Spinners And Losers

The value of a gaming franchise can often be seen in more than just sales figures. Often, you can tell just how vital a brand is to a developer or publisher by how many spin-off titles it produces, where a lead character is placed in a situation different to the one gamers are used to seeing them in.

Of course, the king of the spin-off is undoubtedly Mario, who has found himself in many different situations throughout the years. Starting off with Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo (which itself has spawned 5 sequels and an arcade game), the platforming plumber has also tried his hand at Pinball, Baseball, Basketball and Soccer over the years, as well as having a regular sideline in board games (Mario Party) and fighting (Super Smash Bros).

While Mario's sporting exploits tend to be a little hit and miss, the Party and Smash Bros games have certainly proved popular over time (Party is now on its eighth console incarnation, and there have been two hand-held versions as well). Of course, one could argue that Nintendo need only put the name "Mario" into a title and it guarantees sales.

Even Luigi gets his own adventures now and again, with the most high profile being Luigi's Mansion, which was a launch title for the Gamecube. Before that, he also took the lead in Mario is Missing on the SNES. Poor guy, it's his adventure, and yet his brother still gets his name in the spotlight.

Another Nintendo mainstay that branches out is Donkey Kong, along with his extended family. One of the earlier spin-off games that appeared on the NES was Donkey Kong Jr Maths, which can be downloaded nowadays through the Virtual Console. Later on came Diddy Kong Racing on the N64, still considered among the best games for the system, and fairly recently given a sequel on the DS. Even DK himself has tried his hand at racing recently, with Donkey Kong: Jet Racer on the Wii.

Perhaps Kong's finest spin-off hour (unless you count the Donkey Kong Country games) came on the Gamecube, with the release of two Donkey Konga games. These rhythm-action titles invited you to tap along to the beat of several songs (a mix of popular music tracks and Nintendo themes), using a specially bundled controller that resembled a pair of bongos. These were later utilised to control Kong in Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, another spin-off adventure.