10 Game Series That Swapped Genres

1. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
As the first game in the
Banjo-Kazooie series in eight years, Nuts and Bolts had a lot of hopes
riding on it. The same developer was at the helm, but the game
ultimately surprised fans. Nuts and Bolts retained a bit of the
adventurous platforming of its predecessor, but introduced a vehicle
construction system as the meat of its gameplay. The new system may have
been a little weird, but it was unique and lots of fun.




2.Fable: The Journey
The Fable series is famous for a lot of
things, but excellence in motion controls is not one of them. So it was
bizarre when the next installment in the renowned (and infamous) fantasy
RPG series was revealed as a linear motion control magic...shooter...
horse-riding...thing. The final product turned out to be a relatively
decent showcase for Kinect, but we're still not sure what inspired them
to create this odd mashup.


3.Final Fantasy XI
An entire generation of people grew up
escaping into the fantasy worlds of Final Fantasy, so the announcement
of a fully explorable Final Fantasy MMO was met with considerable awe.
While it probably didn't end up being the game many Westerners would
have hoped for, it developed wide popularity in South Korea. It's legacy
has been greatly damaged by the very public failure of its spiritual
successor, Final Fantasy XIV


4.Halo Wars
It's well-known that Halo began its life at Bungie
as a strategy game for PC. In just two years it eventually went from RTS
to third-person shooter, then ultimately became the FPS that the world
fell in love with. So in some ways it was already one of the most
notable genre-switches ever. But in 2009, Microsoft brought Halo back to
the strategy genre where it began its life with Halo Wars.



Metal Gear Acid
That's right, Rising isn't the first time the
MGS series has wandered off in a new direction. Back in 2005, the
stealth action series was reborn on the PSP as an exceedingly bizarre
(even by Metal Gear standards) collectible card battling game. The
game's title is even said to be a play on the new direction of the
series (acid dissolves metal.) It was definitely weird, but those who
stuck around found a very entertaining turn-based strategy game.



Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Midway Games didn't have a lot
going for it in the late 1990s/2000s, so they took every single
opportunity they could get to try to expand on the Mortal Kombat
franchise. Shaolin Monks took Liu Kang and Kung Lao out of the versus
setting and set them loose in an action game. Thankfully this standard
action game was much better than Midway's previous two awful action
games: Mortal Kombat: Special Forces and Mortal Kombat Mythologies:
Sub-Zero .



Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
The earliest Oddworld games were 2D
puzzle-platformers, but in 2001 Oddworld made a small genre switch with
the 3D puzzle-platforming of Munch's Oddysee. In 2005 the series took a
much larger departure with the FPS Stranger's Wrath. The new direction
proved to be an outstanding change of pace. The surprisingly touching
tale of the Stranger combined with a unique take on the FPS to create an
undeniable classic of the original Xbox.



Red Faction: Guerilla
At first blush, Guerilla may not seem
like a genre switch, but it was actually a fairly large departure for
the series. The first two games had been mostly-linear FPSes, but
Guerrilla was an entirely new direction as a third-person open world
game. It's heavy focus on physics and improvisational gameplay ensured
that the series' legacy was carried on, and the open world allowed
gamers to get a better glimpse of Mars than ever before.



Shadowrun
Most of the genre switches on this list were met
with interest by fans, but the new direction of Shadowrun drew seething
anger and probably death threats. The game started as a pen-and-paper
RPG and also appeared on video game consoles with an RPG of the same
name. The 2007 title was a Deathmatch multiplayer game that baffled
fans. It was actually pretty cool though. Imagine Counter-Strike with
elves and magic powers.



Viva Pinata: Party Animals
The Viva Pinata had an unfortunate
shift from innovation to “don't beat 'em, join em!” That's precisely
what Microsoft did with the release of Party Animals. Far from the
unique pinata-breeding-sim that defined its predecessor, Party Animals
was a much more rote party game that lost much of the spark that made
the original so special. Unfortunately, it seems like this change of
pace was fatal to the brand as we haven't heard anything about it in
year