While many of gaming's most popular franchises were birthed as fresh ideas for a new IP, a number of beloved games, such as Forza Motorsport and Super Mario Bros., started off as spin-offs from established mainline series. Whether these games put side characters into the spotlight or explore new settings and genres, sometimes a breath of fresh air is exactly what a franchise needs to get fans excited.
However, that's not to say these gambles always work out, but, when they do, the results are often memorable. In fact, they can sometimes even surpass the popularity of the franchises from whence they came.
Fallout: New Vegas
While the original Fallout franchise produced two popular strategy games in the late '90s, the IP was revitalized for a wider audience by Bethesda with 2008's Fallout 3. This revitalization was well received by fans, but, even over a decade later, it's 2010's Fallout: New Vegas that is often considered the best game in the series.
There's no doubt that Bethesda had a lot of heavy lifting. However, it was certainly successful. By bringing the Fallout franchise to a new engine with a completely different playstyle, Obsidian Entertainment was able to build on these foundations to tell a story with more focus on a tight script, narrative, and setting. While New Vegas' visuals may be showing their age, the game is still the gold standard for meaningful dialogue choices and a narrative that reacts appropriately to the player's decisions.
World of Warcraft
Although the massive multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) genre has been around in some form since the 1980s, it wasn't until World of Warcraft released that the genre exploded in popularity. The game has been up and running for almost 17 years, and, even though its monthly player-base numbers aren't nearly as high as they were during World of Warcraft's peak years, it's still the most played MMO on the market.
Even with some games attempting to change the way MMOs play, World of Warcraft's abilities, mission design, and general gameplay loop can be felt in almost every title released in the genre. With the game being this successful, it's easy to forget that World of Warcraft is a spin-off of the mainline Warcraft real-time strategy games.
Forza Horizon
The Forza Motorsport franchise began on the original Xbox in 2005 as a realistic, nuanced racer in the same vein as Sony's Gran Turismo games. While the proper Forza games have been well-received by fans and critics, the Forza Horizon spin-offs have received much more mainstream popularity. Trading in most of the fine-tuning and complicated controls of the Forza games, the Horizon titles have opted for a slightly more arcade-like feel that's easier to pick up and play.
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In addition to Forza Horizon's visuals, which have often been among the best of any console they've appeared on, the series is also famous for its gigantic maps (which have so far included semi-realistic representations of the UK, Southern France, Northern Italy, and Australia). The upcoming Forza Horizon 5 will take place in Mexico.
Apex Legends
Apex Legends is one of the most popular battle royale games on the market, but its memorable characters and setting weren't created out of thin air. The game actually started out as Titanfall 3, a sequel to Respawn Entertainment's two mech-heavy first-person shooters.
As the developers were toying with different player-vs-player concepts for the sequel, the studio's acquisition by Electronic Arts and the popularization of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds led the team to spin-off their ideas into an entirely different game set in the same universe. There's a lot of debate over whether Apex Legends is actually better than the two Titanfall games, but there's no doubt that Apex Legends has reached a wider audience.
Super Mario Bros.
Mario, Luigi, and the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom are perhaps the most well-known video game characters in the world, and they have appeared in countless spin-offs and crossovers with other franchises. However, some fans may not know that the original Super Mario Bros. game was itself a spin-off.
The famous plumber Mario was first seen in 1981's Donkey Kong, in which he was tasked with climbing scaffolding and dodging Donkey Kong's thrown barrels to save his girlfriend, Pauline. Mario would, of course, go on the be the bigger name of the two Nintendo icons, starring in best-selling games on every console Nintendo has released.
Resident Evil: Revelations
The Resident Evil franchise may have started out with slow, atmospheric horror games, but it eventually left its spooky roots behind in favor of a focus on action. The popular Resident Evil 4 may have balanced horror and Hollywood-style set pieces well, but the games that followed failed to recapture the same magic, and the Resident Evil games lost some of their steam.
Resident Evil: Revelations stepped away from the narrative the mainline games were telling to dive into a smaller story that brought the focus back to horror and atmosphere. Revelations and its sequel, Revelations 2, blended modern quality-of-life features with a classic feel and led to the mainline games also finding there way back to their horror roots.
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. may be more of a crossover than a spin-off, but it brings together more characters from various franchises than any other game out there. While the original kept its roster relatively conservative, the latest game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch, has the largest roster the franchise has seen to date.
While not every fan-requested fighter has made it into the platform-brawler franchise, iconic Nintendo characters have been joined by a number of third-party icons such as Sonic, Solid Snake, Mega Man, and Bayonetta. Although the sheer volume of IPs represented in the Super Smash Bros. franchise is impressive, what's even more celebrated is the accuracy with which each characters' original look and gameplay have been reflected in their playstyle.
Mario Kart
Among all of the Mario spin-off games, perhaps none have become as widely popular as Mario Kart. While hundreds of racing games have been released since the original Super Mario Kart came out for Nintendo's SNES in 1992, few have had such a massive impact on their genre.
Mario Kart largely invented the cart racing genre, and for almost 20 years, it's been the game that all other cart racers are compared to. Unique in its wild tracks, a roster of recognizable characters, reliance on weapons and power-ups, and disregard for even somewhat realistic physics, Mario Kart is enjoyed by everyone from the most hardcore gamers to the most casual.
Persona
The Megami Tensei IP dates back longer than most fans may realize. The series began in the 1980s with a set of science-fiction/horror novels, which were later adapted into 1987's Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei for the Famicom. The series has led to a number of spin-off games and franchises, though none have proven as popular or beloved as Persona.
The Persona series ended up being localized for release in North America before the mainline Megami Tensei games. While the Persona series maintains many of the dark and complex themes of Megami Tensei, its blending of more relatable characters, humor, and even romance has seen it develop a massive fan following.
Metroid Prime
Taking Nintendo's famous Metroid franchise, known for its 2D presentation and focus on exploration, and transforming it into a first-person shooter was a risky move for the game's developer, Retro Studios. Many fans worried that this shift would place too much focus on fast-twitch action gameplay, but their fears were allayed when Metroid Prime proved to understand and respect its franchise's roots.
While the first-person camera did lead to more intense combat than the Metroid games had previously seen, Prime still required players to explore their environments and use the various navigation and traversal tools at their disposal.