Here are six video game spin-offs that worked! Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the latest video game to take an established franchise and give it a bizarre reinvention, swapping out the series’ usual criminal underworld trappings for some swashbuckling modern-day pirate adventures. But, Like a Dragon isn’t the first long-running series that’s decided to shake things up with a colorful, costumed reinvention of the core concept, so let’s take a look back at some of the other times this has happened.
Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption both suffered from zombie outbreaks, and while Call of Duty: World at War’s post-credits easter egg “Nacht Der Untoten” spawned the Call of Duty Zombies mode that’s become a pillar of the series since, RDR Undead Nightmare would sadly be the last time Rockstar Games made story DLC or expansions of any kind, let alone a whole campy horror-themed standalone spinoff.
Since Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Ubisoft has given us Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal, Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn and Far Cry 6 have added yetis, martians, Vietnam flashbacks, drug trips, playable villains, and also zombies, but all of that has paled in comparison to that first neon-drenched vaporwave retrofuturistic April Fool’s Joke-come-true.
House of the Dead’s vaguely educational Typing of the Dead decided to swap guns for keyboards, and DOOM RPG decided to switch keyboards for number keys when it jumped to mobile.
Perhaps the wildest and highest profile spinoff had Nintendo’s most iconic characters waging war with Ubisoft’s, uh, cartoon vermin in Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. The sequel, Sparks of Hope, might not have been quite as much of a success, but really, it’s amazing the idea worked at all in the first place.
The whole reason we produce videos like this is to make something that’s entertaining to watch the whole way through, but if you’re inclined to skip ahead to hear about one particular game and move on with your life, great news! Here are some timecodes so you can do just that:
00:00 – Intro
00:55 – Call of Duty: Zombies
02:59 – Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
04:50 – Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
08:32 – Typing of the Dead
10:09 – DOOM RPG
13:13 – Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Any Dragon Ball fans reading the bottom of this video description? Here’s a long crash-course in some of the weirdest DBZ games over the last few decades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmYZSjMETIk
Want to take a look ahead at some of 2025’s biggest upcoming games? We got you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGkchrYxE-g
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