Warriors-style games aren’t for everyone – but clearly, there is still plenty of enjoyment to be found because we’ve gotten a rather steady stream of them over the years. These titles were generally developed at least in part by Omega Force, which is a subsidiary of Koei Tecmo. Their first large-scale collaboration with Nintendo was Hyrule Warriors in 2014, and as you can guess, it went over well – so much so, that it spawned a 3DS port, an enhanced version for Nintendo Switch, and numerous sequels. Most recently, we received Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment on Nintendo Switch 2.
But there have been a few other big Warriors-style games – Fire Emblem is the other big one, and it has received two unique games so far (not counting ports and such). There’s also Persona 5 Strikers, which doesn’t have much to do with Nintendo, but it’s another example of a major franchise that has its own Warriors “spin-off” (in quotations because Strikers isn’t really a spin-off). We now know that these games are very successful, which means we’ll be seeing more in the future. Zelda Warriors games are great, but how many of them can we get before we need a little break? Here are some Nintendo franchises we’d like to see turned into Warriors games.
Xenoblade Chronicles
How have we not had this yet?! Unfortunately, Xenoblade Chronicles is nowhere near as popular as Zelda and it’s a bit less popular than Fire Emblem, but it’s still very deserving of a Warriors-type game. It’s got a huge pool of characters to choose from, for one – though, as is typical for most Warriors games, you’d kind of have to throw the story out the window in order to justify characters like Pyra and Mythra being around anyone from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, for instance. That being said, Shulk and Rex have met in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 prior to the intersection thanks to the Nopon Archsage’s Land of Challenge. Is this canon? Probably not, but they could probably go that route and come up with some kind of random one-off antagonist in a loose attempt to tie things together.
Circling back to that huge pool of characters, here’s what we’d want from a roster. From Xenoblade 1, you could go with Shulk, Fiora, Reyn, Dunban, Sharla, Riki, Melia, Egil, and Alvis. From Xenoblade 2, you could go with Rex and Pyra/Mythra, Nia, Tora and Poppi, Morag and Brighid, Zeke and Pandoria, Vandham and Roc, and then Jin and Malos as separate characters. You could also add Lora and Haze as Torna representatives. From Xenoblade 3, you could go with Noah, Mio, Eunie, Taion, Lanz, Sena, Riku and Manana, N, and then a couple of the other Heroes you can add to your party in-game. You could even give Shulk and Rex their Future Redeemed appearances as costumes or separate characters, though again, that’s not going to make any kind of sense from a story standpoint. And you can’t forget Xenoblade Chronicles X – it doesn’t really have as many characters as the numbered games, but you could still add Elma, Lin, and Al for good measure.
It’s possible that Xenoblade still isn’t big enough as a franchise to warrant its own Warriors game, which is a shame – it definitely deserves one. For now, the numbered games are absolutely excellent, and an easy recommendation for anyone who likes JRPGs.
Kirby
This is absolutely never going to happen, but you have to admit it’d be a lot of fun. It’s easy to imagine characters like King Dedede and Meta Knight taking down huge mobs of Waddle Dees with their respective weapons – Kirby could even utilize Copy Abilities that change his moveset. You could also add Bandana Waddle Dee, Elfilin, Marx, Magolor, and Susie, who all have a lot of moveset potential as well. Knowing how Kirby games go, this hypothetical Warriors title would somehow have a plot that actually makes sense. You could easily design a one-off villain for this and potentially introduce a brand-new character to the series, too. Call it Kirby Star Warriors while you’re at it to reference the anime!
This beat ’em up hack-and-slash type gameplay is very much irregular for the Kirby series, but this is a game idea that could go far thanks to how comical it is (at least in theory). Kirby characters are very expressive and have tons of neat moves to use, so the sky is really the limit here.
Honorable mentions
I think Kirby and Xenoblade are probably the best choices for a new Warriors spin-off, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only choices. There’s definitely some potential for a Mario or Donkey Kong-themed entry as well, though it feels less likely – there aren’t many Mario games out there that are solely about fighting, for one. Plus, Nintendo seems much more willing to give Zelda to other developers for experimental entries than it is willing to give Mario. We’ve seen this not just with Hyrule Warriors, but with Cadence of Hyrule and even Echoes of Wisdom. Pikmin and Animal Crossing are unlikely to receive a Warriors-type game because they’re about as far from the vibe and genre as you can possibly get. Splatoon doesn’t have quite enough unique characters to make up a whole roster, plus the gameplay is based around mostly shooter weapons rather than melee ones. Metroid probably doesn’t have enough unique characters either, and unfortunately the main games aren’t huge sellers as-is – hopefully that changes within the next few years!
Pokemon is certainly an option, though we have no idea how that would work. With well over 1,000 Pokemon, there’s no shortage of potential ideas for playable characters, and you could just beat up a bunch of Pidgey, Rattata, and Zubat or something similar. Technically, a “Super Smash Warriors” game would also be cool, but only if it were in addition to a new Smash rather than instead of. Definitely, definitely impossible, because players would understandably rather have a normal Smash entry than a Warriors spin-off.
What Nintendo franchises do you think should have Warriors spin-off games? Do you agree with our picks, or is there something we missed? Let us know in the comments down below.
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