10 Times Copycat Games Beat Their Inspirations

Introduction

Sometimes copycat games just plain suck. We've talked about that plenty elsewhere. But the thing is, copycat games aren't automatically bad either. In fact, one might argue if we didn't have copying, we wouldn't have a games industry. A lot of earlier games—Mario, Metroid, Ultima, Zelda—aren't even entirely original themselves, but man, oh man, did they get copied and spawn entire genres of games. Hi folks, it's Zaid Ikram, and today on Gamix, 10 copycat games that were actually better.

10. Path of Exile 2

Everyone loves Diablo 2. Just look at all the games that have come out of trying to emulate it specifically. Pretty much every top-down loot-heavy action RPG is indebted to that game and there are a lot of them. Titan Quest, Torchlight 2, Grim Dawn—the list goes on and on. But the series that is most like it is, of course, the Path of Exile games. In fact, so many developers want a repeat of the glory days of Diablo 2, except for Blizzard, who just refuse to go back to that formula and insist on evolving the series with each new entry.

That's certainly not to say that Diablo 3 and 4 are bad. They had rocky starts, but Blizzard managed to pull out of the skid and make those games work. Even though they appear very similar to Diablo 2 in practice, they're very different games. That's not a bad thing. In fact, it's also the case technically for the Path of Exile games.

There is so much that is the same about these games. The character classes are all very similar. The campaign structure is the same. Even the UI contains a lot of the same elements as Diablo 2. The first Path of Exile really stood out compared to Diablo 3 back when it came out because the visuals and pacing of the game were so much more what people expected from a Diablo game than even Diablo 3. It was slower, it was darker, it was grittier. 

A lot of gameplay systems were completely original. The entire skill system is different in both Path of Exile games. But the spirit of Diablo is there even in Path of Exile 2, where they really emphasize the action in action RPG. Just compare the graphics in Path of Exile 2 to the Diablo 2 remaster. They're very similar, and that's totally intentional on the devs' part.

9. Palworld

Moving on to number nine, it's Palworld. This game is a pretty controversial one and it's in a pretty controversial spot right now with the whole ongoing lawsuit Nintendo is waging against Pocket Pal for alleged patent infringement. It sucks. I just could say that. There was a lot of anger about the game in the first place, but it's kind of anger at Nintendo now. 

They pulled a pretty sketchy move in that lawsuit, changing their patent around before they sued them, also after Palworld existed in order to sue them. I think that's turned the tide on a lot of people's opinion on Pocket Pal. Although people who do see their history as kind of sketchy and maybe don't love them, I understand. The whole situation's a mess. It's not going to resolve anytime soon.

So with all that said, let's get into why Palworld is better than Pokemon. (laughs maniacally) All right, so that's a bit of a joke. It's obviously subjective. Any of the games on this list are subjective. Palworld, the one game, is not better than the entire franchise of Pokemon, but there's a reason why there was a lot of excitement around it when it first came out. And it wasn't just because you could give monsters AK-47s. The thing is, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the most recent entry in the series, was just not ready for prime time when it came out.

It's the open-world Pokemon game everyone wanted, but the execution left a lot to be desired, particularly in the technicals. When you've seen Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom working fine, not chugging along like shit, looking at the significantly less action-packed and fluid Scarlet and Violet and its performance is pretty depressing.

There's also a couple of problems with the game itself, but a lot of it's attributable to the Pokemon Company's constantly rushed development. They're cranking these things out almost every year and the quality standards in that kind of a situation are hard to maintain, let's say.

Fans of the series have been frustrated with the games for a while now. They're kind of fed up with the archaic game systems and lack of innovation. When they get innovation, like the open world in Scarlet and Violet, it doesn't work great. Not that it's badly designed; it really just doesn't work well on a technical level. 

To borrow a line from Eminem, "Y'all act like you've never seen an open world before. FPS on the floor like Pam and Tommy just burst" and I don't know what to say about the Pam and Tommy line. The FPS is very low though. That's the point. And regardless of how you feel about Palworld, it actually feels pretty fresh.

It lets you summon your Pals into the world and fight in real-time. It lets you put your guys to work in a way that feels natural and best of all, it doesn't look like absolute garbage, which Scarlet and Violet does. It's not even that the art style's bad, it's that it runs like shit. The open world in Palworld is better looking just because it's not even working with the technical limitations. The hardware Palworld is designed for is just inherently better and it runs well too. 

It brings in some new ideas too, at least for a Pokemon-style game. I like Palworld. I liked it from the start, honestly.

8. Resident Evil 1

And number eight is Resident Evil 1. It may have been the first game to be given the moniker of survival horror, a term Capcom invented for marketing the game, but there was a game that came before Resident Evil. It was the true progenitor of the genre, Alone in the Dark from 1992.

These games are pretty different from one another, but the similarities are actually pretty striking too. Both games use fixed camera angles. They have a 3D character who moves around the world using tank controls. Both games feature male and a female protagonist who you can choose to play as at the start. Both games set in a spooky mansion. Both games mix combat with puzzle solving. There's a ton of similarities here. 

The developers behind Resident Evil 1 have never admitted it, but to claim that they weren't inspired by Alone in the Dark is absolutely absurd. Even that game might not have been the actual first survival horror game, but it was the first to have pre-rendered backgrounds and tank controls. In terms of the type of game, it's the same type of game, and it was the only one of that type of game before Resident Evil was also that type of game. And Resident Evil is the better game. No caveats or exceptions here, it's just better.

Alone in the Dark may have had some Lovecraftian ideas that were kind of intriguing, but the actual game's a chaotic mess with really awkward controls, confusing and unsatisfying puzzles, and notes that go on for way too long, to say the least. Resident Evil 1 feels like a game made by actual game designers. The puzzles don't drag the game to a halt. The combat is straightforward and simple. The notes are quick. It's smartly designed. 

It's more fun to actually play than Alone in the Dark, which is kind of miserable to play. It's worth playing for a historical view as to where the genre came from, but it's not particularly fun. While we're on the subject, I do have to mention Sweet Home, the NES horror game that the devs said is a huge influence on Resident Evil. Probably a huge influence on Alone in the Dark as well. Resident Evil was actually supposed to be a Sweet Home remake, but Capcom lost the license to it. 

Now it's a real different type of game. More of an RPG with stark horror elements, to be frank. So it plays nothing like Resident Evil, but I had to mention it just 'cause I think Sweet Home is probably the full-on progenitor of these games, but Alone in the Dark did it first. Resident Evil has a lot in common with Alone in the Dark that it doesn't, at least on its face, have in common with Sweet Home.

7. Cities: Skylines

At number seven is Cities: Skylines. After the catastrophic failure of 2013's EA Sim City reboot, there was a hole in the market for somebody, anybody, to come in and take the straightforward city builder crown. It took a while, but we finally got a proper Sim City successor with Cities: Skylines. The developers are not afraid to admit what the game is. It's supposed to be a new Sim City game with the name changed, but for most city builder fans, that's exactly what they wanted. 

Sim City is unfortunately dead in the water. There hasn't been a peep from EA about reviving the franchise, but people still want to be able to build little metropolises. Cities: Skylines finally lets them do it with a modern coat of paint and no always-online requirement. That wasn't all that was wrong with the 2013 Sim City, but it was a big part.

The basics of the game play pretty much the same. Put down roads, block out commercial, industrial, residential, and eventually they start to fill out on their own. To keep the city running, you have to supply electricity and water to buildings and have some place to put all the waste. At base level, Cities is pretty much identical to Sim City.

What makes the game different is the level of complexity. Things get exponentially more complicated as the game progresses. Eventually, the traffic simulation in particular, which is its own huge thing. People call Cities: Skyline a traffic simulator for a reason. Getting traffic under control is one of the most difficult things about the game and often the thing you're messing with the most once the city's built.

That part of the game is actually a little divisive, but the rest is a chill Sim City game. Shame about the sequel though.

6. Stardew Valley

Moving on to number six, the Harvest Moon slash Story of Seasons series was always kind of niche in the west, at least until Stardew Valley came along and pretty much did the exact same thing.

Now chill farming is a big business. Unlike Sim City, it's not like Harvest Moon really went away. It's a little more complex like that, but they were making these things consistently for years before Stardew Valley came out.

There was one thing they didn't do and that was put them on PC. 

It's not like that's all that Stardew has going for it, but the PC release combined with the cheap price made it the go-to casual game for many, many people. It's not some lazy also-ran either. It made a lot of smart quality of life changes to the formula that made the game a lot more fun to play in general.

It's a game where you can tell the developers are super fans of the farming genre and know how to improve it. Also, it's just a guy, and their post-launch effort for the game has just been something else. He's been adding stuff and improving the game for years and years and he doesn't make it into a sequel or make you buy add-ons or anything.

It's a game that keeps getting better and the word of mouth has continued to cause it to sell and sell and sell, and it's just a wholesome, easygoing farming sim that'll keep you busy for hundreds of hours if you let it get its claws into you.

5. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed

And number five is Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed.

When Sega first released the Sonic All-Stars Racing game, the Mario Kart series was in kind of a funk. This was before Mario Kart 8 came out and slowly grew into the unstoppable behemoth that it would eventually become, but the most recent one was Mario Kart Wii. That was one of the more disappointing ones.

Sega's tried many times to rip off other Nintendo franchises to, let's say, varied success. Sonic Shuffle tried to be Mario Party, absolutely terrible. Sonic the Fighters isn't a lot like Brawl, but that's why it exists. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood was BioWare's attempt to recreate the magic of many Mario RPGs, but All-Stars Racing was different, especially the follow-up in 2012 called Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed, which as a game is much better than a lot of Mario Kart games.

Not 8, but it's pretty close. The game controls very well. It's got an amusingly broad selection of Sega properties to pick from as characters, including some off-the-wall stuff like Ryo from Shenmue and a guy from Shogun: Total War. You know, the PC strategy game? But the controls are pitch perfect, the tracks all fantastic, and the game's gimmick pulls it all together.

The transforming vehicles make it so you can have a single race that has driving, flying, and boat riding in a way that like Diddy Kong Racing did, and I guess Mario Kart 8 does now. But at the time, you were basically puttering on the same track three times in a row in one vehicle.

This game's stages transform between laps, and so they're unpredictable and fun as hell. You'd think the focus on spectacle would get old and, you know, maybe after a long period of time it does. But it's a great cart racer regardless. Right up with Crash Team Racing as one of the few actually good Mario Kart copycats.

4. UFO 50

And number four is UFO 50 built by pretty much everyone as Action 52 but good. UFO 50 was a crazy ambitious project, one of those 50 games in one compilations, but instead of being a bunch of shovelware junk, every single game has been made with care.

If you're unaware, Action 52 was an unlicensed NES game that boasted 52 games in one. And yeah, it had a lot of them, but most of them were terrible or just unfinished or basically the same game as something else with a few sprites changed. It wasn't one bad game; it was 52 bad games. UFO 52 is taking that NES era aesthetic and combo game idea and making it pure creative expression.

Not every game in UFO 50 is great, but almost everything is original, creative, and at least interesting to explore, if not actually play to completion. It even has its own version of Action 52's most infamous game, the Cheetah Man, a terrible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles knockoff that was, as far as I know, not possible to finish.

That was the last game in the collection, while UFO 50's last game is Cyber Owls, which has its own made-up backstory about being a failed attempt at creating a franchise. UFO 50 is just as much inspired by those old PC game compilations as Action 52. But those things were also mostly terrible, whereas UFO 50 is amazing.

3. Call of Duty

And number three is Call of Duty. In an alternate dimension, Medal of Honor would've been a monster game series with yearly releases that consistently topped the sales chart. Because seriously, Call of Duty isn't the actual first game in that series. The real first game is Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. All 22 members of the original Infinity Ward team worked on Allied Assault and in pretty much every way, the first Call of Duty is an answer to and an expansion on the ideas the team had working on Medal of Honor.

This is one of those situations where a team made a game, then jumped ship to another publisher and essentially made the sequel to the game, but the name changed. That's really what Call of Duty is. In a way, it's the copycat, but it's made by the guys who did the original. It's also just a better game in absolutely every way.

It covers most of the ground as Allied Assault. It's a World War II game. It's mostly cribbing from other media to create its war scenarios. Instead of Saving Private Ryan, it was Band of Brothers and Enemy at the Gates. But what really makes Call of Duty better was the controls. They added sprinting and leaning, aim down sight, crouching and prone, and you just had so much more control over your guy than the previous games.

None of these features were new, but they were mostly reserved for more complex, realism-focused war games. Call of Duty is a bombastic action game at its heart, just with more options to how you could control your guy.

The multiplayer was also significantly better than Allied Assault, which is a straight upgrade across the board.

It wasn't even the last time Zampella and West would pull this trick. They switched sides again to create Titanfall, but that game is different enough from Call of Duty that I wouldn't call it a copycat.

2. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

At number two is Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. Developer Mimimi, may they rest in peace, was never shy about their inspirations. The Shadow Tactics games were 100% copycats of the Commandos and Desperados games, and they play almost exactly the same. The UI elements are practically identical, but this is another case where someone was just coming in to fill a hole in the market. 

There's a fan base for this very specific brand of tactical stealth game where you have multiple team members, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and they drop you into this massive sprawling level where you need to sneak around, silently eliminate enemies, and complete objectives. These games were not for the impatient. They require careful planning and observation to make even the most incremental progress. But when your plans all come together, few games are as satisfying.

You'd think a game set during World War II would be completely different from one set in feudal Japan, but they're a lot more similar than you think. Seriously, the way enemy vision cones work is exactly the same. Many abilities are almost the same. It's essentially the same game with a different setting. Also, just a better game overall. Being able to set up and execute your plans is a brilliant addition, along with the quicksave timer that reminds you to make a save if you haven't after a while.

Stuff like this shows these guys understand exactly the type of game they're making here, and they know what to keep from the old games and what can be improved.

1. Gears of War

And finally, at number one, is Gears of War. Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the Gears of War series, has never been afraid of admitting his influences. Everyone knows the third-person camera comes from Resident Evil 4, but there's a lesser-known game that was even more influential in the series, a little Namco game called Kill Switch. Now, Gears is not a one-to-one ripoff of Kill Switch. 

The premise, the story, the visuals, the vibe, it's all completely different, but there's one essential element that is the same, and it's the cover system. I'm not saying anything here that Cliffy B hasn't said himself. He frequently said Kill Switch is a game that inspired Gears' cover system. If you look at them side by side, they're functionally very, very similar.

Of course, Gears is a better game that does cover better than Kill Switch, but Kill Switch got there first and that should count for something. Yes, I know other games had cover before Kill Switch, but it's the game where when you walk up to cover, you press a button, get into it, get in a low cover blind fire, peek in and out. That’s Kill Switch and it inspired Gears and Gears basically like Mario essentially was for the platforming genre. There were platformers before, but that was the flash point and Gears was the flash point for this kind of game. It's why you have Uncharted and a bazillion other third-person FPS games.

Bonus: Bayonetta

A couple of quick bonus ones for you: Bayonetta, just different enough from Devil May Cry. It's hard to say it's straight up better, but in a lot of ways, the first Bayonetta is better than the fourth Devil May Cry. I mean, half of that game is just going back through the same levels over and over again, and not even in an interesting way.

It's a flawed game that felt archaic and Bayonetta was innovative in its dodge button. Well, I mean everyone stole it because it's awesome. The first game was 100% an answer to DMC. It was made by a team of little angels instead of Team Little Devils. You fight angels instead of demons. The levels are full of gothic architecture.

The cutscenes are over the top. They both say "Flock off feather face." There's a lot of intentional homages to DMC in the first game, so much that, I mean, it is a copycat on some level, but it's different enough that it doesn't feel the same.

Bonus: Pizza Tower

Next is Pizza Tower, one of the weirder inspirations for a game. Pizza Tower is basically a spiritual successor to Wario Land, and not just any Wario Land game, but 3 and 4 specifically. It has the chaotic energy of those Wario games. But what really makes it similar is it's got two of Wario's defining features. For one thing, Peppino can't die, just like in Wario 2 and 3. You can get hit as many times as you want. All it does is affect the score at the end of the level. The other thing is the end-level time limit where you reach the end of the level and you have to turn around and race back to the entrance on a time limit.

The developer said these are 100% the inspiration for Pizza Tower, and they threw in a little Sonic the Hedgehog to spice things up, which seriously, I just, I can't stop returning to Pizza Tower. I've beaten it already and I keep playing it. You think I don't have that thing living on my Steam Deck? It is.

Bonus: Yakuza / Like a Dragon Series

Finally, the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series. There's a whole lot of Shenmue in the Yakuza games. Like the way these games take place in recognizable mundane Japanese locations. They mix the mundane and the ridiculous. They have a serious story with undeniably silly side quests, lots of arcade games and diversions.

On paper, they have a ton in common; in practice, they're very, very different. Shenmue and Yakuza, just night and day. Yakuza has more in common with River City Ransom and beat 'em ups like that, while Shenmue is like an investigation game and a life simulator. In Yakuza, combat is pretty nonstop and it's very frequent.

While in Shenmue, it's pretty rare. Also, the pacing in Yakuza, it's nothing like Shenmue. Shenmue goes by very slow. Yakuza does not. There's enough similarity, it's tempting to call Yakuza a copycat. But if you've played both games, you know it doesn't quite hold. They're similar in a lot of ways, enough to mention it here, but different in ways that really count.

Conclusion

And that's all for today. Leave us a comment. Let us know what you think. As always, we thank you very much for reading this blog. We'll see you next time right here on Gamix.