Summary
Not all gaming franchises are built for forever. While icons likeMarioandLinkand franchises likeMadden NFLare still receiving entries to this day, other franchises likeDino CrisisandLeft 4 Dead are, well, dead.
Enter the spiritual successor. As the name implies, it’s a piece of media that intends to succeed the original IP it is emulating just without the name, image or likeness. ThinkThe Callisto Protocolbeing a modernDead Space. However, for everyBloodstained, aCastlevaniaspiritual successor, orBioShock, a successor toSystem Shock, there are titles likeMighty No. 9.
In a Reddit thread, gamers discussed the spiritual successors that missed the mark entirely.
These Are Gamings What-Ifs
Mega Manis one of gaming’s most storied franchises, andwhile the Blue Bomber has largely been relegated to collaboration duty, its original producer, Keiji Inafune, helped to bring back the futuristic side-scroller via Mighty No. 9. Baring an almost 1:1 resemblance to Mega Man,Mighty No. 9 was initially announced in 2013, before a kickstarter was held.
When the game finally released, it was a mixed bag of potential and lots of oof. “This is the one,”one user wrote. “Once I started playing it, I regretted kickstarting it immediately.”
Speaking of misses,The Callisto Protocolhad all the tools to be a worthy successor to Dead Space, with even the original franchise creator, Glenn Schofield, hopping on board. Unfortunately, the game was great in concept, but lacking in execution. Blending more melee than mayhem and lots of tight space,Callisto was a Dead Space wannabe in the eyes of many critics.
“God I was so excited for this game, and after 30 minutes of bashing monsters with a club and not shooting at all, I accepted it was terrible and moved on,“one user succinctly wrote.
Another interesting mention was the 2023 release of Atomic Heart. While not necessarily a full-on spiritual successor, the game did seek to emulate a lot of what made BioShock great.It wasn’t reviewed poorly, but wasn’t a strong debut either.
The full thread is chock-full of similar games that had the right ideas in play, but largely missed the mark, some to unfortunate reception. Personally, this writer is with many of the post’s commenters in that Mighty No. 9 is as disappointing as it gets. For reference, I even bought the “Collector’s Edition.” Alas, not all spiritual successors are meant to be.
