6 best spiritual sequel games to beloved franchises at 8:09 PM

Original Franchise, don't steal!

Enough about hoping about Spiritual Sequels to classics! After all, don't we have enough with what we have? Well, uh... no.

But still! It's time to look at those games that are only a couple of names and wigs away from being part of a huge copyright infringement lawsuit. After all,  not being able to work on an IP is a small obstacle for those who really, really want to do certain games.


Timesplitters is the better Perfect Dark follow up.

We all wanted the Rare-Microsoft Alliance to work. Rare seemed like the kind of studio that did great games in spite of Nintendo and not because of it.Sadly, it didn't, and Rare now is merely a familiar husk filled with I don't know.

It did not take long for new studios based on former Rare employees to start cropping up, which included Platinum games, who are mostly reknown for their Time Splitter series, and obvious Golden Eye/Perfect Dark send up with a time travel twist.


 Blinx the Cat is Sonic's distant cousin.

Well, sort of. The creator of Sonic is also the creator of Blinx, a time manipulating cat with a vacuum. While the similarites might end with them both being platformer animals, Blinx does share some of Sonics tude.

However, Blinx instead trades the trademark speed for a time manipulating gimmick. However, his Xbox exclusivity wound up being his undoing, as  despite some strong initial efforst now often overlooked to make the console home to more than a 13+ audience, the console was never the place for fuzzy wuzzy plataformer heroes. Blinx had two games, though, which is one more than most animal plataformers and also one more than Sudeki,  Voodoo Vince, Brute Force, Kung Fu Chaos...

King of Fighters is the REAL Street Fighter 2.

At some point after Street Fighter 1's hilariously catastrophic results, Capcom and it's creator decided to do a parting of the ways. I'm not gonna say it's because he made a game that people injure themselves with...but it's possible.

Street Fighter man wound up working on SNK and helping make...King of Fighters! Dun, dun DUUUUN!

Yes, KOF did borrow heavilly from what worked for Street Fighter 2, but at the same time added some things of it's own. Often considered rival franchises, they did wind up making nice, nice for a couple of crossover games at the turn of the millenium. Still, where Street Fighter found new life with SF 4, and Mortal Kombat had it's "comeback" with Mortal Kombat: Days of Future Past,  and Even Killer Instinct managed to clamber out of wishlists and into relevancy, King of Fighters has managed to skid in place for the better part of a decade. Maybe next Millenium, Ryo.

Human Killing Machine is the bad sequel to Street Fighter nobody wanted

Again, nobody liked Street Fighter Pelao, but apparently it was enough of a hit to deserve a follow up. Capcom immediately got on that eventually producing the classic...Final Fight.

However, a company that helped port SF to home computers called Tiertex, had a vision for a new Street Fighter, built on their engine for Street Fighter 1. They pitched it to Capcom as a sequel.

Capcom passed, and, say what you will about Capcom, but damn it when they get it right they get it right. THIS was going to be Street Fighter 2.

The game's character's make  SF2's cast of national stereotypes look like a sensitively appealing group. The Swedish fighters where prostitutes, for crap's sake.

Face it, in terms of "German Stereotypes", Hans the Schnitzel Maker here is the least bad possibility.

Marathon is Halo is Marathon

If you're like me, you don't need to see Halo ever again.

Before Microsoft came along, Bungie had made a name for itself with Marathon, a Doom Clone (shut up, I'm still young!)

While them both being first person shooters might seem like a bit of a loose connection, there's more than that. Both share the idea of a gun that can be charged for a bigger blast, among other ideas such as Forge, a level creator, and AIs on ship that had potential to go rogue.

In fact, before Bungie and Microsoft split, the threads between Haley and Mara could almost be seen visible in terms of the story and  symbology. Sadly, this is not to be anymore.



Star Soldier/Gladiator is the Star Wars game that never was.

Even the "Episode" Gimmick.

One day, Lucas Arts and Capcom where going to make a Star Wars fighitng game together. This makes sense, see, because Capcom was tops at the genre, and Lucas Arts was the best at having the rights to Star Wars. It was going to be super fun.

But at some point, Lucas Arts backed away from the deal, leaving Capcom with a partly done game about people wacking each other with Laser Swords that  they couldn't sell.

So, they changed a name here, a design there, barely anything here and voila! Star Soldier was born! While less Street Fighter with lasers and more  a poor man's Soul Edge in space, it's a fine couple of games, now mostly known because it's Ryu, Hayato, made an appearance in MVC2.

Lucas Arts, meanwhile, got some people and make Star Wars: Masters of Terras Kasi, which only wishes we could say it's a mediocre game.