Games and media franchises you know mostly from offbeat/forgotten sources.
Any number of works have spinoffs, failed sequels, cameos and adaptations that go on to be ignored, reviled or largely forgotten by the world at large. What notable games, books, media works or franchises in general do you only know from things that most people have not heard of, or heard of in recent years? This is mostly a gaming series so if you have those then so much the better but we are definitely open to comics, TV shows, books, films, novelizations, picture book retellings and the like. Even more interesting is many years ago, in what might be said to be an ancient precursor to this series, we had a discussion on legendary games or franchise you have not played so if your primary experience with such things is still one of the offbeat titles then please do note that too. By way of example then I once met someone for whom their primary experience of pokemon was with pokemon snap. With the site being named for a handheld and handheld ports and efforts occupying the space that they do then do share any of those you have here. For instance then while most of these are hardly forgotten or ignored titles I somehow missed the Megaman games on the NES; to that end my first experience was mostly the gameboy offerings, and then megaman battle network on the GBA.
Did such things spur you on towards trying something else? For instance while not impossible that many a science fiction fan would not have read Roadside Picnic (it also inspired a legendary film and is considered a top flight work in its own right) were it not for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. then such things certainly helped it find a new audience. Metro 2033 also saw many give the books a go, and while the Witcher was popular enough in Poland for a film and TV series back in 2001/2002 then it would likely not have been until the 2007 game (or indeed the later patched up version) that many would have explored the books. While it was somewhat inevitable that I would read it my first real experience with the Dune universe was actually the megadrive port of Dune II: Battle for Arrakis. Continuing with legendary science fiction then maybe you only know The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the 2005 film, though I will say I will be very impressed if you only know it from the Commodore 64 text adventure.
For my part then a lot of comic book characters I only know from TV shows, mainly as I (nor my friends) ever really read any comics. For instance Batman The Animated series is my primary reference for Batman. 90s Xmen cartoon the same, as is Spiderman (though I did also see the 60s cartoon). Superman then while I probably saw some films back when it is actually the 90s Dean Cain Superman TV show "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" that forms my primary reference. I would also not be the first person to note that Star Wars is more of a game series to me than it is a film series, and I wonder if given early buzz about the Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order and general cinematic failures of recent films if it might be the same for a whole new generation of kids.
If I know anything of Warhammer then it is actually courtesy of Warhammer: Dark Omen, a somewhat forgotten (but actually quite good) real time strategy game from 1998.
More generally are there any characters you mostly only know from a cameo in a fighting game; more than once "I only know them from Smash Brothers" has been uttered on these forums. To my eternal display many people's main experience with Sonic the Hedgehog is from the Sonic (in name only) Adventure series, which is probably something experienced many times throughout the move to 3d for games, though maybe yours is Sonic 3d for the megadrive. Game wise then I never really played GTA 4 but played the standalone double pack quite a bit, especially lost and damned. Returning to films for a moment then if your experience with the Judge Dredd character is primarily from the 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle then please do yourself a favour and pick up either the comics or the more recent film offering.
Have you ever discovered something is in fact a tie in, spin off or the like but courtesy of odd naming you never knew? Warhammer mentioned earlier quite often purposely excludes Warhammer from the name these days, and the Lord of the Rings connection was purposely downplayed heavily for the Shadows of Mordor franchise. While I later played them then at the time I mostly got into the Might and Magic franchise via Heroes of Might and Magic, hopefully nobody suffered the Warriors of Might and Magic and thought that representative of the franchise at large.
Are there any classic works that you experienced via other media? Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, the stories of king Arthur? Ditto any more adult audience works -- many will note things like Rambo actually got cartoons back in the day, and plenty of people likely experienced a more mature audiences film via a tie in game (I certainly played various Alien games on the megadrive before I ever saw any of the films).
This is part of a series on GBAtemp where we discuss game culture, game mechanics, industry trends and similar such things. In the previous edition we discussed game franchises that rose from the dead, and those which should have stayed dead.
If you have an idea then either make the thread yourself and it could get put on the portal, or get in contact to share some ideas.
Back in my day we didn't have X but did have Y. Gaming edition., what would $20 get you in your preferred gaming genre, games you play by your own rules., the state of VR and 3D and whether they had once more failed to take hold, the last game skill you unlearned, The game you invested the most money in, times where people said gameplay styles would not work for a platform, the value of online play, emulation vs hardware, a favoured game style that might have become less common in recent times, skills one might have learned or honed because of a game, games on the PS4 and Xbone that will stand the test of time, games that got better after launch, cancelled games and shuttered devs, and story canon in games.
So examples from your life of those things mentioned above, and things that have resulted from that; I might never have been able to reasonably state "in the comics" but courtesy of watching said 90s cartoon I knew of the Xmen dark phoenix plotline (and subsequent butchery of it) when the films gave it a stab.
