As one of the largest software developers in the video game industry, Nintendo has no shortage of exclusive IPs. Because of crossover games like Super Smash Bros. even some of the company’s smallest series get time to shine. However, a Smash Bros. cameo is not preferable to real, valuable releases in which characters play the lead role on their own.
Nintendo’s big names like Mario and Kirby have received many games from the main series, but also many fun, respectable spin-offs. However, just as some Nintendo games can’t keep up with the landings at their core games, some also seem unable to manage an impressive spin-off library.
7 Animal Crossing
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Now considered one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, Animal Crossing is a healthy series of games that focus on the mechanics of city building. However, the series’ slower release schedule means fans are often starved of new content for years on end. This is time that could be filled with high-quality spin-off titles, but the series seems to have constant problems in that area.
The 7-year waiting period between AC New Leaf and New Horizons saw the release of Amiibo Festival, happy home designer, and Pocket camp. While the last two were decent attempts to narrow down some of the series’ signature features, Amiibo Festival was a bizarre attempt at a parlor game, which relied far too much on Amiibo to justify its own existence.
6 Art Academy
Art Academy is a limited set of titles that can honestly be considered apps rather than games. As the name implies, they provide a way to use Nintendo’s various touch-controlled consoles to learn and practice drawing and painting.
Due to their relatively niche use case, the only spin-offs the series talks about are: pokemon and Disney Variations, which focus the art tips and resources on producing fan art from the two massive IPs. While these are two of the most popular properties, with no shortage of people looking to make fan art of the beloved characters, these games are pretty lackluster spin-offs.
5 Pikmin
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Back in the Gamecube era, Pikmin was able to release two entire games in quick succession, in part due to its success in showing the Gamecube’s ability to have many independent models on screen at once. Since then, however, the releases have faltered, with Pikmin 4 every day seems more like a fantasy.
The two attempts to shake up the series formula thus far have been: Hi! Pikmin on the 3DS, and Pikmin Bloom on mobile. The former failed in its attempt to adapt Pikmin gameplay in the platform genre, while the latter was released with little fanfare and came across as a misguided attempt to capitalize on the success of pokemon go.
4 Yoshi
The Yoshi series itself is a spin-off of the Mario series of games. Everyone’s favorite green dinosaur was first seen as Mario’s disposable steed in Super Mario World, but went on to earn a slew of titles. Games like Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s woolly world are fun platform games, but the series spin-offs have been very bland so far.
For some bizarre reason, most Yoshi spin-offs are puzzle games, such as Yoshi’s Cookie and Tetris Attackof Yoshi’s Safari being an SNES superscope shooter instead. While the Yoshi Puzzle games aren’t terrible in any way, they’re very disappointing spin-offs, as they don’t really shake up the main series gameplay in a fun or interesting way.
3 wario
Like Yoshi, Wario is also a character who originally appeared as an understudy to Mario, before getting his own series of games. While the Wario Land platformers were where the series started, most fans know best for the warioware games, which have become iconic in their own right for their unique ‘microgames’.
Also as Yoshithe wario series has strangely received only puzzle and peripheral based spin-offs. Most of these days don’t count warioware as a spin-off. This means that the only small entries of the series de Wario Woods games, which are decent puzzle games, and Mario & Warioa Japan-only game based on the very niche SNES mouse.
2 Star Fox
Star Fox is one of the Nintendo franchises with the most unfortunate history. Although it was once a series big enough for Fox McCloud to be a starting character in the original Super Smash Brosthese days the series has been left to nostalgia, with its latest entry Star Fox Zero ultimately forgettable.
Aside from a gamewatch released through Cornflakes Cereal, the only spin-off the series has had is: Star Fox Guarda tower defense game that together with Star Fox Zero. Although a good idea, guard is held back by a player’s patience for the WiiU multi-screen control scheme. What’s more, by releasing with Zerocomes across as an attempt to amplify the already distressed quality of the former, and lacks an identity of its own.
1 Fatal frame
Fatal frame doesn’t come close to Nintendo’s heavy hitters, but the series has made a respectable name. Getting an assist trophy Smash Bros. requires at least some notoriety.
However, due to its niche nature and small number of submissions, it’s no surprise that Fatal frame lacks any quality spin-offs. The only one who has it is Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, a 3DS asset that relies on the system’s AR camera to place ghosts in their real-world environment. While some uses of AR in 3DS games are quite fun, the awkwardness of moving the entire 3DS around like a VR headset can be a pain, and overall the core gameplay of the series changes for the worse.
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