Since Minecraft began its rise to popularity over a decade ago in 2011, Mojang Studios has released countless updates and supported a healthy community of player-created content that has kept the game feeling relevant and modern despite its age. Unlike so many other live service games that have came and shut down in a matter of years (or months), Minecraft’s solid and easily-expandable foundation has ensured that the creative sandbox title genuinely has no need for a sequel, instead relying on ports to new platforms to help maintain its spot asone of the best-selling video games in history. But even without a direct sequel, that hasn’t stopped other games from bearing the Minecraft title while taking the series in more unique directions. In 2015, Telltale teamed up with Mojang to produce two seasons of narrative-driven adventures in the form of Minecraft: Story Mode, which gained enough traction to receive a Netflix adaptation until both the game and show were delisted in 2019 and 2022 respectively after the closure of Telltale Games. An AR mobile game, Minecraft Earth, began its early access period in 2019 before it suffered a similar fate of being shut down in 2021, whileMinecraft Dungeons, an isometric co-op dungeon crawler, is the only Minecraft spinoff left standing, as the game launched in 2020 to a mixed reception and received six DLC packs that continued the adventure.
Despite this turbulent history of spinoff attempts, Mojang and Microsoft have continued to push for the series’ expansion beyond the original game, with the latest project being unveiled at last year’s Xbox E3 showcase. In cooperation with Hardspace: Shipbreaker developer Blackbird Interactive, Minecraft Legends is a third-person action-strategy game where piglins from the Nether have invaded the Overworld, and the player character must form alliances and protect their homeland from being corrupted. Featuring the familiar art style of the original game, players will lead their armies of former enemy creatures including zombies, skeletons, creepers, golems and more to attack enemy bases spread throughout the randomly-generated world and defend their own settlements. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Minecraft game without some element of construction, as players can choose from a variety of prefabricated structures to place in their home base and help with defense, unit production and other useful strategy features. Although the game can be played fully solo, Minecraft Legends will also offer four player co-op as well as Player vs. Player battles where you can challenge your opponent to discover whose tactical abilities are superior.
If a real-time strategy game may not sound like the next logical step for a Minecraft game, one only has to look at the success stories of other strategy spinoffs of beloved IP to understand the upside to creating Minecraft Legends. Microsoft is no stranger to this concept, as Halo Wars and its sequel along with Gears Tactics converted two of the publisher’s most-popular franchises into strategy games that were generally well received by fans and critics alike. Nintendo and Ubisoft have also found surprising success with their unexpected crossover of Mario + Rabbids, foregoing the platforming and minigames in favor of turn-based battles that retain the charm of each series, resulting in two Switch games that are among the best exclusives the hybrid platform has to offer. Minecraft Legends ultimately may not appeal to those who appreciate the unrestricted creative freedom of the original game, but the approachable take on the action strategy genre shows plenty of promise for fans of all ages, and gives it a strong chance at avoiding a similar fate of Minecraft’s other spinoff attempts. Minecraft Legends is set to launch on April 18 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.
