Spinoff games more popular than the main series

[Segata]

You know what. Fuck the genre rule. Go wild. It might be debatable if Mario Kart is more popular (I think it has sold more per game tho than any individual Mario game)

[BogusMeatFactory]

Phantasy Star Online being more popular than Phantasy Star. Online MMO that was the flagship for dreamcast online play. Although I prefer the O.G. Phantasy Star, the only game was far better received and loved by folks.

Shining Force being more popular than shining in the darkness. One of the best strategy rpgs on consoles versus an average dungeon crawler.

[Segata]

Phantasy Star Online being more popular than Phantasy Star. Online MMO that was the flagship for dreamcast online play. Although I prefer the O.G. Phantasy Star, the only game was far better received and loved by folks.

Shining Force being more popular than shining in the darkness. One of the best strategy rpgs on consoles versus an average dungeon crawler.

God yes! Shining Force is so damn good! III was so ahead of its time. It took FE until Birthright/Conquest to pull the same thing. I'm not a huge SRPG guy and I do like FE but Shining series is just great (the 90s games) I also like the one that felt sorta like Ys on Saturn. Wisdom.

[casterofdreams]

You know what. Fuck the genre rule. Go wild.

I don't know if I can handle that responsibility

I have a question for the group: is "popularity" measured by high critical or commercial success?

What about games that started out as a mini-game and went on to be more popular over the "host" game? Project Gotham Racing had Geometry Wars. I think that series went to become a decent franchise.

Xeogred: on the Megaman Battle Network series: overall the main series might be popular but at one point, I feel in my opinion, the BN series was the popular one for a chunk of time. It might be a poor measurement but Capcom was throwing those games out pretty much annually for the better part of last decade. I mean, development time and marketing money goes to what's popular right?

[Michi]

Xeogred: on the Megaman Battle Network series: overall the main series might be popular but at one point, I feel in my opinion, the BN series was the popular one for a chunk of time. It might be a poor measurement but Capcom was throwing those games out pretty much annually for the better part of last decade. I mean, development time and marketing money goes to what's popular right?

Yeah, they wouldn't have been throwing that much money at it and it's many sequels if it hadn't been doing well, at least commercially. Clearly, enough people were buying them if they were spitting them out that fast.

[noiseredux]

the Shining games are awesome. Not just Shining Force but also Wisdom and Darkness. I love that series. And much like latter day Phantasy Star (Online II, etc), I really wish that Sega gave these games the global distribution they deserve. I'm far more interested in Phantasy Star related games and Shining related games than, well... most any other JRPG's that actually do get localized in the US.

[Kuruwin]

It's easy to name spinoff games that i personally like better than the main games but games that are actually bigger are more hard to come up with.

I guess the Heroes Of Might And Magic is at least now more remembered than the main series but i'm not sure how big Might And Magic was back then (i love MM6-MM7 and they sure don't get mentioned often)

Unreal Tournament is also way bigger than Unreal.

[Segata]

World of Warcraft? Isn't it a spinoff of the Warcraft series?

[isiolia]

World of Warcraft? Isn't it a spinoff of the Warcraft series?

I'd say debatable, since the Warcraft universe has greatly expanded from the original RTS games, with WoW likely covering more of it than anything else. Plus, they haven't really continued to release new RTS titles alongside it. Hearthstone might be the thing to consider there as a spinoff title.

With a large IP like that, I think not everything associated it is necessarily a spinoff. It'd be more ones specifically looking at a side-story, character, or activity (at least, this seems to be the common sentiment).

[Xeogred]

Xeogred: on the Megaman Battle Network series: overall the main series might be popular but at one point, I feel in my opinion, the BN series was the popular one for a chunk of time. It might be a poor measurement but Capcom was throwing those games out pretty much annually for the better part of last decade. I mean, development time and marketing money goes to what's popular right?

Yeah, they wouldn't have been throwing that much money at it and it's many sequels if it hadn't been doing well, at least commercially. Clearly, enough people were buying them if they were spitting them out that fast.

I guess if this thread is talking literally sales or something, yeah you're probably both right.

For me though... I didn't have a GBA and this was the era when Mega Man started getting pushed off consoles while Capcom focused on other stuff. We got some bad PS2 games and RIP Mega Man from then on. I missed out on the Zero games but remedied that years later, while they're great they still don't hold a candle to the NES and X line for me. I'll have to check out BN someday for myself, but in many ways it's kind of made me a little sour that was kind of Mega Man's last hurrah.

Too bad Capcom are on life support now, this would be the perfect time to do some good new 2D Mega Man again and keep him alive.