games that spawned notable imitators
we're looking for games here that were so influential that other developers immediately jumped on the bandwagon for one reason or another. there's a few main criteria here:
1) I prefer imitator works coming from the decade after the release of the original work if possible. this disqualifies things like metroid/igavania or earthbound, which existed as cult classics (to some extent) for quite a while before their style and/or mechanics made a resurgence in the indie scene. we could spend quite a while rattling off indie games that draw inspiration from an older series; that doesn't necessarily mean the original was a strong enough work in its time to cause a fad. compare TLoZ, which in its time caused clones and similar approaches to the action-adventure/action-rpg template to proliferate to other consoles immediately. TLoZ is a particularly strong example bcs its descendents continued to proliferate even to the 32-bit era with Brave Prove and Alundra.
2) there has to be good reason for placing a given game as the particular "hingepoint" in its genre or style. predecessors with influential traits are fine (and I'm trying to annotate them when possible) but if two or more games were highly influential in developing a style, it probably doesn't belong here. a good example of this would be the 80s shmups scene, where there was a lot of competition and bandwagoning for sure, but to the point where successive releases by separate companies actually managed to usurp their forebearers and set new standards. I would almost rather have flash-in-a-pan fad examples on here than something more complex such as that.
3) the imitator works can't come from the same company. for example, if I were to say the yakuza series influenced later games like FotNS: Lost Paradise and Judgment, what I'm really getting at is that RGG studio makes one main style of game more than anything.
4) three examples appreciated, if possible. no worries if not though, I'll try to dig them up myself (and occasionally swap out ones suggested if I can get something closer to the original's release)
---- previous descrip below ----
I don't wanna say as far as "created a subgenre" but basically any game so distinctive that it caused other developers to want to copy the mechanics for their own project. obv no game exists in a vacuum but I'm trying to capture games here that were key turning points for a genre that may have already been under development but were not massively cloned until said game released, so some subgenres that had more organic, slow-paced progressions in popularity probably don't apply. could use some help/debate/discourse since my knowledge has its limits
another good way to put it: anything that has a notable bandwagon of games trying to ride the wave of its popularity. looking specifically for games where its release caused an onslaught of similar games within the next decade
1) I prefer imitator works coming from the decade after the release of the original work if possible. this disqualifies things like metroid/igavania or earthbound, which existed as cult classics (to some extent) for quite a while before their style and/or mechanics made a resurgence in the indie scene. we could spend quite a while rattling off indie games that draw inspiration from an older series; that doesn't necessarily mean the original was a strong enough work in its time to cause a fad. compare TLoZ, which in its time caused clones and similar approaches to the action-adventure/action-rpg template to proliferate to other consoles immediately. TLoZ is a particularly strong example bcs its descendents continued to proliferate even to the 32-bit era with Brave Prove and Alundra.
2) there has to be good reason for placing a given game as the particular "hingepoint" in its genre or style. predecessors with influential traits are fine (and I'm trying to annotate them when possible) but if two or more games were highly influential in developing a style, it probably doesn't belong here. a good example of this would be the 80s shmups scene, where there was a lot of competition and bandwagoning for sure, but to the point where successive releases by separate companies actually managed to usurp their forebearers and set new standards. I would almost rather have flash-in-a-pan fad examples on here than something more complex such as that.
3) the imitator works can't come from the same company. for example, if I were to say the yakuza series influenced later games like FotNS: Lost Paradise and Judgment, what I'm really getting at is that RGG studio makes one main style of game more than anything.
4) three examples appreciated, if possible. no worries if not though, I'll try to dig them up myself (and occasionally swap out ones suggested if I can get something closer to the original's release)
---- previous descrip below ----
I don't wanna say as far as "created a subgenre" but basically any game so distinctive that it caused other developers to want to copy the mechanics for their own project. obv no game exists in a vacuum but I'm trying to capture games here that were key turning points for a genre that may have already been under development but were not massively cloned until said game released, so some subgenres that had more organic, slow-paced progressions in popularity probably don't apply. could use some help/debate/discourse since my knowledge has its limits
another good way to put it: anything that has a notable bandwagon of games trying to ride the wave of its popularity. looking specifically for games where its release caused an onslaught of similar games within the next decade
48 Games
57 Comments
Earthbound: do i even have to go there
Metroid: good luck with the list on this one
Symphony of the Night: and this one
Breath of the Wild: freedom "u can go there!!" big field gaming like Genshin Impact, Elden Ring, Fenyx Rising
Quake: full-3d first-person shooting like Half-Life, Unreal, Chasm: The Rift
Wordle: games ending in *rdle
Dragon Collector: gatcha character-collectors like Puzzle n Dragons, FGO, Fire Emblem, Dokkan Battle, Treasure Cruise
Metroid: good luck with the list on this one
Symphony of the Night: and this one
Breath of the Wild: freedom "u can go there!!" big field gaming like Genshin Impact, Elden Ring, Fenyx Rising
Quake: full-3d first-person shooting like Half-Life, Unreal, Chasm: The Rift
Wordle: games ending in *rdle
Dragon Collector: gatcha character-collectors like Puzzle n Dragons, FGO, Fire Emblem, Dokkan Battle, Treasure Cruise
Mario 64: how long do you have
Street Fighter II: good lord
Street Fighter II: good lord
defo tetris, maybe pac-man
pac-man was followed by actual clones, same game different coat of paint, I dunno if there were imitators that diviated significantly
pac-man was followed by actual clones, same game different coat of paint, I dunno if there were imitators that diviated significantly
I feel like one could put Super Smash Bros. Melee as representative of Smash Bros for Platformer Fighters given the large amount of especially Indie ones that have come out and usually called back to it. Rivals of Aether, the ill-fated Icons, Brawlhalla, etc
Mario Kart
some great stuff here, lemme go through these. I think one big rule I forgot to update above is "imitators must have released shortly after original" ie within like a 10 year window. the big thing I'm going for here is bandwagon genres, if that makes sense
sonic: I like this thread but could use some help regarding imitators, since I wasn't really around for the proliferation of mascot platformers
pro skater: something like this exists but again, would need help with imitators. the only one I can think of is Evolution Skateboarding
earthbound: sort of an aesthetic resurgence? we talked about this in the discord and it seemed to sort of go off the rails regarding what actually qualifies as influenced by earthbound (ie how does the yume nikki derivative rpg maker chain intersect). regardless, its influence was felt way after the fact of release since it did so poorly at the time
metroid/sotn: another one we discussed in the discord for the same reasons as above. sotn obv cribbed from super metroid, but as for metroidvanias basically the only game in town was those two franchises up until the indie era (notable exceptions: shantae, kirby & the amazing mirror). the lineage gets more complicated when including pre SM/SotN stuff like original metroid, zelda 2, simon's quest, blaster master, dragon's trap, etc. so I dunno if I can claim a bandwagon effect.
quake: it definitely is but I just included a blurb about it under DOOM to tidy things up
wordle: definitely a good very recent example, I'll add it
dragon collector: was not aware of this game but the gacha proliferation definitely should find its way on this list
mario 64: oh right, duh... how did I miss this one. banjo-kazooie for sure and then I'll scrounge up two others
street fighter ii: again... how did I miss this LOL. fatal fury (sort of a co-progenitor but w/e), mortal kombat, I can select another later
tetris: yea I'd say this definitely counts. columns is the most obvious derivative from the time and I'm sure I can find two others
pac-man: yea I'd say these fall into the category of literally being clones versus distinct derivative works. maybe something fits for donkey kong though (congo bongo, kangaroo)
melee: one of those ones where most of the direct descendents were way after the fact. I can think of very few other platform fighters from that actual time period (in terms of licensed schlock there's probably more room for Power Stone-esque stuff, but that's sort of a weird curio example and I'm not sure it belongs on this list)
mario kart: definitely, especially in the generation following the original (there's another mode 7 kart racer on snes that I was just looking at recently but can't remember the name of, I'll dig it up)
sonic: I like this thread but could use some help regarding imitators, since I wasn't really around for the proliferation of mascot platformers
pro skater: something like this exists but again, would need help with imitators. the only one I can think of is Evolution Skateboarding
earthbound: sort of an aesthetic resurgence? we talked about this in the discord and it seemed to sort of go off the rails regarding what actually qualifies as influenced by earthbound (ie how does the yume nikki derivative rpg maker chain intersect). regardless, its influence was felt way after the fact of release since it did so poorly at the time
metroid/sotn: another one we discussed in the discord for the same reasons as above. sotn obv cribbed from super metroid, but as for metroidvanias basically the only game in town was those two franchises up until the indie era (notable exceptions: shantae, kirby & the amazing mirror). the lineage gets more complicated when including pre SM/SotN stuff like original metroid, zelda 2, simon's quest, blaster master, dragon's trap, etc. so I dunno if I can claim a bandwagon effect.
quake: it definitely is but I just included a blurb about it under DOOM to tidy things up
wordle: definitely a good very recent example, I'll add it
dragon collector: was not aware of this game but the gacha proliferation definitely should find its way on this list
mario 64: oh right, duh... how did I miss this one. banjo-kazooie for sure and then I'll scrounge up two others
street fighter ii: again... how did I miss this LOL. fatal fury (sort of a co-progenitor but w/e), mortal kombat, I can select another later
tetris: yea I'd say this definitely counts. columns is the most obvious derivative from the time and I'm sure I can find two others
pac-man: yea I'd say these fall into the category of literally being clones versus distinct derivative works. maybe something fits for donkey kong though (congo bongo, kangaroo)
melee: one of those ones where most of the direct descendents were way after the fact. I can think of very few other platform fighters from that actual time period (in terms of licensed schlock there's probably more room for Power Stone-esque stuff, but that's sort of a weird curio example and I'm not sure it belongs on this list)
mario kart: definitely, especially in the generation following the original (there's another mode 7 kart racer on snes that I was just looking at recently but can't remember the name of, I'll dig it up)
you could say that Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban caused more interest in the murder mystery/spot the contradiction style of visual novel gameplay
went ahead and added several that people mentioned. I unfortunately couldn't find Dragon Collector on here so that will remain in the wings until I or someone else adds it to IGDB. I also realized I skipped over your Gears of War rec @JetSetSet. I was considering this one but couldn't think of enough examples from that era oddly enough? over-the-shoulder certainly was popularized during this time but gears shares that distinction with RE4, which is a weird one since not a lot of games actually play like RE4. but maybe gears alone deserves the credit for the modern conception of TPS.
@Reddish are there actually many games that use that same contradiction style of puzzles? the only other series I can think of is danganronpa (also the capcom harvey birdman game, though that's built on the phoenix wright engine so I'm not sure it's a good fit for this list)
@Reddish are there actually many games that use that same contradiction style of puzzles? the only other series I can think of is danganronpa (also the capcom harvey birdman game, though that's built on the phoenix wright engine so I'm not sure it's a good fit for this list)
Ever since Pong everybody has been putting their games on video.
Guitar Hero maybe? directly spawned Rock Band, and had a bunch of (poor) copycats like Rock Revolution, Rock of the Dead, and SingStar Guitar.
and in defense of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, it did have a lot of clones but they weren’t too popular, like Disney’s Skate Adventure, Backyard Skateboarding, Dave Mirra BMX, and Razor Scooter to name a few. (there’s a few more too I can’t remember)
and in defense of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, it did have a lot of clones but they weren’t too popular, like Disney’s Skate Adventure, Backyard Skateboarding, Dave Mirra BMX, and Razor Scooter to name a few. (there’s a few more too I can’t remember)
Metroid spawning the Metroidvania genre. Mega Man 8 for spearheading the big retro throwback boom.
I meant Mega Man 9 oops can't edit
@bendylegs both of those are good for sure, and thanks for the recs for THPS, that's enough for me to add it I think
@HylianBran already covered my thoughts on metroid in relation to this list. mega man 9/retro revival is a good one, though I can't really think of other revivals other than like bionic commando rearmed and contra 4, both of which released prior to mm9
@HylianBran already covered my thoughts on metroid in relation to this list. mega man 9/retro revival is a good one, though I can't really think of other revivals other than like bionic commando rearmed and contra 4, both of which released prior to mm9
Would GTA 3 count? Pretty much popularized open world games
You could add Rogue, since it's spawned an entire genre that required a definition. Rogue Legacy you could also add to a similar though lesser extent due to rogue-lites.
Maybe you could also add Portal for the rise of 3D first person puzzle platformers.
Maybe you could also add Portal for the rise of 3D first person puzzle platformers.
Space Invaders spawned the shoot em up genre. Later games like Galaxian and Asteroids would form the genre more so those could be more valid.
Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley pop to mind as the first ones that really demonstrated light guns' worth and popularity, although the former is far more noteworthy in that regard.
Prince of Persia similarly introduced the idea of the cinematic platformer, which refers to a more scripted and often puzzle-driven type of platformer that, as the name implies, is very cinematic. These games often featured lavish animation with realistic physics, deeper world-building than other games, and were often reliant on do-or-die scenarios. Other notable cinematic platformers are Another World, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, and the eventual 3D adaptations like Ico and of course the actual 3D Prince of Persia games. Likely due to the popularity of said 3D Prince of Persia games, their linear fixed platforming that makes use of paired animation would bleed over into other games like Assassin's Creed.
Also you didn't mention Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing as a derivative of Mario Kart.
Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley pop to mind as the first ones that really demonstrated light guns' worth and popularity, although the former is far more noteworthy in that regard.
Prince of Persia similarly introduced the idea of the cinematic platformer, which refers to a more scripted and often puzzle-driven type of platformer that, as the name implies, is very cinematic. These games often featured lavish animation with realistic physics, deeper world-building than other games, and were often reliant on do-or-die scenarios. Other notable cinematic platformers are Another World, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, and the eventual 3D adaptations like Ico and of course the actual 3D Prince of Persia games. Likely due to the popularity of said 3D Prince of Persia games, their linear fixed platforming that makes use of paired animation would bleed over into other games like Assassin's Creed.
Also you didn't mention Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing as a derivative of Mario Kart.
You could also add Sokoban for all the push puzzle games that use the exact same mechanic in the coming decades.
prince of persia/cinematic platformers, duck hunt/light gun games, and rogue/roguelikes are perfect examples, so I went ahead and added them. my thoughts on the others:
rogue legacy/roguelites: we discussed this in discord and it's too difficult to figure out a single progenitor of this style imo. RL was predated by spelunky, BoI, and FTL, and it's hard to say which of those really is the "main one" so to speak.
-portal/puzzle FPS I can definitely see this as accurate, I'd just need some examples. I can only think of quantum conundrum atm
-space invaders/shmups I guess my issue here is that there are so many big steps in the genre it's hard to single one out. space invaders, galaxian, xevious, and gradius all have a claim to major innovations in a way that it's hard for me to claim a single genre hingepoint if that makes sense
-sokoban/block pushing I could definitely see this one, but I'd need examples again since I'm not familiar. it sort of seems like at that time it was less imitators and more straight copies on other platforms? also adventures of lolo
rogue legacy/roguelites: we discussed this in discord and it's too difficult to figure out a single progenitor of this style imo. RL was predated by spelunky, BoI, and FTL, and it's hard to say which of those really is the "main one" so to speak.
-portal/puzzle FPS I can definitely see this as accurate, I'd just need some examples. I can only think of quantum conundrum atm
-space invaders/shmups I guess my issue here is that there are so many big steps in the genre it's hard to single one out. space invaders, galaxian, xevious, and gradius all have a claim to major innovations in a way that it's hard for me to claim a single genre hingepoint if that makes sense
-sokoban/block pushing I could definitely see this one, but I'd need examples again since I'm not familiar. it sort of seems like at that time it was less imitators and more straight copies on other platforms? also adventures of lolo
Sure, so for Portal, think of games like QUBE, Talos Principle, Gravitas, Polarity, Antichamber, SolarGun, Chromagun, The Turing Test, and as you mentioned, Quantum Conundrum. You could also argue that Portal introduced the idea of implementing self made portals as a gameplay device seen in different games like Gateways and Splitgate, but that's a whole nother discussion. I'm not as familiar with the history of Sokoban games but I do know that they are basically everywhere in indie gaming (examples like Stephen's Sausage Roll, Baba is You, Sokobond, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, Pipe Push Paradise, Puddle Knights, etc).
Also just had another idea for an example, there are a lot of games that seem to take after Braid's idea of time manipulation to solve puzzles (i.e. Arise: A Simple Story, Life is Strange, Timelie, etc). Going along this thread, you could also claim that there are a lot of games that take advantage of slowdown/bullet time after Max Payne popularized that concept in video games to my knowledge, such as Katana Zero, Vanquish, Superhot, Stranglehold, Witch Time from Bayonetta, etc.
Also just had another idea for an example, there are a lot of games that seem to take after Braid's idea of time manipulation to solve puzzles (i.e. Arise: A Simple Story, Life is Strange, Timelie, etc). Going along this thread, you could also claim that there are a lot of games that take advantage of slowdown/bullet time after Max Payne popularized that concept in video games to my knowledge, such as Katana Zero, Vanquish, Superhot, Stranglehold, Witch Time from Bayonetta, etc.
Colossal Cave Adventure and the "treasure hunt" text adventure. Classic clone is Zork. Scott Adams' Adventureland, too, but that's not in the database yet. Actually like half of https://bluerenga.blog/all-the-adventures/ this list is treasure hunts but IDK what's on backloggd.
Pong sure got a lot of clones with slight variations, most famously Breakout but also like Nintendo's Color TV-Game, though it might be more accurate to put Pong itself down as a Magnavox Odyssey Table Tennis clone.
Sokoban created the whole "box-pushing" puzzler ala Chip's Challenge and a bajillion others. I'm not sure but I think Cave Story codified the "indie puzzle-platformer". On my profile I have a list of Myst bandwagon-riders. Seconding Portal.
Pong sure got a lot of clones with slight variations, most famously Breakout but also like Nintendo's Color TV-Game, though it might be more accurate to put Pong itself down as a Magnavox Odyssey Table Tennis clone.
Sokoban created the whole "box-pushing" puzzler ala Chip's Challenge and a bajillion others. I'm not sure but I think Cave Story codified the "indie puzzle-platformer". On my profile I have a list of Myst bandwagon-riders. Seconding Portal.
@Pangburn I should've said New Super Mario Bros for bringing the "retro throwback" to prominence, which I'm pretty sure predates all of those games and was massively successful.
Donkey Kong Country brought the pre-rendered 3D style to unseen heights, which influenced some games, although the time frame between its release and the emerging 5th generation might make it too specific. Games that followed suit include Toy Story, Sonic 3D Blast, and Rare's own Killer Instinct.
Donkey Kong Country brought the pre-rendered 3D style to unseen heights, which influenced some games, although the time frame between its release and the emerging 5th generation might make it too specific. Games that followed suit include Toy Story, Sonic 3D Blast, and Rare's own Killer Instinct.
For Smash Bros and Platform Fighters, I'd just put Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, since I'm sure the reason we get so many of them nowadays specifically has a lot more to do with the insane hype machine that this game was. Some games have attempted to specifically include Melee's competitive mechanics, but it's in the minority and that particular thing never catches on as much.
I think you could argue that Journey also had plenty of notably imitators where the goal was just to get to the end of the adventure while emphasizing a central narrative with very few (if any) side quests. Examples would be like ABZU, The Last Tree, AER, Exo One, Arise: A Simple Story, etc. Technically Flower could be considered the first one, but I'd believe that Journey popularized this style.
alright I went ahead and added portal/puzzle FPS, CCA/text adventure, pong/pong, sokoban/block pushing, myst/slidedeck adventure, dkc/prerendered 3d, journey/atmospheric adventure.
-braid/time-based puzzles: I think there would have to be a stronger justification that the latter games were directly inspired by braid? if a game doesn't have at least a couple straight-up knock-offs, I'd say it doesn't fit on this list.
-max payne/bullet time: see above. in this case I can think of two proper ones: Dead to Rights and 10,000 Bullets, but that's it. it's also worth mentioning that this trend probably has more to do with The Matrix releasing just a few years before than anything else
-NSMB/mm9/retro throwbacks: my take on this one now is that the retro throwback wave that we were referring to earlier is more of a result of the rise of digital distribution favoring smaller/memory-compact games, and throwback titles lending themselves well to those spaces. see Gradius ReBirth, Llamasoft games, Galaga Legions, or Pac-Man Championship Edition.
-ssbu/platform fighters: this one doesn't work because many titles that would count as imitators predate ultimate, including Rivals of Aether and Brawlhalla. also if anything, mass awareness of advanced techniques has been increased by ultimate and its low barrier to entry; Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl openly showed off techniques such as wavedashing to attempt to build hype with the hardcore audience and diversify away from being solely targeted at children. if anything, the rise in smash clones has less to do with any one particular game and more to do with brawl/sm4sh (especially the latter) leaving the mechanical void open for imitators to fill.
-braid/time-based puzzles: I think there would have to be a stronger justification that the latter games were directly inspired by braid? if a game doesn't have at least a couple straight-up knock-offs, I'd say it doesn't fit on this list.
-max payne/bullet time: see above. in this case I can think of two proper ones: Dead to Rights and 10,000 Bullets, but that's it. it's also worth mentioning that this trend probably has more to do with The Matrix releasing just a few years before than anything else
-NSMB/mm9/retro throwbacks: my take on this one now is that the retro throwback wave that we were referring to earlier is more of a result of the rise of digital distribution favoring smaller/memory-compact games, and throwback titles lending themselves well to those spaces. see Gradius ReBirth, Llamasoft games, Galaga Legions, or Pac-Man Championship Edition.
-ssbu/platform fighters: this one doesn't work because many titles that would count as imitators predate ultimate, including Rivals of Aether and Brawlhalla. also if anything, mass awareness of advanced techniques has been increased by ultimate and its low barrier to entry; Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl openly showed off techniques such as wavedashing to attempt to build hype with the hardcore audience and diversify away from being solely targeted at children. if anything, the rise in smash clones has less to do with any one particular game and more to do with brawl/sm4sh (especially the latter) leaving the mechanical void open for imitators to fill.
also i wanted to thank everyone for presenting their ideas on this! lots of productive discussion, and the list has expanded well beyond what I was able to think of alone
another note (I wish comment editing was a thing): @Chwoka adventureland is actually already on IGDB! backloggd's search box unfortunately does not always show games if they don't seem relevant, and since there's no activity for adventureland on here I guess it decided to hide it. however, if you search the title, it does come up on the search results page... I wish I had done this before I started making an Adventureland IGDB page including a full cover art edit... but live and learn lmao
Thanks for responding, good points overall concerning some of my answers. I had another thought; what would you consider to be the precursor/poster child to open world survival games like The Forest, Subnautica, The Long Dark, Rust, etc? I'd say Minecraft survival mode is probably the main suspect here, though arguments could be made that Wurm Online was the most important predecessor before that.
JetSetSet
2 years ago