One of the most surprising recent spin-offs of a Nintendo franchise is 2017's Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Nobody would have expected Super Mario to mesh quite so well with Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids, yet Kingdom Battle was received positively as a unique new strategy game blending two very different IPs. Now that a working formula has been established, there's a lot of excitement for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which takes Mario, Luigi, Peach, and their Rabbid friends across the galaxy to defeat a mysterious new threat.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Sparks of Hope is how it cements the potential for Nintendo franchises to become strategy games. If Super Mario can go from 2D platforming to turn-based tactics, just about any Nintendo franchise could get its own version of Sparks of Hope. For instance, The Legend of Zelda seems like it would be easy to expand into a turn-based strategy game. Its universe has plenty of characters who could contribute to such a game, and after the success of Mario + Rabbids, a Zelda strategy spin-off would hardly feel out of place.
Imagining a Zelda Strategy Game
Because The Legend of Zelda is composed of so many standalone stories, there's no shortage of playable characters that a Zelda strategy game could draw on. Link seems like a natural main protagonist for the game, but there's a lot of great characters he could coordinate with. For instance, in a strategy game based on Breath of the Wild, Goron characters like Daruk could supply heavy frontline characters who charge down enemies, meanwhile characters like Mipha provide supportive skills through magic.
Zelda has lots of time periods that would be appropriate for a strategy game, and it could go so far as to bring them together. The original Hyrule Warriors pulled characters from Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and more together for its narrative, so a Zelda strategy game could do something similar. Bringing popular Zelda characters from across the timeline together to fight a cosmic threat worked once, and could work well again for a tactical Zelda spin-off.
If Nintendo wanted to do something really surprising, it could make a Zelda strategy game focused on characters who haven't been explored much at all. For instance, Hylia's war against Demise's demon army before the events of Skyward Sword could make a compelling strategy game populated by new characters whose actions have repercussions throughout the franchise. It'd be great to explore the roots of Zelda's timeline from Hylia's perspective. Alternatively, the game could focus on Calamity Ganon's appearance 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild, introducing ancient ancestors of the latest Zelda game's characters and showing how Calamity Ganon was first defeated.
Exploring Nintendo Spin-off Archetypes
Considering how popular Mario + Rabbids is, Nintendo shouldn't be afraid to try strategy genre spin-offs for more of its franchises. Ubisoft may be doing most of the development for this series, but Nintendo could always collaborate with other studios like Intelligent Systems of Fire Emblem fame to make a Zelda strategy game. Mario + Rabbids established strategy as a viable game style for Nintendo spin-offs to explore, and the company would be wise to take advantage of that. The Legend of Zelda has been defined by experimentation in recent years, so after Sparks of Hope comes out, maybe Nintendo should take it to new heights.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope releases in 2022 for Nintendo Switch.