For all the flashy graphics, cool moves, and complex combos, a fighting game is only as good as its cast. Without a strong roster of compelling, unique fighters to choose from, brawls will end up feeling kinda 'meh'. But Capcom's legendary Street Fighter series has always offered a diverse range of awesome characters - and it looks like will be no different. Whereas Street Fighter 4 put a lot of emphasis on its eccentric newcomers, SF5 looks like it'll bring back old favorites - with a few new twists.

Only a handful of fighters have been revealed so far, but rumors are always afoot about who might secure a spot in the roster. We've rounded up all the for-sure fighters who will be in SF5 - and just for the fun of it, included our picks for some hopefuls (or ridiculous long-shots) that might make a return. So, which character will you be choosing as your go-to main? Time to make your selection.

These guys and gals will definitely be in Street Fighter 5.

It simply wouldn't be Street Fighter without series frontman Ryu. With his iconic gi, noble fighting spirit, and fireballs aplenty, Ryu is back to kick some butt in SF5. As always, his suite of specials - hadokens, shoryukens, and hurricane kicks - make him a well-rounded fighter that can deal with any situation, against any opponent. Ryu's the kind of character that appeals to beginners and veterans alike, thanks to his versatility and timeless moveset.

In SF5, Ryu seems to have retained his signature moves - including his normal attacks, such as the crouching medium kick that easily combos into a point-blank hadoken. Though not much has been disclosed about the so-called 'V-Trigger' ability in SF5, it seems to provide fighters with a burst of elemental power. Fittingly, Ryu's V-Trigger is themed around lightning, which makes us think of the old .

The first lady of fighting games is back, and it looks like her kung fu is better than ever. You no doubt know Chun-Li for her adorable hair buns, spiked bracelets, and thigh muscles that look beefy enough to snap bones like twigs. Like Ryu, Chun-Li has her standard special moves at the ready: lightweight kikoken projectiles, lightning legs that strike like a machine gun, and a variety of tricky flip kicks that can throw opponents off-balance.

Her playstyle favors agility over big damage, but Chun-Li's more than capable of some devastating combos and meaty hits. Counter to Ryu's lightning-based V-Trigger, Chun-Li seems to enhance herself with the power of flowing water, which makes her Spinning Bird Kick look like a whirlpool of death. It also look like she's got a few new normal attacks, such as a peculiar crouching fierce(?) punch that slides her ever-so-slightly forward.

In English versions of Street Fighter, he's Charlie; in Japanese, he's Nash. Convenient, then, that his full name clears up any possibility of mistaken identity. Charlie is a staple of the Street Fighter Alpha series, before he met a heroic end saving Guile and Chun-Li from a fatal explosion. So if he's dead, how is he back for SF5? One look at his new form, which appears to be bits and pieces of rotting flesh stapled together like Frankenstein's monster, should provide some answers.

Not only has Charlie's appearance changed - he also has some new game-changing special moves in addition to his previous toolkit of sonic booms and flash kicks. Through some kind of strange magic (no doubt related to the jewel embedded in his forehead), Charlie can now teleport around the screen for devious mix-up opportunities. He's also got what looks like a descending flash kick, as well as a face-electrifying command grab. Crazy!

For us, the moment M. Bison returned to Street Fighter was the most important day of our lives. But for him... it was Tuesday. The classic big-bad of Street Fighter is back, provided we're not misinterpreting the stinger at the end of Charlie's reveal trailer. Known for his devastating Psycho Crusher and unrelenting Scissor Kicks, M. Bison is the perfect fit for players that like to apply pressure on their opponents and never let up.

We've yet to see his full moveset, but one thing's for certain: Bison will definitely be sporting that classic dictator's cap of his. It kinda looks like he's got signature cape on, as well - but it's hard to tell before he explodes the camera with a burst of Psycho energy (complete with menacing laugh).

Acting as the American yin to Ryu's Japanese yang, Ken Masters is as much a part of the series as his trusty sparring partner. His trademark fiery dragon punch is always a crowd-pleaser, and Ken's quicker hurricane kicks offer just enough variety to distinguish his Shotokan fighting style from Ryu's (they did study under the same master, after all). Plus, what would flowchart following gamers do without him?

Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger Uppercut! With the way people gravitated to him when SF4 first debuted, Sagat seems like a no-brainer addition to the hypothetical SF5 roster. Less of a villain and more of a principled antihero, Sagat's eye patch, scar, and obsession with moves named after large feral cats are all a well-established part of Street Fighter lore. We're just hoping that, if he is in SF5, he won't be as overpowered as he was in his first SF4 incarnation.

Of the four brand-new fighters to be introduced in the Street Fighter 4 roster, Viper's the one with the most staying power. Capcom set out to create a cool, technically complex heroine that felt like she could belong in the King of Fighters universe, and the result was a hit with players who don't mind difficult inputs for combos. Plus, her part in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 made her something of a hit - her crazy Seismic Hammer and Thunder Knuckle setups are always a sight to behold.

Believe it or not, Poison had never been playable until Street Fighter X Tekken (unless you somehow picked up the ridiculously obscure Final Fight Revenge). But popular demand spurred Yoshinori Ono to include her in the game, and the resulting elation following her announcement was an encouraging sign for fans of the transgendered fighter. Now, with two fighting games under her belt - including a strong showing in Ultra Street Fighter 4 - there's no reason Poison can't come back for SF5.

Here's another female fighter who should totally stick around for SF5. Ibuki makes up for her relatively weak damage by having some of the trickiest mobility in the game, letting a skilled player dash circles around their confused opponent. Adding her to the Super Street Fighter 4 roster was a stroke of genius, and her aerial attacks and kunai-tossing work just as well in 2.5D as they do in regular ol' 2D.

Alright, we could probably go on stating obvious character inclusions all day. Blanka, Zangief, E. Honda, Dhalsim - we have no doubt in our minds that they'd make the cut for SF5, and if they're ever confirmed, we'll gladly add them to the list. But it's interesting to hypothesize about the borderline characters; fighters who have enough clout to sneak their way into the SF5 roster. The more the merrier, we say, so if Capcom sees fit to include the followings fighters, we'd be delighted.

Despite only appearing in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Karin’s a fan favorite who never misses the chance to demean her assailants. Born into the rich Kanzuki family, Karin fancies herself to be Sakura's rival after Sakura trounced her in a scuffle. Like Dudley, she’s always accompanied by her loyal butler; unlike Dudley, she rarely treats her butler with much respect. But all is forgiven when you see her crazy kick loops in the corner!

Everyone's favorite loincloth-wearing tyrant deserves to make the jump to 3D. Ever since he debuted in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, he's been a fairly popular mid-to-high-tier character, knee-dropping and Chariot Tackle-ing his opponents into oblivion. His Aegis Reflector super move can also be a game-changer, bouncing back incoming projectiles and setting up nasty unblockables on knockdown. We'd gladly welcome this metal-controlling megalomaniac into the SF5 roster.

When it comes to Capcom games, Maki’s been around the digital block. First appearing in Final Fight 2 as an analogue for the absent Guy, Maki resurfaced in Capcom vs SNK 2 before finally landing a gig in the Street Fighter lineage, with a slot in the Street Fighter Alpha 3 ports for the Game Boy Advance and PSP. Like Guy, she's another disciple of the Bushin-ryu style, using her tonfa to lay the smackdown on Mad Gear goons and rivals alike. Maki and Ibuki would get along like ninja peas in a pod.

It seems like SF fans have been quietly waiting to see the triumphant return of Q. This terribly mysterious fighter might be man, machine, or monster - no one's seen underneath his metal mask and lived to tell about it. His fighting style is also quite unlike any other character in the series' history: a sort of lanky, lumbering brute that can withstand absurd amounts of punishment when played correctly. Something tells us that Q is just enough of an oddball sleeper hit to make it into the next game.

This zany pro wrestler has only appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 3, but she gets a nod in SFxT via Kuma's alternate costume. With her ridiculously impractical attire and a grappling style fashioned after Zangief's piledrivers, R. Mika deserves life in 3D for the next crossover. Like Hugo, she utilizes her butt as a weapon, flinging herself into the opponent backside first for maximum damage. It's all for her fans, and the Japanese wrestler's moxie comes through in her win quotes: "Don't underestimate me! I believe in my dreams!"

So, which fighter are you planning to play as (or hoping makes a comeback)? Let us know in the comments below!

And if you're looking for more, check out .

There are few universal joys quite like the rush you get from completely and utterly destroying something. It's why Edward Norton punched Jared Leto in the face a dozen times in Fight Club. It's why people spend hundreds of dollars to buy expensive gadgets on launch day then throw them at the ground in front of dozens of heartbroken onlookers. It's often why we play video games - so we can fulfill our most destructive urges while staying out of jail.

Some games let you build up an entire world and take it apart brick by brick. Others are filled with tons of explosives and breakable objects. And the real special ones let you demolish entire structures and watch them topple to the ground. Either way, these games provide some of the most satisfying ways to break, blow up, or otherwise destroy everything in sight.

Back in the '90s, Rare was one of the greatest studios around, and Blast Corps was one of its best games. It's based on a simple premise - a giant truck seemingly packed with every last drop of the world's supply of nitroglycerin, plutonium, gunpowder, and gasoline is on a collision course with ruin, and it's up to you and whatever vehicle you can get your hands on to keep it from blowing up. So yes, in order to prevent ultimate destruction, you have to destroy everything. Makes sense to me.

Whether it's a set of explosive barrels, some innocuous crates, or a random barn, everything blows up real good. And you have a vast array of machinery to enact your brand of destructive carnage, from bulldozers, to dump trucks, to flying mechs that ground-pound and uppercut objects into oblivion. Part action, part puzzle, but always satisfying, Blast Corps is a demolitionist's delight.

Remember that scene from Ghostbusters? No, not the one where Dan Aykroyd dreams about getting frisky with a ghost. No, not the one that heavily implies that Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis just had sex. I'm talking about the part in the hotel where our trio of misfits finally get their big break and catch their first apparition. How fun would it be to just wreck house with a proton pack? Well, thanks to Ghostbusters: The Video Game, now you can.

The first level is pure fanservice, as you revisit the Sedgewick Hotel to hunt down a bunch of ghosts - only this time, you get to raise hell and destroy everything in sight in your quest to prevent mass hysteria. Chandeliers, paintings, furniture - all will fall to the might of your proton beam. Don't be shy - you're not going to get billed for any damages. It sets the scene for a game filled with environments just waiting to be blasted. Just don't cross the streams.

For a guy with the word 'smash' in his catchphrase, The Incredible Hulk hasn't really had a game live up to his signature acts of wanton destruction. But all of that changed with Ultimate Destruction, an open-world game filled to the brim with tools of annihilation. There are so many things for The Hulk to grab, throw, and otherwise wreck that he's basically running around like a kid in a candy store. A volatile, explosive candy store.

From the word 'go', you're basically given carte blanche to run around open environments and tackle objectives how you see fit. Break a car in half, crush it onto your hands and use the car bits as steel boxing gloves. Run up the side of a building, leaving pockmarks in your wake, and launch into a helicopter. Ultimate Destruction puts you in the shoes of a living wrecking ball, basically making it the best superhero game ever made.

Half-Life 2 is a physics wonderland, a playground of see-saws, breakable boxes, and launchable buzzsaws. It blew our faces clean off of our faces when we played it ten years ago, and even now, the gravity gun is a total blast to use, letting you rip objects off of the walls and throw them at your hapless foes. And it doesn't get much better than the spooktacular sandbox found in Ravenholm.

What once was a fairly standard (if best-in-class) first-person shooter now becomes a survival horror game, complete with an over-abundance of face huggers and a distressing lack of supplies. Only now, you have a gravity gun, and it because your ultimate tool of improvisation. Grab a buzzsaw off the ground and slice those zombies in half. Or pick up an explosive canister and lob it in a group of 'em. Ravenholm is filled with tons of breakable objects, volatile barrels, and Rube Goldbergian traps, and whipping them around with the gravity gun is still satisfying to this day.

King Kong may have invented the 'giant monster' genre, but Rampage actually let you be the ape. Or huge lizard. Or multi-story werewolf. Rampage is all about destruction, as you and your monster buddies move from city to city, levelling skyscrapers and eating helicopters out of the sky. Methodically chomp on innocent bystanders as they poke their heads outside of their windows, or quickly take out the building's supports and watch it crumble into dust - the choice is yours, as long as you've got enough quarters.

Other games might have brought kaiju destruction to a three-dimensional space, but there's something captivating about the purity of running from side to side, slowly climbing up buildings, and punching them to the ground. Plus, Rampage takes the whole 'ripping out of your clothing into a disproportionately large monster' thing to its .

Minecraft may seem like an odd inclusion on a list filled with shoot 'em ups and explode-athons, but hear me out. It's certainly not filled with gratuitous violence and realistic physics systems (though, if you're not careful, those creepers will blow you to kingdom come). But what it does seems almost more ambitious - it lets you build the world as you see fit, then dismantle it piece by piece.

It's the ultimate crafting game, letting you chop down trees and carve into mountains, and turn their constituent parts into houses, tools, and even works of art. And the best part is that, as long as you have the proper equipment, you can mine just about anything. Turn on creative mode and fly to the highest heights or the deepest depths, and take the entire world apart one pixelated brick at a time.

I was wondering why it took so long for somebody to let The Force off its chain and chase after the neighbor kids, but I'm so glad someone finally did it. The Force Unleashed lets you get in touch with your inner Sith, allowing you to launch, blow up, or otherwise decimate pretty much anything you can think of - and it's as amazing as it sounds.

The Force Unleashed gives you your first taste of power by putting you in Darth Vader's black military boots, letting you unleash hellish fury on the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk. Blow open massive wooden gates and watch the splinters rain down, cut trees into toothpicks, and pick up and launch Chewbacca's buddies off a cliff (sorry!). But it doesn't stop there. Eventually, you'll take control of Vader's apprentice and learn a whole new array of explosive abilities - like grabbing a Star Destroyer out of the sky and slamming it into the ground. Is it over-the-top? Yeah. Is it stupid? Totally. Is it fun? You bet your nerfherding butt it is.

Of course Red Faction is on this list. What started as an average shooter with some terrain-deforming ideas, Red Faction didn't fully come into its own until its third outing. It was cool to be able to blow up pretty much any wall or other obstacle that stood in your way, but its gameplay was too linear, its options too limiting. With Guerrilla, you're not funneled down corridors - instead, you're given a whole planet to destroy.

While Guerrilla doesn't let you make a dent in the surrounding terrain, it does let you take out entire goddamn buildings if you're so inclined. Just grab your sledgehammer, take out a few supports, and blammo - that three story building is now lying in pieces on the ground. And it's not just buildings. Cover can be blown away with a well-placed grenade, bridges can be levelled with a few rockets - pretty much any man-made structure can be turned into so much debris with a good smacking. It never gets old.

Sometimes you just want to watch the world burn. These games let you do it without leaving the house - or hurting anyone. That's the important bit. How do you like to live out your most destructive fantasies? Let me know in the comments below!

Looking for more? Check out our list of .

Oddball spin-offs, such as the ones included this list, have become something of a rarity these days. In the high-stakes world of video game development, most major game developers won't take the risk and put, say, Marcus Fenix in a baseball game. But every so often, someone will roll the dice and put together such an odd pairing. And the results - be it good or bad - are almost always entertaining.

Some developers, however, might've gone a bit overboard in trying to change things up, producing some of the weirdest spin-offs that the world of gaming has ever known. What follows are the series outcasts that threw us for a loop, with bizarre premises that are often wildly detached from the source material. And come on, where else are you going to find a Final Fantasy rhythm game, or Solid Snake playing cards?

Original genre: Turn-based RPG
Spin-off: First-person photography

This entry was truly a neck-and-neck race between Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Conquest, the turn-based strategy game that . Because why the hell not? At least Conquest is a turn-based strategy game, so there's a logical connection with the original games. A Pokemon game about taking pictures is just plain weird.

The fact that Pokemon Snap didn't kick off a new wave of first-person, on-rails photography games is a crime. You take pictures of Pokemon. That sounds really boring on paper, but dammit it makes a strangely engrossing game. It's not enough to just take pictures - you have to take good pictures, and that means thinking about composition, son. And when you've got Pidgey flying all over the place you need to have a hair trigger on the shutter to make sure you capture to the majestic beast right at the opportune moment.

Original genre: Real-time strategy
Spin-off: First-person shooter

Command Conquer: Renegade isn't the sort of game you see very often. Rarely does an established strategy game developer, such as Westwood, decide to dive headfirst into a genre they've never touched before. It's like if Blizzard tried to make StarCraft into a shooter, and we all know what happened to that .

For fans of the Tiberium Wars series, Renegade is a real treat because it gives an up-close-and-personal view of the action, a perspective never-before-seen in a Command and Conquer game. It blended some of its RTS roots in with the FPS action, such as letting you spend resources to requisition better weapons and vehicles - sort of like Battlefield with resource management. The game was so beloved, in fact, that just last year a group of superfans released , which updates Renegade's designs with Unreal Engine 3.

Original genre: 2D platformer
Spin-off: Puzzle and golf hybrid

Kirby's Dream Course sounds like a recipe for disaster. 'Hey guys, let's take this fun, co-op platformer and needlessly turn it into a golf game. Because if there's one thing kids love, it's long, boring games of golf.' Okay, maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but I'm glad someone had this idea because the resulting game is actually awesome.

It helps to think of Dream Course not as a golfing game, per se, but as more of a puzzler with some golfing rules sprinkled on top. Kirby is the ball, there's a hole, you want to get 'em in there with a few hits as possible. The pink puffball's signature power-ups are in the mix, letting you zoom across the course as a wheelie or skate across frozen lakes with the power of ice. And because this is a Nintendo game, all the controls are super smooth and easy to learn. It may be an odd pairing, but Kirby's Dream Course is - wait for it - a hole in one.

Original genre: 2D platformer
Spin-off: Soccer (or football, or whatever)

Mega Man Soccer and Kirby's Dream Course share a lot in common. Both games take a popular, 2D platformer and mash it up with a popular sport. But while Dream Course is a good game, Mega Man Soccer, quite frankly, sucks. It sucks worse than my ability to come up with soccer metaphors. Its most redeeming feature is performing special shots that utilize the powers of the different robot masters, but even those all do the same basic thing.

Things really go downhill quickly. The game will chug when more than, say, three characters are on the screen, and the limited field of view makes it nearly impossible to play the field - a problem which the AI doesn't seem to have, mind you. There's also this ominous tidbit from the game's Wikipedia page: "The game has no ending." There's a paper thin plot, but no conclusion, meaning the blue bomber is likely stuck in soccer-playing limbo for all eternity. Maybe that's why we don't see him around much anymore...

Original genre: 2D fighter
Spin-off: Color-matching puzzler

In spite of Mega Man Soccer's poor reception, developer Capcom surged ahead with their "Let's give it a shot, why not?" strategy and released the masterful Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo two years later. This game is a real gem - literally. It's a fast-and-furious, competitive puzzle game centered around building up large gems of a single color, and then smashing them to send garbage blocks over to your opponent's screen and, hopefully, ruin his or her game.

And it also starts a crossover of Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters (plus Devilotte of Cyberbots fame) because, again, why the hell not? And it's glorious. You're constantly trying to build a larger and larger gems so you can squash your opponent quickly while simultaneously hoping they don't send a bunch of garbage your way and muck up your plans. Plus, the little characters in the middle duke it with hadokens and shoryukens while you play. It's adorable.

Original genre: Tactical strategy
Spin-off: First-person shooter

When Syndicate launched back in 1993, it was a deeply complex isometric tactics game. Using a squad of cyborgs to establish world-wide domination via assassinations, infiltrations, and “persuasion” was a simple yet alluring premise, and the whole experience was bolstered by the ability to research new equipment and tax conquered territories for income.

But Starbreeze Studios’ 2012 reimagining involved a little less politics and a lot more shooting, as the Syndicate reboot launched in first-person shooter form. Fans of the original were none too pleased. It was only related to Bullfrog Productions’ 1993 classic in so much as the word “Syndicate” showed up a lot, and it had guns in it--even though it was a fairly decent game in its own right.

Original genre: Turn-based strategy
Spin-off: Puzzle

Depending on your genre preferences, there’s a good chance that this spin-off will resonate with you far more than Might Magic’s traditional gameplay. Instead of old-school, turn-based warfare between gangs of evil wizards and noble warriors, Clash of Heroes took a hard left turn into Japanese puzzle game territory.

With an aesthetic similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender and one-on-one stacking battles akin to Puyo Puyo and Magical Drop, this was a game that had next to nothing in common with the franchise entries before it. But sometimes, a little experimentation pays off--and the intricate, addictive strategy of placing your adorable troops just so was a blast of ridiculously fun fresh air in a series that seemingly had one foot stuck in the PC gaming past.

Original genre: Japanese role-playing game
Spin-off: Rhythm game

Square Enix's storied JRPG franchise had seen its fair share of spin-offs prior to 2012, but this bizarre yet endearing 3DS rhythm game takes the cake by far. Despite having a name that literally no one on the planet knows how to pronounce (or spell without consulting Wikipedia, for that matter), Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is the perfect homage to the role-playing series. It allowed players to build a party by choosing from several of the characters from each of the main entries in the franchise before embarking on a rhythm-based journey to save the universe.

While its plot was relatively simple (and perhaps loosely based on the film Footloose), the gameplay was delightful in its odd presentation. Battles and exploration were successfully completed by tapping and swiping the 3DS’ touch screen with the stylus to the beat of Nobuo Uematsu’s classic compositions. Anyone with a deep appreciation for all things Final Fantasy will find this to be an absolute treat.

Original genre: Action adventure
Spin-off: Card game

After three hugely successful outings on the PlayStation 3, the Uncharted series moved on over into the mobile arena. First, there was , where Nathan Drake’s treasure-hunting exploits depended more on card game tournaments than life or death adventures.

Fight for Fortune was basically a lite version of Magic: The Gathering in which you’d use your best cards (unlocked when the game would synch its data to your progress/Trophies from previous Uncharted titles) to duel an opponent. While this was certainly a departure from the series’ roots (and contained 150% less Nolan North), it was a mildly entertaining affair for anyone with five bucks to burn.

Original genre: Platformer
Spin-off: RPG

Though Sonic is no stranger to freeing animals trapped inside the metallic bodies of evil robots, he was a stranger to turn-based battles and experience points. That is, until BioWare’s first-ever handheld project, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. As it turns out, several of the Canadian developer‘s employees were fans of Sonic the Hedgehog--so much so that they developed an RPG set in The Blue Blur’s universe.

This Nintendo DS exclusive featured a large cast of playable characters and a lengthy (albeit lightweight by BioWare standards) narrative, which was fortified with stylish cutscenes. Exploration and traditional RPG battles were done via the DS’ touch screen and stylus, and though many found the game to be far too easy, it was generally well received.

Original genre: Stealth
Spin-off: Trap action

Before hit the scene, the Tenchu franchise delivered the go-to games for when you wanted to sneakily execute feudal Japan-era guards, using a combination of traditional trickery and sick-nasty ninjutsu. Flash-forward to 2008--one decade after the release of the PlayStation original--when From Software decided to mix things up with a downloadable XBLA title that bared almost no resemblance to its predecessors.

The basic gameplay involves sneaking around an overhead-view map, much like Bomberman, as you pepper the tiled playfield with spike traps and springboards to comically take out AI guards or player-controlled rival ninjas. Think Rube Goldberg meets Hanzo Hattori. To date, it’s the only Tenchu game that’s rated E for Everyone.

Original genre: Platformer
Spin-off: On-rails shooter

Mario’s done a lot of…interesting…things in his tenure as the most recognizable face in video games, but blasting enemies out of the sky while riding atop a Yoshi ranks up there pretty high on the weird-o meter. Yoshi’s Safari, an on-rails shooter, took advantage of the Super Nintendo’s Super Scope, forcing players to annihilate baddies from a first-person perspective by using a two-foot plastic cannon peripheral.

Each level offered plenty of platforming segments and branching paths, allowing you to choose your route, which would determine which items and enemies you would encounter. As you rode Yoshi around, all you’d see was your gun cursor and the dinobeast’s head bobbing as he ran. Fun fact: If you accidentally shot Yoshi in the back of the dome, you’d lose health and receive his ultimate death stare, all while he continued to sprint forward at full speed.

Original genre: JRPG
Spin-off: Shooter

It’s no secret that Final Fantasy VII is, to put it lightly, rather popular. So when Square Enix announced the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII metaseries--a collection of spin-off games, films, and novels meant to expand on the game’s universe--we weren’t exactly shocked. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII was one entry in that collection, a third-person shooter that put side character Vincent Valentine in the spotlight.

It featured an over-the-shoulder perspective not unlike Resident Evil 4, and Vincent would gain experience points and Gil as he buried bullets in the chests of his foes. The RPG elements lent a bit of familiarity to an otherwise foreign outing for the FF franchise, and though Dirge of Cerberus wasn’t the FF7 sequel or remake fans had been hoping for, it did provide a few answers to the many questions spawned by its progenitor.

Original genre: Action platformer
Spin-off: Turn-based strategy

This is a series that’s seen plenty of re-envisioning, from misguided Godsmack incorporation to beautiful cel-shading--but we don’t recall the dashing Prince regaling us with tales of an Advance Wars clone. For whatever reason, Ubisoft Montreal felt the need to bridge the story gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within with a fictitious war between India and Persia.

Said war revolved around defeating demon armies, summoning troops with collectible cards, and vying for control over Chess-esque tiling. Battles was largely ignored at retail, immensely overshadowed by its console big brother, , which released that same week. But for DS owners who fancied turn-based strategy, it became something of an off-brand, off-kilter cult favorite.

Original genre: 2D fighter
Spin-off: 3D beat 'em up

Here’s a great way to alienate your entire fanbase. Step one: Title your so-called sequel as “2,” for a fighter that’s had a stereotypical number of nonsensically named iterations of the same base game. Step two: Make the gameplay completely different in every way. Step three: …Profit? Guilty Gear 2 stars some familiar faces from the legendary anime fighter, like Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske. But past that, Arc System Works went totally off the rails, plopping the formerly pixelated pugilists into a Dynasty Warriors-style melee.

In theory, Overture actually sounds pretty cool: You have a modicum of control over waves of spawning troops, all the while turning the tides as a stereotypical anime super-soldier. In practice, it ended up being a mediocre disappointment that left longtime fans of the series scratching their heads in befuddlement.

Original genre: JRPG
Spin-off: Action adventure

Yes, the iconic smiling Slimes of Dragon Quest have practically become the face of the wildly popular franchise. That doesn’t mean we need a game revolving around the adventuresome exploits of the lowly enemy. Somebody must’ve pined for it, though, because Rocket Slime is the second in a three-part series all about that lovable, blobby mascot.

This bizarre game tells the story of Rocket, a Slime who must save the abducted citizens of Boingburg. His war machine of choice: the flute-powered Schleiman Tank, with firepower capable of blasting enemy panzers, like the Cactiballistix and Carrot Top, to smithereens. If that plot summary made any sense to you, you’re in for a treat--this spin-off hit a perfect, whimsical balance between enjoyable exploration and lighthearted-yet-intense tank showdowns.

Original genre: Survival horror
Spin-off: Co-op hack 'n' slash

If you're a diehard fan of the Silent Hill series' trademark tension and pants-wettingly disturbing monsters, then the concept of this spin-off is bound to befuddle you. Instead of a terrifying, solitary adventure into one’s deepest fears, is a top-down action game that features up to four-player multiplayer.

Unsurprisingly, it’s somewhat harder to establish cerebral horror when the core gameplay has you and your friends wailing on mutated creatures with lead pipes and electric guitars. The game suffered as a result of this identity crisis between the brand name and the arcadey experience. It just goes to show that sometimes, it’s wiser to take a gamble on a new IP than risk offending the hardcore fans of an existing franchise who might be repulsed by the out-of-left-field experiment.

Original genre: Sidescroller
Spinoff: Pinball

Oh sure, plenty of game-themed pinball tables exist, whether virtual (Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter II) or physical (Super Mario World, Street Fighter II again). The next step up from those are the out-and-out pinball games that completely revolve around a popular property; think Pokemon Pinball, Mario Pinball Land, Sonic Spinball, or The Pinball of the Dead. But Metroid Prime Pinball is a very special spin-off case, where the premise has a smidgen of canonical believability. It’s possible--however unlikely--that Samus could get stuck in Morph Ball form as she’s bounced around an oddly ramped-filled space station.

The tables themselves are taken from established Metroid lore, including familiar locales like the Phazon Mines and Phendrana Drifts. You’ll also have the chance in ball form to batter infamous bosses like Meta Ridley to death. Listen: We’re suckers for a finely crafted pinball game, and when you ground the high score proceedings in some semblance of a Metroid plot, our delight reaches astronomical levels.

Original genre: The definitive sidescroller
Spin-off: Pretty much anything you could imagine

Okay, here's the thing. Mario is a plumber. He's good at jumping (and jumping on things), and he even managed to saved a princess a time or two--that alone is pretty admirable considering his other talents include removing junk and fecal matter from clogged up pipes. So... why does he also prescribe medicine? He's a blue collar worker, not an MD. And he certainly doesn't make for a very good pinball.

Now that we think about it, he does a lot of things that don't really make sense. Why is he teaching typing? We've never seen a single computer in the Mushroom Kingdom. How the hell does he even know what a keyboard is? And why is he so good at every sport that isn't the long jump or "mustache growing"? He's not exactly athletic. While we'll continue to tip our hats to Mario's adventurous ways, the fact remains--pretty much everything about that dude is pretty damn weird.

Original genre: Arcade
Spin-off: Puzzle

It isn’t unnatural to see a mascot like Pac-Man appear in a number of spin-offs, but in the early 1990s Namco’s pellet-muncher rarely strayed outside of his comfort zone of chomping ghosts in mazes. That changed in 1993 when the popularity of puzzle games--particularly Tetris--were hard for publishers to ignore.

Namco decided to meld the concept of constantly falling blocks with Pac-Man’s unending appetite, but this time the combination ended up working out. We were pulled in by the odd challenge to not only match blocks, but also to create the optimal path of ghosts for Pac-Man to eat. Though left alone many years, Pac-Attack was recently rereleased on iOS devices, giving many a new chance to experience this unusual chapter in the arcade icon’s life.

Original genre: JRPG
Spin-off: Racing

These days Square Enix is ready to take a chance on combining any disparate genre with Final Fantasy, but a kiddie FF side game was still fairly novel in the late ‘90s, particularly a kart racer. Following in the footsteps of Crash Team Racing, Square adapted the Mario Kart concept to fit with their more adorable creatures, including chocobos, black mages, and moogles as the drivers.

The gameplay didn’t do much to differentiate itself from similar games, but the most bizarre choice was that--aside from Squall and Cloud being unlockables--Square went with cutesy characters instead of the more popular humans from the main games. It was a mistake they wouldn’t make again with Kingdom Hearts.

Original genre: Turn-based JRPG
Spin-off: Action RPG

Forget everything you know about the series and just imagine a game based on the following description. An amnesiac tween is living happily on an island with child version of Final Fantasy heroes. The idyllic paradise is attacked by shadow monsters that kidnap the other amnesiac kids.

The incredibly convoluted story then has the kid teaming with Donald Duck and Goofy, visiting dozens of worlds based on films from the Disney vault, and saving Mickey Mouse from certain doom. Oh, and he also battles Sephiroth and Cloud in Hercules’ battle coliseum. If there wasn’t so much proof that these games actually exist, we’d think that this was particularly immature fan fiction.

Original genre: Sidescroller
Spin-off: Rhythm game

Mario is the king of spin-offs, able to have a great time whether playing golf or medicating patients as Dr. Mario. Still, there’s one thing that will likely never look natural on Mario and that’s dancing, a fact that this DDR digression for the GameCube proved expertly.

In Mario Mix the portly plumber fights Waluigi, Bowser, and many other regular enemies, though instead of jumping on their heads, he battles them with smooth moves on the dance floor. Sadly, this wasn’t the last time Mario .

Original genre: Stealth
Spin-off: Turn-based strategy

Millions have enjoyed Solid Snake’s long career in espionage, mostly involving sneaking around corners, shooting guards in the head, and pontificating on the nature of war. Series creator Hideo Kojima is one of the most experimental minds in gaming, so no potential spin-off seems totally impossible. However, translating Snake’s mature tale of betrayal and intrigue into a collectible card game was not something we expected to play when the PSP launched.

Set in a separate continuity from MGS, the usual lengthy cutscenes were replaced by cheaper motion comics, while Snake’s normal actions all work within the concept of what card you pulled. It grew a cult audience, and the sequel fixed some of the problems, but most Metal Gear fans were left waiting for the “real” PSP Metal Gear that they got in Portable Ops.

Original genre: JRPG
Spin-off: 2D fighter

Persona 4: Arena brought together two different niche fan bases together with one fighting game. Developed by the team responsible for Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, Arena pulled together the emo high school students of both Persona 3 and 4 into one 2D fighter.

Even weirder than the idea of mashing together genres as dissimilar as fighting games and RPGs was the fact that the single-player story was canonical. Everything that happened in it was official as far as Persona publisher Atlus was concerned, even though they could have gotten away with calling it an imaginary game. A weird choice, but one appreciated by Persona fans addicted to the franchise’s mythology.

Original genre: Rhythm game
Spin-off: Slightly blockier rhythm game

LEGO Rock Band was a weird side gig for all parties involved. For Traveller's Tales, it was a departure from the usual film-based brick-a-thons it had been cranking out for Lego; and for Harmonix, it was an uncharacteristically kid-friendly take on its head-banging Rock Band series. The whole concept felt like it was born out of a drunken night of brainstorming between the two studios, except unlike most creative projects born of alcohol, both developers remembered it the next morning.

Luckily, the game fared well amongst critics, and sold more than enough to break even. Still, we've never heard of anyone who played it, and by the time the music faded, both studios were ready to go back to solo projects.

Original genre: Lightgun shooter
Spin-off: Typing tutor

In 1999, WOW Entertainment envisioned a zombie apocalypse fought not with shotguns and secret agents, but with keyboards and, uh, guys who could spell goodly. Copied and pasted from House of the Dead 2, the Sega-published “edutainment” title replaced the satisfaction of shooting monsters with the hardcore, finger-tapping excitement of typing words to rid the world of evil, one labeled zombie at a time.

The Typing of the Dead was later ported to Dreamcast in 2001 by Smilebit (Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon) where it proceeded to ruin Christmas for a generation of gamers. Was this Sega's way of fighting mankind's greatest plague, illiteracy? Perhaps. But even though critics were kind to it in reviews, we're not sure many schools wound up making this part of their curriculem. Curriculim. Corric ... er, school learning.

Original genre: FPS
Spin-off: RTS

When Bungie left Master Chief in stasis at the end of Halo 3, it fell to Ensemble Studios to keep the series frosty with Halo Wars, a prequel that mutated the franchise's FPS DNA into a top-down RTS. The genre switch was jarring for the fans to say the least. Think of Half Life: Episode 3 arriving as a puzzle game or Gears of War returning as a point-and-click adventure.

Thankfully, with the talent of the Age of Empires studio to back it up, Halo Wars made the adjustment with nary a scratch to the series' reputation (even if it left some of the more hardcore FPS fans scratching their heads). As one of the highest selling RTS games for consoles, it'd be a stretch to say Halo Wars was a failed experiment.

Original genre: Action adventure
Spin-off: Shooting gallery

We know why Link's Crossbow Training was made. Nintendo needed a celebrity to plug the Wii Zapper, and Link (presumably) needed the extra rupees. As for whether or not this glorified tech demo has a place in the Legend of Zelda canon, however, we're not so sure. Before Link's Crossbow Training, the famed Hylian never touched a crossbow.

What's more, all that training later went to waste because there was nary a crossbow to be found in Skyward Sword or the DS games that followed. And with merely a couple hours of content, Link's Crossbow Training didn't even match up with its full-release brethren in size or scope. Nevertheless, the game sold nearly 5 million copies and remains among the Wii's top 20 best-selling games, so it looks like the endorsement worked. Fire away... we guess?

Original genre: Stealth Action
Spin-off: Action Stealth

What does a ridiculously complex spy series and a lighthearted monkey-catching franchise have in common? Not much. That didn't stop Konami from outfitting Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater with Snake vs. Monkey, a minigame which tasked the master infiltrator with heading into the jungle to capture wayward monkeys from the Ape Escape series. Sony responded in kind with its own “Mesal Gear Solid” add-on in Ape Escape 3, a minigame which followed Pipo Snake as he battled monkey-esque Metal Gear on a mission to save Solid Snake himself.

Granted, neither Metal Gear Solid or Ape Escape were ever known for making sense, but this crossover was weird by even their standards. Snake vs. Monkey was later dropped for the Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, meaning you're going to have to hit the retro shops to enjoy this odd (but strangely charming) spin-off.

Those are our choices for the strangest spin-offs in all of gaming--but perhaps you've got something even weirder in mind. Tell us about the strange side game we missed in comments, and remember, insane amounts of change can sometimes be a good thing.

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