Looking to turn Minecraft into something a little special? Thanks to some of the best Minecraft mods, there’s almost no limit to how much you can transform your beloved game. I’ve tracked down some excellent ways to mod your Minecraft so that you can play brick-based versions of Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, and many others.
You’ll need to set up a Minecraft server to do this and I recommend you do so by signing up to one of the best Minecraft server hosting providers. By using one of these providers, all the hard work has been done for you and you just need to install the relevant mod. If money is tight though, you can still host locally if you prefer.
However you do it, here’s my pick of the best ways to turn Minecraft into your favorite games, all with a few simple steps.
Turn Minecraft into Animal Crossing: Farming Crossing 5
Animal Crossing was the game to play in 2020 because of, well, you know. Since then though, it’s continued to be loved. If you don’t have a Nintendo console or Animal Crossing, you can play a form of the game with Farming Crossing 5.
It offers building prompts inspired by Animal Crossing, plenty of fish to collect, and a whole bunch of villagers to meet. You can’t talk to the villagers like you can in Animal Crossing but you can still participate in a lot of the collectathons that the Nintendo game is all about. It’s a sizeable mod to install with a lot of resource packs at play too but it’s simple enough to begin, particularly when using one of the best game server hosts.
Turn Minecraft into Mario Kart: Project MKMC
Requiring a fairly high-end spec PC and Minecraft Java only, Project MKMC is fairly ambitious. Its aim is to recreate Mario Kart in Minecraft with 4 custom made courses and 14 based on other Mario Kart courses. These include Mario Circuit 2 from the SNES version, Frappe Snowland from the N64 cart, and even courses from the DS and 3DS like Airship Fortress and Shy Guy Bazaar.
There are 7 different modes to choose from as well such as Grand-Prix mode, VS mode, Battle mode, and a Time Trial. Together, this truly feels like a whole new game built into Minecraft. It’s an impressive re-envisioning of the classic franchise and a great way to experience something new from your favorite.
Turn Minecraft into Call of Duty: Zombies: ZombieRool
For older Minecraft players, try ZombieRool. It’s a Minecraft take on Call of Duty Zombies with the idea being to survive endless waves inspired by World at War and Black Ops. Players fight through numerous waves while unlocking new areas and content along the way. There’s a barricade system so you can repair damaged defenses while the extensive arsenal of weaponry focuses on classic WW1 and WW2 firearms, along with much more modern weaponry too.
With power-up mechanics, temporary bonuses, and an upgrade system, there’s a lot going on here and it’s a lot of fun. If you want something a bit more aggressive than your average Minecraft experience, this should delight you.
Turn Minecraft into Super Mario: Super Mario Mania
The nearest to playing Super Mario through Minecraft, Super Mario Mania is a delight. It provides a cute storyline of sorts with your first port of call being to find a Warp Pipe. From there, there’s some crafting, but you also get to explore a world that looks a lot like every classic Mario game you used to enjoy.
There’s even a cool moveset with mantling on ledges and also wall jumps and ground pounds. Different biomes means there’s a lot of depth here so you get lands to explore, but also the cool vibes of a Mario game. You can also spend time building with Mario-style blocks if you want a more traditional Minecraft experience.
Turn Minecraft into Dark Souls: Dark Souls Expansion
Known for its fearsome difficulty, Dark Souls is a big step away from Minecraft, but now you can have the best of both worlds. The Dark Souls Expansion focuses on turning the game into a From Software style experience. That means a huge variety of weapons, structures, and pretty scary looking enemies.
It’s not the same as Dark Souls, of course, as it would be hard to replicate such an experience within Minecraft but it gives you a strong taste of that vibe and feeling. Designed to replicate a lot of the game, it’s a fun twist on something you’ve likely always loved and wanted more of.
The storyline has you collect ruin fragments but also face bosses and work towards upgrading your weaponry. It’s particularly fun to team up with friends to explore this world and marvel at how different Minecraft can become with the right mod.
Turn Minecraft into Pokemon: Cobblemon
Pixelmon is one of the best Minecraft servers so how about making a similar experience for yourself on your own server? Try Cobblemon if that’s your intention. A much loved combination of Minecraft and Pokemon, the mod gets regular updates and is a blast to play. You can capture Poekmon to expand your team and battle them too. Yup, just how you’d expect things to go.
The mod’s interface is laid out in a clear manner in which you can keep an eye on your Pokemon’s stats and friendship levels, plus you can switch up their movesets. It’s all reassuringly very Pokemon-esque with a Minecraft style twist. It’s even possible to import and add your own variants or new species thanks to Cobblemon supporting custom and data resource packs, so the world is your oyster here.
How to install Minecraft mods
To play most of these games, you’ll need to install mods. Doing so is pretty simple and we have an extensive guide on what Minecraft modpacks are. In the majority of cases, your server hosting provides one-click installation of many mods.
In other cases, you can follow the instructions that each mod provides. Some may require additional resource packs to be installed too. This shouldn’t take very long but plan ahead. Don’t decide to install the mod 5 minutes before you plan on playing with a bunch of friends. Set aside an hour so you don’t have to rush.
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