Ripoff Games That Became More Famous Than The Original.

[Def25]

Gears of war ripped of killswitch, which in my opinon was much better.

 

[SecondPrize]

Fez, Minecraft, Threes, Flappy Bird and Candy Crush Saga are all successful games that ripped off others more than 'inspired by' would allow. Candy Crush wins for being complete fucking dicks about it.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

The monster training/catching mechanics of Pokemon owe a HUGE debt to Dragon Quest V and Lufia II AND Shin Megami Tensei. Granted, two of those are highly successful franchises and one is a cult classic, but still, they paved the way for a mega-successful ultra-franchise.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

While it's not a "rip off" Persona has certainly gained far more fame then Shin Megami Tensei, the series it spun-off from.

Oh... Uh... I thought Persona was the American title for SMT... So... Yeah... Haven't played one since early PS2

 

[ivansnothome]

anything zynga made

 

[Atmos Duality]

I suppose DoTA could be argued to have supplanted it's WC3 Roots in the eyes of many gamers. In many iterations.

Though that's a combination of factors and circumstance. It wasn't so much ripped off as it just evolved into a seperate creature, had several children who were then adopted and nurtured by different people.

Hah. I think Lol is the poster child for this.

You'd be very very correct.

I started with the original DotA (as in, Reign of Chaos, not DotA Allstars for TFT when it really picked up), and having watched the back and forth, the bickering, and the little turf wars over versions...yeah LoL was the final culmination in that.

To this day, I still find LoL a more user-friendly, less wonky version of DotA. It's not so much a different style entirely, but a highly derivative one. Though it's one of the few derivatives that actually took its concepts to new places (a bit anyway).

 

[Scow2]

Warcraft and Starcraft. I think there is no denying. Close to ripoffs from Warhammer and Warhammer 40k (oh god I hope I got the number right). Even though I like the Blizzard Universes much more design-wise and have never played a Warhammer game, I believe the similarities are no coincidence. And the developers of Warcraft (1) wanted it to be a Warhammer game in the first place.

Warcraft may have been ripped off of Warhammer (According to the rumor), but Starcraft was NOT ripped off of Warhammer 40k.

The similarities are because they're both drawn from the same source material (Notably, Aliens and Starship Troopers, among many other similar sources)

To be brutally honest...the Zerg are very similar to the Tyranid both storywise and art wise and the Protoss have a *lot* of Eldar going for them. The terran space marines are very similar to the art for WH4K space marines.

Not that it's a bad thing.

Tyranids and Zerg are so similar because they're both visually derived from the Xenomorphs of Aliens and culturally derived from the bugs from Starship Troopers. (And, the Zerg are a hell of a lot better developed and more interesting than the Tyrannids)

The protoss are almost nothing like the Eldar.

 

[inmunitas]

From another thread in the Other forums, but game related.

Quite a few spring to mind actually:
- A lot of the feel and setting of the Halo games is insanely similar to a seldom remembered gem called Gunman Chronicles back in the day.

- Prey was doing Portals...well, Portals quite a bit before Portal arrived.

Halo is pretty much a rehash of Bungie's previous FPS series Marathon [http://source.bungie.org/]. You can easily swap the roles of Leela and Durandal for Cortana and 343 Guilty Spark, along with all the similar weapons, enemies and backstory.

 

[Rack]

Street Fighter vs Yie ar Kung Fu.
Command and Conquer Vs Dune II.
Final Fight vs Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (Though I knew it as Renegade)

 

[SweetShark]

Back in the day, there was a game called Doom. It didn't have much plot, but the plot that did exist was about a teleportation experiment going wrong and a bunch of monsters invading. Then Half Life came along, took that exact same plot and ran with it. It doesn't play like Doom at all, but it definitely has the same plot.

Doom has a lot of plot. Heck, there's so much plot that the game has plot twists. There's establishment of character and backstory for The Doom Marine, a very detailed setup, and a few surprises. Also, Half-Life's story is incredibly different. Just because they share a similar catalyst in scientists accidentally opening a portal to another dimension that releases monsters into their laboratory, does not mean they go in the exact same direction. I don't remember half of the Black Mesa Research Facility being teleported into Xen. I don't remember a marine cleanup megasquad killing everyone in the UAC to keep the demon incident quiet. I don't remember Gordon Freeman actually being killed off in the first hour or two and having to break out of Hell. I don't remember anyone watching over The Doom Marine with an interest in his skills.

Don't forget Doom Guy had a rabbit for a pet. Her name was "Daisy"....
Doom 2 start with him him trying to get revenge for the death of Daisy cause of the Demons invaded Earth....