Knock off games

[90snostalga]

I watched Episode 8 of the Sega SG Awesome series from Sin2Betas youtube channel tonight, and he mentioned about Congo Bongo being a knock off of Donkey Kong and Frogger.  It made me think deep for a moment because I've never personally played a game that I considered a knock off for some reason.  He mentioned Golden Axe Warrior on the SMS which technically seems like a knock off of Zelda.  I just never thought about it that way.  I'm wondering what are you guys' favorite knock off games that are very good and you can consider classic fun games to play?

[sin2beta]

Well, the thing that is kind of fascinating about Congo Bongo, is that it may not be a knock off. There is some clues that it was developed by Ikegami Tsushinki. In the rom dump, there is "CONGRATULATION !IF YOU ANALYSE DIFFICULT THIS PROGRAM,WE WOULD TEACH YOU.*****TEL.TOKYO-JAPAN 044(244)2151 EXTENTION 304 SYSTEM DESIGN IKEGAMI CO. LIM." It was common at that time for the hardware manufacturer to program the game as well. It was also common to put messages like this in the code. Sort of a scouting technique. Ikegami Tsushinki settled out of court over the lawsuit that Nintendo used the Ikegami code for Donkey Kong Jr. All of this is uncertain. But strongly hinted. There is a chance that Ikegami Tsushinki is one of the biggest unsung heroes of gaming. Donkey Kong, Radar Scope, Zaxxon, etc.

But SEGA does a lot of "knock off" games. Golden Axe Warrior is probably my favorite.

[kingrat101]

Golden Axe Warrior is great but for me personally I love Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, at first were they considered Street Fighter clones, especially AOF with Ryo... Major Ryu clone, but they have enough of their own thing going for them.
I guess Metal Slug can be considered a Contra knock-off too

[turf]

I guess Metal Slug can be considered a Contra knock-off too

I think Metal Slug is different enough to say it's its own game.  They are the same type of game, but that would be like saying every basketball game is a clone of Double Dribble.

[redblaze57]

Thought this was interesting and sort of fits into the topic

[foxhack]

Golden Axe Warrior is great but for me personally I love Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, at first were they considered Street Fighter clones, especially AOF with Ryo... Major Ryu clone, but they have enough of their own thing going for them.
I guess Metal Slug can be considered a Contra knock-off too

Here's a fun fact: Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury were co-designed by Hiroshi Matsumoto and Takashi Nishiyama,  two dudes who worked on the original Street Fighter. Both of the original games are still tons better than the heap of garbage that SF1 was.

And sorry, Ryu clone? At least Ryo has a personality other than "I MUST FIGHT TO MAKE MYSELF STRONGER." Sure, Ryo wants to be stronger. But he's got a life and a family too.

*wears an Art of Fighting fan badge with pride since 1992

[topspot123]

I've had arguments with friends about this.  They will dismiss a game for being a knock off.  But my opinion is that if it is a good game and it imitates a game that I like, why not try it?  Darksiders is a good example.  It is commonly known as God of War mixed with Legend of Zelda, and a lot of people dismissed it because of this.  But I like God of War and the Legend of Zelda.  Why wouldn't I want more of what I like?

[scott]

Crusader of Centy gets a bit of flak for being a "Zelda Clone", but really I never even thought of it as a Zelda-Type-Game when I was originally playing it as a kid. I thought of it as a neat and fun adventure game, where I get animals with special abilities.

[90snostalga]

Crusader of Centy gets a bit of flak for being a "Zelda Clone", but really I never even thought of it as a Zelda-Type-Game when I was originally playing it as a kid. I thought of it as a neat and fun adventure game, where I get animals with special abilities.

Crusader of Centy is a game that I am so psyched to play!  Hopefully I'll find it cheap one day but I cannot wait on this one.  The other is golden axe warrior.  It looks so appealing to me, and I really want to play that type of game on the Master System so bad.

[kingrat101]

Golden Axe Warrior is great but for me personally I love Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, at first were they considered Street Fighter clones, especially AOF with Ryo... Major Ryu clone, but they have enough of their own thing going for them.
I guess Metal Slug can be considered a Contra knock-off too

Here's a fun fact: Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury were co-designed by Hiroshi Matsumoto and Takashi Nishiyama,  two dudes who worked on the original Street Fighter. Both of the original games are still tons better than the heap of garbage that SF1 was.

And sorry, Ryu clone? At least Ryo has a personality other than "I MUST FIGHT TO MAKE MYSELF STRONGER." Sure, Ryo wants to be stronger. But he's got a life and a family too.

*wears an Art of Fighting fan badge with pride since 1992

Oh man! I totally forgot Hiroshi designed AOF
Haha and I'm totally with you man, I recently played through AOF 1 and 2 and man they are tough but great fun.
I also love the fact that Ryo has the balls to ride a motorcycle in a gi and sandals
"Ora! Ora!"

[soera]

Crusader of Centy gets a bit of flak for being a "Zelda Clone", but really I never even thought of it as a Zelda-Type-Game when I was originally playing it as a kid. I thought of it as a neat and fun adventure game, where I get animals with special abilities.

Crusader of Centy is a game that I am so psyched to play!  Hopefully I'll find it cheap one day but I cannot wait on this one.  The other is golden axe warrior.  It looks so appealing to me, and I really want to play that type of game on the Master System so bad.

I personally didnt like Centy. I dont think its anything like Zelda. Golden axe warrior however is better than Zelda itself.

[topspot123]

Crusader of Centy gets a bit of flak for being a "Zelda Clone", but really I never even thought of it as a Zelda-Type-Game when I was originally playing it as a kid. I thought of it as a neat and fun adventure game, where I get animals with special abilities.

Crusader of Centy is a game that I am so psyched to play!  Hopefully I'll find it cheap one day but I cannot wait on this one.  The other is golden axe warrior.  It looks so appealing to me, and I really want to play that type of game on the Master System so bad.

I've been playing Golden Axe Warrior but I'm not very far into it.  That game is the main reason I bought Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. http://vgcollect.com/item/9614  I got the PS3 version just because of Sony's D-pad (compared to Microsoft's).

Speaking of knock off's, I started Golden Axe Warrior after finishing both Neutopia games on the Wii Virtual Console.  Neutopia II is better.

[90snostalga]

Crusader of Centy gets a bit of flak for being a "Zelda Clone", but really I never even thought of it as a Zelda-Type-Game when I was originally playing it as a kid. I thought of it as a neat and fun adventure game, where I get animals with special abilities.

Crusader of Centy is a game that I am so psyched to play!  Hopefully I'll find it cheap one day but I cannot wait on this one.  The other is golden axe warrior.  It looks so appealing to me, and I really want to play that type of game on the Master System so bad.

Speaking of knock off's, I started Golden Axe Warrior after finishing both Neutopia games on the Wii Virtual Console.  Neutopia II is better.

Neutopia games and Dungeon Explorer are the reasons I want to own a Turbografx 16

[burningdoom]

Crusader of Centy gets a bit of flak for being a "Zelda Clone", but really I never even thought of it as a Zelda-Type-Game when I was originally playing it as a kid. I thought of it as a neat and fun adventure game, where I get animals with special abilities.

Crusader of Centy is a game that I am so psyched to play!  Hopefully I'll find it cheap one day but I cannot wait on this one.  The other is golden axe warrior.  It looks so appealing to me, and I really want to play that type of game on the Master System so bad.

Speaking of knock off's, I started Golden Axe Warrior after finishing both Neutopia games on the Wii Virtual Console.  Neutopia II is better.

Neutopia games and Dungeon Explorer are the reasons I want to own a Turbografx 16

Dungeon Explorer is a lot more of a Gauntlet clone than it is a Zelda clone.

[MJMaranan]

From what I thought to understand of video games to be considered a knock-off is that both have to be in the same console, with huge similarities, and the other thought to be a failure to the consumer.  Otherwise, wouldn't a game from a different console platform be considered "Console's answer to Platform's 'Game'?"

As far as examples of knock-offs...  On the top my head, they are:

KNOCK-OFF -- SUCCESS
Gothic Universe -- The Elder Scrolls... series
Justice League Heroes/Young Justice: Legacy -- X-Men Legends series/Marvel Ultimate Alliance series