10 Video Game Copies That Didn't Work Out

Making a successful game is the ultimate goal of every developer. Earning money, having a legion of fans playing their game, building a large franchise that lasts for years – that's what all games released daily aspire to. But when you achieve success, there will always be someone trying to ride your wave and grab a slice of your money pie. And that's where the copies come from.

Copies aren't always bad. We’ve several games that are “Legend of Zelda flavor” that are really cool. Mortal Kombat, on the other hand, has had a series of imitators ranging from good, great, bad, terrible, disastrous, to Tattoo Assassins. If you're unsure about these games that copied big franchises and didn't succeed, we'll talk about ten cases, and if you still have questions, leave a comment.

Produced by Semaphore and published by Semanoor International, Unearthed: Trail of Ibn Battuta was released episodically between 2013 and 2014 for various platforms, including PC, mobile, and PlayStation 3, as well as other platforms that were ultimately never released. The game was developed in Unity, which showed good potential.

In the game, Faris Jawad, a treasure hunter traveling through the Middle East alongside his archaeologist sister Dania, follows clues left by the historical explorer Ibn Battuta (a real historical figure). At the beginning, you must rescue your kidnapped sister, and then the game goes back in time to show their early explorations, such as in ancient ruins and the pursuit of a thief. Besides the two of them, you also have the help of Rasheed Al Kalabi, a tour guide who possesses a copy of the legendary explorer's diary.

From the start, the game makes its inspiration from Naughty Dog's Uncharted clear. The structure is practically the same: exploration of historical settings, third-person shooting, climbing, puzzles, and cinematic action sequences. The problem is that the game was poorly finished: the animations are choppy, the controls imprecise, and the bad graphics have turned this game into a meme when it comes to poorly made bootlegs.

The game here is a copy that attempted to be a true sequel to the game it was based on: Street Fighter 1. Released in March 1989 for microcomputers such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST, the game was developed by the British company Tiertex and published by U.S. Gold. The company thought: "Since we managed to make an adaptation and we have the rights to do so, let's create the official sequel and present it to Capcom."

And that's what Tiertex did: they created a fighting game with several mechanics similar to the original, featuring a taekwondo fighter named Kwon who faces fighters from various martial arts around the world, including even animals like dogs and bulls. The game had everything the original Street Fighter had, except the quality. Terrible and practically impossible-to-execute controls, unbalanced difficulty, weird characters (I mean, nowadays most of the HKM cast could easily fit into SF, but at the time, I think they wanted to be a little less exotic).

We can say that, luckily, Capcom rejected the project and didn’t accept HKM as a successor to Street Fighter. Imagine what the fighting game scene’d be like without combos (a mechanic created by accident while the game was being developed), without competitive play, Fatal Fury or King of Fighters and other things would’ve never existed. It’d be a very different future.

Developed and published by Data East, Fighter's History arrived in arcades in March 1993, amidst the arcade wars with Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. The following year, it received a Super Nintendo version and, decades later, was re-released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

The game made no secret of its inspiration from Capcom's Street Fighter II. The player chooses one of eight fighters and participates in a world tournament, facing opponents until reaching the final boss. Each character has their own special moves, which you performed with classic controls like a back half-circle, charge back and then forward, in addition to the life bars, timer, and victory screen, which were practically the same as in Street Fighter II, with one fighter "safe" and the other "broken." The scenarios and visual style follow the same line, but without the same level of refinement.

The similarities were so great that Capcom took the case to court, accusing Data East of copyright infringement. The defense argued that many of these elements were common to the genre. In the end, the game became known more for the lawsuit than for being good. Aside from the mechanic of attacking weak points on opponents' clothing, there was nothing that really stood out, and the characters were generic and bland.

Released in 1994 by Wisdom Tree, Super 3D Noah's Ark is one of the strangest cases of a failed copy. The game was released for MS-DOS and also had an unofficial cartridge for Super Nintendo, but to work on the console you had to insert an official SNES cartridge on top of it to bypass Nintendo's anti-piracy system.

The idea here was to make a game for a Christian audience, replacing the Nazi soldiers from id Software's Wolfenstein 3D with animals. You take on the role of Noah, trying to calm hungry animals inside the Ark. Armed with a slingshot, he shoots food at the animals until they fall asleep. Otherwise, the game is the same, with first-person corridors, labyrinths full of secret doors, and even boss fights, like the elephant Ernie.

Wisdom Tree obtained the license for the source code of the original game and made a graphical and sound change to remove the violence, keeping the gameplay intact. It was sold mainly in religious bookstores and became a curious copy that never really took off.

Released in November 2012 for PlayStation 3 and later for PS Vita, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was developed by SuperBot Entertainment with support from internal Sony Interactive Entertainment studios. The idea was quite simple and straightforward: to bring together classic characters from the PlayStation universe in a fighting game in the best Super Smash Bros. style.

The cast mixes heroes and villains from various franchises, who face off in arenas that combine different universes, such as scenarios inspired by God of War and Uncharted. Unlike Smash, there’s no health bar here. To eliminate an opponent, you need to fill a meter and use a special attack. This idea slightly changes the pace of the fights, since victory depends only on filling the bar first and knocking everyone down with the special attack.

Despite the fun premise and nostalgic appeal, the Arcade mode presents the story with static images and few memorable moments. Some critics pointed to a lack of depth in the combat system and the absence of characters considered essential to the franchise's history. The result was mediocre reviews and lower-than-expected sales, which caused the project to stop there, without a sequel.

Developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts, Dante's Inferno was released in 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with a version for PSP. The game is a loose adaptation of the book "The Divine Comedy" by the Italian writer Dante Alighieri, transforming the journey to the circles of hell into a God of War-style game!

In the story, Dante is portrayed as a Templar knight who descends into the nine circles of Hell to rescue Beatrice, guided by the poet Virgil. Along the way, he faces figures like Lucifer and others inspired by mythology and the original work itself. The gameplay is pure God of War, with fast combos, constant use of special moves, and quick-time events at crucial moments.

The setting and visuals of Hell are great, but comparisons to God of War are inevitable. Many critics pointed out that, despite the good art direction, the combat system seemed like a repetitive copy. Even selling over a million copies and spawning adaptations in other media, the lack of originality in some aspects buried the franchise.

This game went so wrong that it never even got released, despite being ready. The only specialized media outlet that had the chance to play Tattoo Assassins said that the game “promised a lot and delivered too much”. Terrible graphics, terrible controls, terrible characters, and terrible finishing moves that tried to replicate the violence and blood of Mortal Kombat. The idea here was to exaggerate and create various finishing moves, but the idea ends and you end up doing finishing moves like farting on the enemy, leaving them naked, and other idiotic things.

A group of fighters with special tattoos gather in a tournament to discover and fight a villain who is stealing these powers from the fighters and who has stolen an ancient and sacred special ink. This is the idea that brought together some of the most strangely generic characters. A girl on roller skates, a generic martial arts fighter, a guy in an overcoat, a mobster in a suit. It seemed like there was no budget left for costumes and everyone came in whatever clothes they had at home.

Tattoo Assassins is generally rated as the worst Mortal Kombat bootleg ever made, and there were quite a few. This is definitely a game that should be forgotten.

Released in 1981 for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 console, K.C. Munchkin! was created by Ed Averett as a direct response to the success of Namco's Pac-Man. The name "K.C." referred to Kenneth C. Meinken, then president of Philips, the company associated with the Odyssey 2.

The game was a straightforward copy: a character navigates a maze eating pellets while fleeing from enemies. Here, the player controls a "Munchkin" pursued by three "Munchers", clear copies of the ghosts from Pac-Man. Some differences were added to try and give it its own identity. The pellets move around the stage and accelerate as they’re consumed, the super pellets flash and change color, and the maze can even disappear after the game starts. There are also modes that allow you to create custom levels or generate random maps.

Even with these changes, it was still a copy. Atari, which owned the rights to Pac-Man for home consoles, sued Philips. In 1982, the court ruled that the game gave too much prominence to the copied elements and ordered it removed from stores. This case became a reference point, and some time later, a less copied version was released.

Released in 1987 for computers such as the Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST, The Great Giana Sisters was developed by Time Warp and published by Rainbow Arts. The idea was simple: to create a game in the style of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo's absolute hit.

The protagonists Giana and Maria explore the so-called Dream World, facing creatures and traversing platforming and side-scrolling levels. The structure follows the same model as Mario: jumping on enemies, collecting items, and reaching the end of the level before time runs out. Instead of mushrooms, the sisters gain different looks by picking up power-ups and can launch balls to attack. There are 33 levels, with secret areas and alternative paths.

Despite being praised by some of the specialized press at the time, the game drew attention for its clear copy of Super Mario Bros. Shortly after its release in the United Kingdom, Nintendo threatened legal action, and the game was removed from stores. Even so, it continued to circulate among computer gamers and became known as one of the most famous clones in history. And, despite this, today they’re still around, with a more unique identity and different from the plumber siblings.

Released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, with versions for Xbox and GameCube, The Simpsons: Road Rage was developed by Radical Entertainment and published in partnership by Electronic Arts and Fox Interactive. An adaptation for Game Boy Advance, produced by Altron, was released in 2003.

The story places Mr. Burns at the center of the problem. After buying all of Springfield's transportation systems, he creates radioactively powered buses that put the population at risk. As a result, the residents start using their own cars to earn money, regain control of public transportation, and get rid of the old man. The player chooses characters from The Simpsons series and must pick up passengers scattered throughout the city, taking them where they want to go before time runs out.

The game was very reminiscent of Sega's Crazy Taxi, with an arrow system indicating the way, a race against the clock, and a focus on fast driving through streets that follow practically the same model. The similarities led to a patent infringement lawsuit, which ended in a settlement between the companies. Although fun for fans of the series, many critics point to the simple graphics and lack of depth, which ultimately made the title a licensed copy.