Spin-offs of Video Game Series You Should Play

Spin-Offs! You Wanna Talk About Spin-offs!?

Yes, spin-offs. Like sequels, these off-shoots of firsts in a gaming series can be either great or mediocre.

There are series, like Sonic the Hedgehog, that have had roller coaster reviews in spin offs (Sonic Spinball and Sonic R).





Other series, like the Dragon Quest/Warrior series, are especially noted for their spinoffs, considering that one even led to the creation of the gaming engine known as Mystery Dungeon.

Some notably good spin-offs include:

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey - improves upon the original Monsters formula by adding towns inside the monster worlds, a journal for saving in towns and other safe havens, more monsters, bigger monster worlds, the ability to equip monsters, and a vault for storing items.



Sonic Battle - the closest thing you'll find to a portable Super Smash Brothers game. Except with Sonic characters. Story, like most Sonic games since Sonic Adventure, is complex and better off ignored.

Simply enjoy the gameplay and the thrill of beating the holy hell out of your favorite Sonic characters. Think Amy Rose is too annoying? Give her a whupping she'll never forget.

Multiplayer battles are the biggest draw here. Buy a couple copies and share them with your friends.



Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - How a multiplayer Final Fantasy game should be. Not as good at implementing multiplayer as X-Men Legends (a GameBoy Advance for each player?), but if you have friends with GBAs, then this and Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures are the games for you. As with X-Men Legends, teamwork and cooperation are key in surviving battles.



Finally, Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land - one of the few Mario characters to gain its own series. Wario's story began in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main villain. Though Wario Land is labeled as a Super Mario Land game, it's all about Wario.

Good thing, too, because Wario likes gold and treasure as much as anybody. You get to help him do that with a platformer where tackling your enemies is preferable to stomping them. The more gold and treasure you collect, the better your ending.

The game is made even better by the risk/reward minigames at the end of each stage. These allow you to potentially increase your gold or hearts exponentially.



All these games can be found at your local video game trader, ebay, or places like Switch Games.

For additional information or faqs on these and many other games, check GameFAQs.

Next time, I look at sequels you should play, and whether firsts that established legendary game series hold up to their sequels.