1UP.com's Retro Ripp-Offs feature

[CrackTiger]

Anyone check out 1UP.com's Retro Ripp-Offs feature?

http://1up.com/do/feature?cId=3147544

It goes on extensively about how Golden Axe Warrior totally ripped off The Legend Of Zelda.

But didn't Neutopia rip Zelda at least as good at least a couple years earlier?

[Keranu]

This feature is pretty whack.

[PC Gaijin]

You could fill an entire article with Hudson and Turbo ripoffs, such as:

Neutopia I & II - obvious
Victory Run - basically rip of Outrun
Dungeon Explorer - Gauntlet
J.J. & Jeff/Ken & Kato - Super Mario Bros.
Legendary Axe - Rastan and especially Astyanax

I always wondered if Astyanax and Legendary Axe were related somehow, they're very, very close to each other.

[CrackTiger]

You could fill an entire article with Hudson and Turbo ripoffs, such as:

Neutopia I & II - obvious
Victory Run - basically rip of Outrun
Dungeon Explorer - Gauntlet
J.J. & Jeff/Ken & Kato - Super Mario Bros.
Legendary Axe - Rastan and especially Astyanax

I always wondered if Astyanax and Legendary Axe were related somehow, they're very, very close to each other.

To me, Kato & Ken is more of a Wonderboy/Adv Island game. Its got all the same kinds of levels and bosses.

[PC Gaijin]

I never really thought about Adventure Island, but I guess the whole life draining and needing to eat fruit to keep it up comes from AI. What makes me think of Super Mario Bros. when playing J.J. & Jeff is the way it controls. You have momentum and "skid" a little when changing directions. Also, little things like the bonus levels (chasing after coins tossed by your partner), interacting with the environment by kicking (like Mario breaking blocks with his head), the spray can/fart attack (Fiery Mario), the warp system, etc. are ripped straight out of SMB. Underrated game BTW, good platformers were rare on the Turbo for some reason.

[CrackTiger]

I never really thought about Adventure Island, but I guess the whole life draining and needing to eat fruit to keep it up comes from AI. What makes me think of Super Mario Bros. when playing J.J. & Jeff is the way it controls. You have momentum and "skid" a little when changing directions. Also, little things like the bonus levels (chasing after coins tossed by your partner), interacting with the environment by kicking (like Mario breaking blocks with his head), the spray can/fart attack (Fiery Mario), the warp system, etc. are ripped straight out of SMB. Underrated game BTW, good platformers were rare on the Turbo for some reason.

I forget all the details, since I haven't really played through JJ&J since back in the day, but the way I remember it, its like mostly WB/AI, but all messed up(urban WB with kicking).

The speed up running and high jumping(I beleive with the same sound effect), are the same, the bosses are giants who you hit in the head, you dodge boulders and many of the same types of enemies the same way, there are the same kinds of platforms and level layouts(sea levels with cloud platforms)... basically, I always thought that the developer had to be related to one of the teams that did one of the WB/AI games.

[Dark Fact]

I'm amazed that the article never mentioned the infamous Tetris lawsuit between Nintendo and Tengen software.  Now that was something worth nothing!

As much as I like to roll my eyes for every ripoff ever conceived, I guess that was/is the standard for video games.  I think nowadays, it's incredibly difficult to pull of an original concept for video gaming.  Every company wants to borrow and/or improve off another's concept.

[esteban]

Here's my 2 cents:

I never really thought about Adventure Island, but I guess the whole life draining and needing to eat fruit to keep it up comes from AI. What makes me think of Super Mario Bros. when playing J.J. & Jeff is the way it controls. You have momentum and "skid" a little when changing directions. Also, little things like the bonus levels (chasing after coins tossed by your partner), interacting with the environment by kicking (like Mario breaking blocks with his head), the spray can/fart attack (Fiery Mario), the warp system, etc. are ripped straight out of SMB. Underrated game BTW, good platformers were rare on the Turbo for some reason.

I forget all the details, since I haven't really played through JJ&J since back in the day, but the way I remember it, its like mostly WB/AI, but all messed up(urban WB with kicking).

The speed up running and high jumping(I beleive with the same sound effect), are the same, the bosses are giants who you hit in the head, you dodge boulders and many of the same types of enemies the same way, there are the same kinds of platforms and level layouts(sea levels with cloud platforms)... basically, I always thought that the developer had to be related to one of the teams that did one of the WB/AI games.

Yeah, SMB and Wonderboy 1 / Adventure Island series are both platformers that share a lot of elements common to the genre. So your comparison to SMB isn't misplaced, PC Gaijin . But I consider JJ & Jeff to be closer to the Wonderboy 1 / Adventure Island lineage. Hudson slightly tweaked their AI formula when they created JJ & Jeff. The controls and gameplay elements from AI are in JJ & Jeff, and the strategies you use are the same in each game, since they have the same level design and structure.

Try searching for "bastard child of the Adventure Island series" or something like that, because I think I made a thread here or at magicengine.com that argued that JJ & Jeff should be seen as a part of the AI family...

And I agree that JJ & Jeff is an under-rated game!

[esteban]

OK, I guess I should have said "4 cents" ...

Dynastic Hero is a bastard child of the Wonderboy series (excluding WB 1 & 3:Monster Lair).

You could fill an entire article with Hudson and Turbo ripoffs, such as:

Neutopia I & II - obvious
Victory Run - basically rip of Outrun
Dungeon Explorer - Gauntlet
J.J. & Jeff/Ken & Kato - Super Mario Bros.
Legendary Axe - Rastan and especially Astyanax

I always wondered if Astyanax and Legendary Axe were related somehow, they're very, very close to each other.

Victory Run... yeah, it's like Out Run or Rad racer + parts management. I think the need to manage your parts adds a bit more strategy to VR (as does the different terrain that requires different gears). Unfortunately, I think Outrun and Rad Racer are much "zippier" and give a much more exciting "thrill" of racing, while VR is like a marathon that plods along at times. I really wish Rad Racer, VR and other racing games had branching paths like OutRun.... that would have been soooooooo kool . For the record: once I got past the fact that Victory

DE = I consider this a Gauntlet + Zelda hybrid (so Hudson was ripping off 2 games!) I wish there were more games like this. The straight Gauntlet formula can get tedious (like Smash TV... you just go from room to room...) but DE really improves things by adding Zelda action RPG elements. It's a really nice blend of things. Exploring a decent-sized world (wish it was larger), leveling up, unlocking new characters, being able to CONTINUE... man, I friggin' love DE.

Astyanax & Legendary Axe: yeah, I wish we could get some details on their developement histories. I've posted about this issue a few times, but no one ever had any answers. Until recently, I didn't know that there was an arcade Astyanax, so I always thought that PCE LA served as the model for NES / famicom version of Astyanax. Ha!