There has always been a lot of appeal behind video games, but it’s truly incredible how much the industry has exploded over the past decade and become a multi-billion dollar industry that can easily hold its own with film and television. Many different genres of video games connect with audiences, but fighting video games have always had a certain level of appeal and naturally lend themselves to the idea of community.
Fighting games typically spawn lengthy franchises and even see feature film adaptations, but it’s also a genre that experiences a surprising amount of spin-off entries that take these beloved fighting characters and put them in new contexts.
10 Dead Or Alive Xtreme Drops The Fighting While Pushing The Limits Of Taste
Dead or Alive has managed to persevere as one of Koei Tecmo’s most prominent fighting series and it’s gone through an especially interesting metamorphosis since its debut.
Most fighting game franchises are exaggerated in some way, but Dead or Alive has become notorious for their scandalous representation of female fighters, with some of the later entries going so far as to include gratuitous beach volleyball minigames. Dead or Alive has spun out this concept into its own vehicle, Dead or Alive Xtreme, which drops the fighting entirely and is a separate series basically built around watching the female characters frolic around in bikinis.
9 Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero Shifts The Fighter’s Mechanics To A Bigger World
Mortal Kombat made major waves during the 1990s as one of the first major fighting video games that embraced violence in a very over the top manner, but it remains a staple of the genre. There are over a dozen Mortal Kombat games as well as surprising crossover efforts and it’s even returned as a modern feature film franchise.
Mortal Kombat has attempted some curious spin-offs over the years, the majority of which failed to connect and function as fascinating misfires. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero puts the series’ popular character front and center in an action-adventure title with frustrating platforming elements.
8 Soulcalibur Legends Is A Fast-Paced Affair That Does The Blade-Heavy Fighter Justice
Nintendo consoles can be criticized for their inability to handle titles that are as graphically intense as what's available on Sony and Microsoft's hardware and it's often led to some Nintendo-exclusive spin-offs that act as alternatives to major franchises.
The Wii is the home for many examples of this and one of the most satisfying experiments is Soulcalibur Legends, a Musou-esque action-adventure game that's set in the Soul Calibur universe. Soulcalibur Legends makes Ivy and Seigfried its main characters and they fit into a formula that's a satisfying extension of the fighting franchise's mechanics.
7 Virtua Quest Is A Wild Attempt To Reinvent Virtua Fighter’s World
Sega’s Virtua Fighter series hasn’t disappeared, but there was a time where it was a strong competitor to the likes of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken. There have been multiple attempts to do more with the Virtua Fighter license and Shenmue even began development as a Virtua Fighter RPG.
Virtua Quest is an action-adventure game with RPG elements where players control an original character that virtually enters the world of the fighting franchise. Virtua Quest is a fun, flawed, spin-off, but at least its Japanese title, Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation: Ambition of the Judgment Six, doesn't show any restraint.
6 Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Translates The Competitive Nature Of Fighters To Puzzle Games
Capcom’s Street Fighter series is so popular that they’re the perfect franchise to experiment around with unusual spin-offs since the public is already willing to give Street Fighter the benefit of the doubt. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo takes the beloved Street Fighter characters and their fighting tournament and adapts them into a tile-matching puzzle game.
It might not seem like a natural translation, but it’s surprising just how tense and competitive the matches in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo can become. It’s a strange piece of Street Fighter’s history that deserves a comeback.
5 Guilty Gear Judgment Opens Up The Series’ World & Packs On The Challenges
Arc System Works' Guilty Gear fighting franchise has quietly built steam since 1998 and it's one of the more consistent and beautiful looking 2D fighters for traditionalists. There's a rich world to experience in Guilty Gear, but Guilty Gear Judgment attempts to expand on the chaotic world through a sidescrolling beat 'em up game.
Guilty Gear Judgment is an exceptional translation of the core series, but it's unfortunately a spin-off that not many have experienced since it's a game that's exclusive to the handheld PSP console.
4 Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight Sends The Franchise To The Future
Street Fighter has been able to stick around for decades, but Capcom has pushed the series into unexpected territory even since Street Fighter's early years. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight is a perplexing Nintendo title from 1990 that's notable for how it doesn't just turn Street Fighter into a side-scroller action platformer not unlike Double Dragon, but it also adds a heavy dose of sci-fi to the series.
Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight isn’t necessarily a broken idea, but it’s significant that Capcom hasn’t returned to this future timeline in a lasting capacity.
3 Death By Degrees Gives Tekken’s Nina Williams Her Big Break
Tekken has had nearly three decades to cultivate a strong roster of characters, but certain individuals have always popped and acted as standout representatives for the franchise. Nina Williams has become one of the most prominent faces for Tekken and the PlayStation 2 spin-off, Tekken’s Nina Williams in Death by Degrees is a satisfying, chaotic expansion of Tekken’s world.
Death by Degrees strives for bombastic action that’s akin to Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden and Tekken’s Nina Williams makes for a suitable figure to keep this tradition going.
2 SNK Vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Breaks Down Combat Into Turn-Based Card Battles
Capcom has become a popular company to pit in competition against other collections of characters, whether it’s Marvel or even Tatsunoko Productions. The SNK Vs. Capcom titles don’t receive the attention that they deserve and this is even truer for its unusual spin-off series, SNK Vs. Capcom: Card Fighters.
Card-based versions of popular franchises have become quite popular and this card-centric RPG version of the SNK Vs. Capcom universe has received several entries that each attempt to up the stakes. It’s a satisfying alternative to the main franchise.
1 Pokkén Tournament Finds Success With Two Unlikely Franchise Combinations
It’s very rare for a video game franchise to achieve the level of success and versatility of Pokémon. Pokémon has expanded beyond its original scope as well as ventured into some particularly creative spin-offs that explore the universe in new ways.
Pokémon isn’t a fighting franchise, but the Tekken series takes its well-defined mechanics and applies it to some of Pokémon’s most interesting monsters to create Pokkén Tournament. Pokkén Tournament is itself a fighting game, but it’s still a spin-off of two existing franchises that shouldn’t necessarily work together, but do.