10 Video Game Genre Flips That Blew Our MIND

Nowadays, we are absolutely flooded with indie-developed retro homages to both the 8-bit NES era and the 16-bit Super Nintendo era - but how many developers have decided to subvert the trend by smashing both enticingly together?

That’s exactly what Sabotage Studio did (who later developed the lovingly retro JRPG Sea of Stars homage), with a game that plays like a straight-up (yet tongue-in-cheek) Ninja Gaiden clone with pitch-perfect 8-bit graphics and music to boot: move the ninja forward, platform, dodge, and face off against some controller-smashing bosses - rinse and repeat, until the big baddie.

Then, the campaign hits what feels like the endgame… only for the gamer to discover that was only half the battle. Suddenly, not only do the graphics and audio shift into 16-bit, but the gameplay itself transforms - from a linear side-scroller into a full-on, sprawling spaghetti-mapped Metroidvania that stands as one of the best of the sub-genre.

It was a brilliant idea that makes one wonder why it hadn’t been done before. Regardless, it absolutely nailed the concept of a blatant genre shift that blew players away.