Best Handheld Nintendo Spin-Offs

While the continued success and critical acclaim of a franchise is always hoped for, such expectations can sometimes hamper the creative exploration of a property. As such, even seemingly risk-averse Nintendo has presented players with multiple AAA spin-off projects that have arguably proven to be more enjoyable than their source franchise installments.

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From genre-bending reinterpretations of Nintendo mascots and multiplayer experiments with burgeoning wireless technology, Nintendo has continuously used some of its most prestigious intellectual properties to push the boat out creatively, with sometimes great results.

1

Hey! Pikmin

The Pikmin Franchise’s Jump Into 2D & Portable Gaming

Although Nintendo’s entry-level real-time strategy Pikmin franchise has seemingly found continued lukewarm commercial reception despite Shigeru Miyamoto’s passion for the series, the cutsey RTS property has found enough breadth to provide players with alternative ways to experience its unique perspective on the world.

2017’s Hey! Pikmin is not a wholehearted attempt to translate the 3D RTS experience of the Nintendo GameCube-spawned series. However, its prominent use of the 3DS’ dual screens and adaptation of traditional Pikmin gameplay into 2D has arguably elevated itself beyond the realm of a simple cash grab. Although its more restricted level environments and exploratory freedom do set it apart from the series’ core home console experiences, Arzest’s Pikmin spin-off still “manages to stand on its own as an enjoyable iteration that provides its own unique spin on the 2D genre”.

2

Detective Pikachu

A Mystery Installment That Inspired A Switch-Era Sequel & Hollywood Motion Picture

Although the Pokemon franchise has grown exponentially since its debut titles on the Nintendo Game Boy, that is not to say that the child-friendly, monster-catching role-playing franchise remains the same as its 1996 beginnings. While the mainline Pokemon installments arguably provide iterative improvements on the decades-old gameplay, the series has consistently provided players with multiple new ways to explore the industry-defining world of Pokemon by “pushing the franchise in unexplored directions”.

Despite its seemingly niche appeal as a mystery-solving adventure title on the 3DS, Creatures Inc.’s Detective Pikachu not only provides players with yet another way to experience the world of their favorite pocket monsters but bestows the series’ pseudo-mascot, Pikachu, with a hearty dose of characterization. While the 2016 title did not receive overwhelming critical or commercial success, its unique interpretation of the Pokemon setting was so impactful that a Nintendo Switch sequel and motion picture starring Ryan Reynolds has been created based on its storytelling and mechanics.

3

The Legend Of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

The Culmination Of Link’s Many Years Of Multiplayer Exploration

Of all Nintendo’s flagship franchises, The Legend of Zelda has become revered as not only one of the publisher’s best single-player series but an industry-defining property – however, that is not to say that the fantasy world of Hyrule has been kept far from the experimental efforts of Nintendo’s spin-off titles.

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Although Nintendo has tested the waters with cross-platform cooperative dungeon-crawlers and Dynasty Warriors-themed adventures, “easily the best of the Legend of Zelda multiplayer experiences to date” remains 2015’s 3D co-op adventure title The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. Standing on the shoulders of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures‘ gameplay and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds’ art style, the 3DS wifi-enabled multiplayer release is filled with character and charm alongside a whole host of engaging puzzles and boss fights.

4

Mario Versus Donkey Kong

The 21st-Century Interpretation Of Mario & DK’s Industry-Defining Feud

Although Nintendo’s moustachioed mascot and red-tie-wearing ape have become industry-renowned for their tightly-wound freeform platforming exploits in recent years, both titans of Nintendo’s first-party franchises began their life as bitter rivals in 1981’s Donkey Kong arcade game. With 1994’s spiritual successor Donkey Kong reinterpreting the plumber and king of Kong’s conflict as a puzzle platform title, and 2004’s Mario vs. Donkey Kong solidifying that genre shift, Nintendo not only promoted the pair of unlikely antagonists with one title but established a series that would go on to have a substantial number of releases for the company.

Although both characters have their contemporary roots in the 2D and 3D platforming adventures, Mario vs. Donkey Kong reinterprets the duo’s classic capers with modern imaginings to present players with “an intricate puzzle game with unique levels filled with familiar Mario characters”. While the inaugural title was critically revered, it failed to blow up commercially. However, the series has continued with many sequels and a 2024 remake of the original 2004 title on the Nintendo Switch.

5

Pokemon Trading Card Game

Simultaneously A Competent Card-Battler & Entry-Level Promotional Tool

Pokemon Trading Card Game

Systems

Released

April 10, 2000

ESRB

e

Although many Nintendo fans seemingly wait with bated breath for the reveal of a new mainline Pokemon title – that promises a new region to explore, new creatures to train, and secrets to discover – the industry-defining franchise is made up of so many more elements than just these core titles. From anime, plush toys, the trading card game, and spin-off video game titles, the Pokemon property has multiple moving parts – and in the unique case of 1998’s Pokemon Trading Card Game release on the Nintendo Game Boy, multiple of these elements intersected.

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While “each new generation of Nintendo handheld; from the original Game Boy right through to the Nintendo Switch” has been home to Pokemon spin-off titles, the collaborative release from Creatures Inc and Hudson Soft was not only a brand-new Pokemon-themed release amid Pokemania, but a tie-in title for Nintendo’s latest card game project. Boasting an arguably ambitious interconnected world and hundreds of virtual packs of cards to open, the Pokemon Trading Card Game is simultaneously an entry-level learning tool for those interested in the cardboard-based pillar of Pokemon‘s worldwide appeal and a unique role-playing adventure on the go.

6

Metroid Prime Hunters

A Hardware-Defining Entry In The Boundary-Pushing Sci-Fi FPS Franchise

Metroid Prime Hunters

Systems

Released

March 20, 2006

ESRB

Teen // Animated Blood, Violence

Developer(s)

Nintendo ST

Considering the role that Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime franchise of titles has played on Nintendo hardware to showcase not only the graphical but gameplay capabilities of the hardware, it should come as no surprise that the 2006 handheld spin-off Metroid Prime Hunters would be positioned as doing the same for the Nintendo DS.

Although Metroid Prime Hunters was initially presented to players through a pared-down demo – titled Metroid Prime Hunters: First Strike – coming bundled with every launch Nintendo DS system, the graphical fidelity and expansive gameplay available in the internally-developed retail release remains “a true spectacle in the realm of mid-2000s handheld gaming”. Despite some graphical and mechanical alterations having to be made for the weaker portable hardware, Metroid Prime Hunters‘ tightly-wound narrative, alongside its ambitious online multiplayer and voice chat capabilities, sets it apart from many other Nintendo spin-off titles.

7

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

The Animal Crossing Spin-Off That Was Reinterpreted As Acclaimed DLC

While Nintendo’s first-party cozy, pseudo-life sim franchise has garnered much contemporary commercial success – in no small part due to the 2020 release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons – many of its modern titles’ customizability and flexibility can be traced to “the very first spinoff of the Animal Crossing series”; 2015’s Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer.

Utilizing the systems and graphical engine first presented in the 3DS system-seller Animal Crossing: New Leaf, players are instead tasked with formatting and customizing various themed households for the game’s multiple villager characters. Although Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer did not perform well commercially, the release of the Happy Home Paradise expansion for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2021 continued many of the expanded gameplay systems originally developed for Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer‘s environment.

8

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Sky

An Expansive Pseudo-Sequel That Presents The World Of Pokemon In New Light

Considering that the Pokemon property has become the world’s most profitable franchise, primarily off of the back of Pokemon‘s original 1996 Nintendo Game Boy releases and their successive sequels, the fact that “one of the best Pokemon games in Nintendo’s library” is a concerted effort to stray away from the core games’ design principles is all the more impressive. While Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is not the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Game, but an expanded sequel to the second generation of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon efforts, it remains arguably not only one of the best Nintendo spin-off releases, but one of the best side projects in the medium.

Retaining the dungeon-crawler mechanics and chibi-esque pixel art aesthetics of the series’ previous entries, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky goes beyond the acclaimed narrative presented in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness to provide Nintendo DS players with a wholly unique and heart-wrenching tale in the traditionally by-the-numbers world of Pokemon.

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