Spiritual successor facts for kids

A spiritual successor is like a new story, game, or movie that isn't a direct follow-up to an older one, but it feels very similar. It shares the same ideas, style, and feelings as the original, even if the characters or exact storyline are different. It's like a new adventure that reminds you of an old favorite!

Why Make a Spiritual Successor?

Sometimes, the people who create games or movies don't own the rights to their original work. This can happen if a bigger company buys their studio or if the team leaves the company. When they don't own the rights, they can't make a direct sequel to their popular creation.

For example, a company called Electronic Arts has bought and closed many game studios. But they kept the rights to the games those studios made. This means the original creators can't make new games using those old names.

To get around this, creative teams will make a new product that feels very much like their old one. They just give it a different name and change some details so it's not an exact copy. For instance, the video games TimeSplitters and Perfect Dark are often seen as spiritual successors to the popular game GoldenEye 007. They have a similar feel and gameplay style.

Other times, a spiritual successor is made when the first product didn't sell very well or was forgotten. By giving the new product a fresh name, it can get a new chance to be loved by people. For example, the game BioShock is a spiritual successor to System Shock 2. Both System Shock and System Shock 2 got great reviews, but they didn't sell a lot of copies. BioShock, however, was a huge success with both critics and players!

More Examples of Spiritual Successors

Games

• Ikaruga is a spiritual successor to the game Radiant Silvergun.
• Supreme Commander is thought to be the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation.
• Shadow of the Colossus is a spiritual successor to Ico. It even takes place in the same world, just at an earlier time.
• Hellgate: London was called a spiritual successor to Diablo II by its creators.
• Valve's Portal was made by the creators of a student project called Narbacular Drop and is seen as its spiritual successor.
• Red Dead Redemption is a spiritual successor to Red Dead Revolver.

Movies

• The movie MirrorMask (2005) is thought to be a spiritual successor to the fantasy movies The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).
• Fierce Creatures (1997) is a follow-up to the comedy movie A Fish Called Wanda (1988), sharing a similar style.
• The movie Pan's Labyrinth (2006) is thought to be a spiritual successor to The Devil's Backbone (2001).

See also

In Spanish: Sucesor espiritual para niños