10 Crazy Video Game Spin-Offs You Won't Believe Exist

6. Pokémon Channel

Typing Of The Dead
Nintendo

Remember that old lie your parents used to tell you about staring at screens for too long - that it would make your eyes go funny? Well, kids back in 2003 must've been terrified that their peepers would blow up when playing Pokémon Channel, because the game has you staring at a TV screen... inside your real TV screen!

Ditching the action and strategy of the main Pokémon games, this spin-off has you serving as the test audience for the titular channel, a TV station that broadcasts a variety of Pokémon-centric shows, from anime to newscasts.

From here, all you have to do is... watch TV. That's it. Granted, there's some interactivity involved in certain shows - and you can also explore a few areas of the house - but it's hard to class this as a proper "game" as much as it is a really long quick-time event.

Stuff like watching a Psyduck read the news is fun for a short while, but it gets old fast, and it's honestly hard to believe that Nintendo had the nerve to make this a full-priced console game instead of a free add-on.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.