IP.
Considering the financial realities of the entertainment biz, you can't really blame game creators for trying to cash in on a pre-established property - even if the result of those efforts is a spin-off game that is so completely bizarre, you'll be equal parts impressed that someone had the balls to suggest the idea, and shocked that the publisher actually elected to greenlight it.
Sure, not all gaming spin-offs are completely nuts - nobody's going to call you insane for suggesting a kart racer - but some are so far removed from the tone, style and gameplay of the main series that you can't help but stop and go... "what?"
From a Mario dance game to a Pokémon TV simulator, there are countless ways in which some of gaming's biggest names have tried to branch out and try something new, but the end product can sometimes be a little bit crazier than you might expect.
10. Mega Man Soccer
We've already mentioned how kart racers are a perfectly normal gaming spin-off format, with the likes of Mario, Sonic, Sackboy and Crash being given that treatment over the last several decades. But another sporty format that's practically unheard of - and is just a little bit weirder - is the mascot-platformer football spinoff.
This is exactly what happened to the Mega Man franchise in 1994, with Mega Man Soccer launching on the SNES to a collective "meh" from fans and critics worldwide. While the premise of a Mega Man football game is strange unto itself, what's even stranger is that Mega Man Soccer plays like your average FIFA or PES game.
There are individual buttons used to pass and shoot, you can slide tackle, take penalty kicks, and intercept the ball with the correct player placement. Save for a cool "power shot" feature that has a different effect depending on your character (for example, Iceman's power shot encases an opposing player in ice) there are very few Mega Man-esque flourishes, which is disappointing considering how sci-fi and weird the main franchise's design is. But here, the Mega Man license is grossly underused.
That being said, the goofy dance your player will do when he scores a goal is pretty amusing, so it's not a total bust.