10 Games That Borrowed Ideas but Did It Better

Introduction:

Some video games take ideas from other successful games and branch out on their own with it in great ways. What may have started as a copycat or a cheap imitation, which can sound kind of harsh, ended up being a game with a refreshing new spin on something familiar today. We got 10 examples of copycat-ish games that are actually good.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor:

Starting off with number 10, let's talk "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor," and specifically its combat system around "Batman: Arkham Asylum," "Arkham City," "Arkham Knight," Arkham Origins." Because by no means was "Shadow of Mordor" like an actual complete copy of "Arkham Asylum," "Arkham City," what have you. Because, obviously, "Lord of the Rings" is very different. It's worth pointing out that a lot of the controls and a lot of the combat felt pretty similar.

And in a time where a lot of games were trying to ape Batman's combat style, "Shadow of Mordor" really nailed it and knocked it out of the park. They translated that quick counter, quick combo combat over to swordplay very, very well. And it got a lot of people, myself included, really hooked.

There's always a mechanic that one big game develops and pioneers and other games try and do it and stumble and fail. But we think that "Shadow of Mordor" is one of the poster childs for seeing something like a combat system that was awesome in another game and really taking it to the next level. It doesn't always go that smoothly. Trust us. We've looked at a lot of games over the past years, and yeesh. 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order:

Next, over at number nine, we have another more broad example and that's "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," and how it took concepts from "Nioh" or even "Dark Souls.

Now, I know everybody's gonna immediately get angry because nobody likes when a game is compared to "Dark Souls." But we're talking about the importance of "Dark Souls" as a sub-genre, what it created, how some of its elements inspired other RPG games moving forward, and "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" takes a lot of those concepts.

While, yeah, it definitely is not anywhere near as difficult as "Dark Souls" or "Nioh" or "Sekiro" or "Mortal Shell," or whatever other Soulslike sub-genre game you'd wanna talk about, it does take that loop. It does take that progressing through areas, trying to find shortcuts, and also, resting at a campfire or, in this case, finding special Jedi meditation points to possibly level up your character, get your health back, and jump back out and into that environment with all the enemies newly respawned for you to wipe the map clean once again and farm and farm and rinse and repeat. It's a concept that can be really fun and addictive. And "Jedi: Fallen Order" really did a great job with adapting some of these concepts for a "Star Wars" game and, you know, just kind of for a more accessible audience.

Because, again, we say this with respect. Some of the gameplay and just conceptual structural elements of a Soulslike game take a lot of special care and are to be respected and some games fall flat on their face. But, thankfully, "Jedi: Fallen Order" definitely didn't.

Dragon Quest: Builders:

Next, over at number eight, a simple but effective one, "Dragon Quest: Builders" and a lot of the elements it took from "Minecraft.

When "Minecraft" blew up every game tried to be "Minecraft." But what "Dragon Quest" did was take a lot of the "Minecraft" building elements and applied it to their own RPG framework in a really clever and addictive way. There's two "Dragon Quest: Builders" games now, they're on most platforms, and they're incredibly underrated with just how fun and satisfying they can be.

If you're someone who was burned out on "Minecraft" from the early days, or just never really got into it, some of the "Dragon Quest" elements, like just the vibe, the tone, the look, some of the elements like some of the enemies and characters, with a dash of "Minecraft" building and that grid-based system and all of that stuff that hooks you in, it really, really might surprise you.

We haven't had a lot of opportunity to talk about these games, but we wanted to take a minute 'cause they're pretty sweet.

Stardew Valley:

Now, next over at number seven, here's one that we wanted to talk about that we see out there a lot and we kind of have a little bit of a bone to pick with it. It's "Stardew Valley" and how a lot of people think that it just bounces off of "Harvest Moon. You can argue that the town and relationship and farming elements are directly from something like "Harvest Moon." "Harvest Moon" was one of the first games to really do it. But it's another example of a game that spawned a sub-genre on its own. There are tons of other games like "Harvest Moon" that went out and did their own thing. Then there's other more real hardcore farming games like "Farming Simulator" that, believe it or not, a lot of people still play every year.

So if you wanna call "Stardew Valley" the indie copycat of "Harvest moon," sure. But regardless, all of that aside, whatever it is, it's really damn good. It takes some of the farming elements from "Harvest Moon" to the next level. It takes the adventuring, the questing, the grinding to the next level. And it has a lot of really touching character moments. And the relationships you develop in the game are really worth the effort. We've talked about this before. We're really glad "Stardew Valley" exists. We're glad it's easy to play pretty much anywhere because it's super addictive. And if you do wanna say it's a copycat of "Harvest Moon," we're glad it did.

Dante's Inferno:

Next, over at number six, let's get a little controversial "Dante's Inferno" and how that game was a straight-up copycat of "God of War" at the height of its popularity.

Those 2000s days, man, the days of the Xbox 360 and PS3, those were wild times and we got a lot of crazy games. But not many were as crazy as "Dante's Inferno." What they essentially did was take "Dante's Inferno" from the Dante Alighieri 14th century epic thing "the Divine Comedy" and they made a game out of it.

But straight up, they made a "God of War" game, where it's combo-based, it's chaotic, you're slaying enemies, there's blood everywhere, there's orbs everywhere, and there's tons and tons of QTS or quick-time events. Remember back when every game to defeat a boss, you had to press triangle, then you had to press square, then you had to press X or B or whatever to make the character on-screen do a bunch of cool, crazy over-the-top stuff that you couldn't actually do in the main game?

Yeah. "Dante's Inferno" had stuff like that. It also had a lot of strange, a lot of over the top religious imagery, some controversial elements because it kind of took the "Dante's Inferno" concept and turned it into a heavy metal album. But hey, even if it was a little bit cheap and it was a little reductive and a copycat of "God of War," it was fun.

Not everybody thinks that, but we had a good time with it. It was crazy, it was over the top, and it was a good button masher with some satisfying combat for the time being.

Payday: The Heist:

Next, over number five, let's talk about "Payday" or "PAYDAY: The Heist" and how it essentially took that fun four-player multiplayer concept of "Left 4 Dead" and spun it on its head and gave us a really cool bank heist robbery game.

It took the concept from "Left 4 Dead," where you have a couple of maps, but randomly generated objectives and just a really fun gameplay loop that would keep you playing with your friends over and over with just some real cool co-operative chaos. Since "Left 4 Dead" really kind of pioneered it, this has become quite a thing, but one of the first ones to jump on the bandwagon was "Payday," and to great results.

And then "PAYDAY 2" released and really blew it out of the water and took it to the next level. And you know what? We're glad they did.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: 

It's been a long time since we've gotten a real straight-up "Castlevania" game. So the "Bloodstained" games were totally willing to fill that void. And boy did they do it. From spooky castles to gore and spooky monsters, to just the overall gameplay style, it was very "Castlevania" and boy, that is just not a bad thing.

And that's very much in contrast to something like "Mighty No. 9," which was a similar thing where it had some of the original developers, but this time it was like a "Mega Man" copycat or spiritual successor, but it turned out to not be so great. Thankfully, "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" pulled through.

And if you wanna call it a copycat of "Castlevania," you know what, technically, I think they're allowed.

Binary Domain:

Next, over at number three, let's talk "Binary Domain," a game which a lot of people claim is a shameless rip-off of "Gears of War." But this game actually has a cult following.

It's extremely underrated. Let me pitch it to you another way. It's essentially "Gears of War" Japanese edition. Yes, if you've ever wanted a Japanese game development studio's take on "Gears of War," big chunky men walking around snapping to cover at half-length walls scattered around a map, well, there you go.

There's more of a sci-fi spin on this one. It's less about gross bug aliens taking over the world and more about shooting cool robots and stuff. But it's incredibly charming and fun to play. It's very much a product of the times, like a lot of games were that tried to do the "Gears of War" thing.

But this one, more than any of the other ones, is specifically definitely worth mentioning.

Crash Team Racing:

Next, over at number two, let's talk "Crash Team Racing" and how it's a copycat of "Mario Kart." I mean, you could really argue that any other kart racer is kind of a rip off of "Mario Kart," but it doesn't matter because, in this case, PlayStation kids really needed their own kart racer and we got it with "Crash Team Racing," which is, thankfully, really good.

It takes the drift and boost mechanics in a bit of a different, more active direction and it makes it a ton of fun. Couple that with a bunch of iconic maps and characters, the kart racing concept, married with "Crash Bandicoot" and the culture at the time was really just a perfect storm for an awesome kart racer that was actually remade and rereleased just last year.

We're probably gonna show gameplay of that because it's easier to capture, to be honest. Really, a lot of people weren't able to play "Mario Kart" and this was the next best thing. And we're grateful for it.

Grand Theft Auto / Saints Row:

Now, down to number one, let's talk "Grand Theft Auto." Because, of course, after "Grand Theft Auto III" released and blew to insane popularity, there were tons of games trying to emulate that formula, trying to rip it off, trying to do a copycat thing.

Many, many of them failed. Many of them just kind of changed the course of gaming and just how everything is. But some saw some success and fandom and brought things to new heights, specifically "Saints Row." While the original "Saints Row" was a little rough around the edges, "Saints Row 2" started to feel a little bit more comfortable in its own skin and then things only got crazier with "Saints Row: The Third" and then so on and so on from there.

So while initially, it seems like "Saints Rows" was just gonna do a copycat thing, "Grand Theft Auto" but with better graphics, it really evolved into its own special thing that never took itself too seriously. And honestly, we think video games need that sometimes. But going in a bit of a different direction, we also think it's worth highlighting "Sleeping Dogs," which is like a far-removed "Grand Theft Auto" copycat.

True Crime / Sleeping Dogs:

After "Grand Theft Auto III" released, eventually, we saw the "True Crime" games released. "True Crime: Streets of LA," "True Crime: New York City." Then there was gonna be another "True Crime" game until it was canceled and morphed into the "Sleeping Dogs" project, which turned out to be a really awesome open-world, Hong Kong cop action crime game.

That besides the open-world elements is really barely like anything "Grand Theft Auto." But we're still glad it exists. And it was born from the ashes of a complete "GTA" copycat.

Conclusion: 

Wrapping things up, we've seen how some games that started as copycats managed to carve out their own identity and deliver unique, enjoyable experiences. These games show that drawing inspiration from successful titles can lead to innovation and fun in the gaming world.

We'd love to hear from you in the comments. Have you played any games that took ideas from other titles but still became your favorites? Share your thoughts! If you enjoyed this blog and found it insightful, clicking the like button would mean a lot to us.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, happy gaming!