Most blatant rip offs you've ever seen.

[Bara_no_Hime]

I could go on and on but I'd rather know your thoughts on the matter of not just how crappy the Inheritance books are but also what other things have you seen or read that was an obvious rip off of another, better book/movie/anything else you can think of.

Dark Angel (late 90s TV series) is a ripoff of the manga Battle Angel Alita.
Extremely similar main character in a post-appoclayptic city being hunted by the authority figure. Also, they chose the only actress in the world who actually looks like Alita to play the character in Dark Angel.
The creators of Dark Angel actually bought the rights to Battle Angel so they wouldn't be sued (unless they sued themselves).

That said, Dark Angel is a good show. Not great, but good.

 

[Aleos Vance]

Firstly, I am aware that this may not be the most popular thing I could do, but im gonna defend Eragon, or rather the inheritance series in genreal.

Firstly, do NOT judge the books by the movie, it was killed by Hollywood who seem to baulk at the idea of complex plots or deep characters (ie Arya - very different in the book) in movies that are not so already assured to succeed that the will risk trying something new.

Secondly, although the plot started off as based on Star Wars (not a secret, Paolini states this in the intro to book 3), the plot does get much better and more original with time. I know "it gets better later" is a weak defence, but it does, so it's worth bearing with it.

Finally, there are some great original ideas and characters in the book - the completely new (to my knowledge, please correct me if im wrong) way he handles magic, and the witch Angela.

Anyway, rant over. Please correct anything I got wrong, but I quite enjoyed them so treat this post as it was intended, as a point of view not a fanboy "don't hurt my book" attack on other points of view.

 

[Nouw]

Starship Troopers. Take it as you wish mortals!

Starcraft and Halo fall in that category without any shame. But erm yes Starcraft is the great leech.

Seriously, even in Starcraft 2 they continue to persist with their so called 'originality.'

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I think the real problem is that we've somehow got it in our heads that if something is even remotely similar to something else, it's a rip off. This method of thinking is WRONG!!
I don't know how this got started, but if it was Yahtzee I'm going to fly down to Australia right now and beat him senseless with a 2x4!

...Yahtzee? ...really?

Other than that I agree with you, just because a film or whatever has a lot of similar elements doesn't necessarily mean it's a "rip off". There is a point where "inspired/influenced by" becomes "ripped off" and I suppose where that point is is different for different people but I do think fans of the thing that came first are going to skew heavily towards "rip off" rather than "inspire".

 

[EHKOS]

The Punisher game feels almost exactly like Max Payne. I think they used the same engine.

 

[RollingThunder]

I love Star Wars, a lot, but I also love fantasy book as well so a few years ago I picked up a certain fantasy book that people had been saying was super duper good and was the best thing ever (this was back in middle school I think). This book as Eragon. So I read it, and I somewhat enjoyed it although I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already read this story before, that's when I realized that I had, it was Star Wars... with dragons.

It had everything, princess is attacked by bad guy, send away something for old wise master to retrieve, fresh faced farmboy finds it, finds old wise master, gets his family killed as a result, runs away to train with old master, finds rougeish man who helps them...

I could go on and on but I'd rather know your thoughts on the matter of not just how crappy the Inheritance books are but also what other things have you seen or read that was an obvious rip off of another, better book/movie/anything else you can think of.

You do realize that Star Wars the third episode is a rip off from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress right? Lucas even admit it himself.

here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#International_recognition_.281950.E2.80.931958.29

read the last paragraph from International Recognition part.

A quick snippet

The resulting film, The Hidden Fortress, is an action-adventure comedy-drama about a medieval princess, her loyal general and two peasants who all need to travel through enemy lines in order to reach their home region.

 

[Kukakkau]

Medal of Honor 2010 is a shamefully ripoffs Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. No seriously it is pretty much modern Warfare 2 in Iraq.

Closer to bad company than anything since it was the same developer (DICE) and not one second of that game took place in Iraq either, so guessing this a case of judging book by cover? (I hated MoH so not defending it)

Avatar - dances with wolves in space(also the sheer laziness of Cameron using the motion sensor and same ships from Aliens)
Crysis 2 - so much of it is just ripped off from the CoD games that I can't even list it all
007 Blood Stone - I did like this game even if multiplayer sucked and campaign was short but it was pretty much a less stealth driven version of the last Splinter Cell game (the alarm bells ring the second they explain a melee takedown gets you a focus kill, with up to three being stored)

 

[InnerRebellion]

Eragon is ludicrously derivative. From the Razac/Nazgul, to the Star Wars storyline, to the Pern-esque dragon bonding (the earthsea ancient language magic thing, the bad guy is your father/the guy you think is your father actually isn't... The list goes on).
The urgals/Beastmen were quite cool, but were then thoroughly fucked over in the film to just become a different race of humans.

Despite that though, the book series somehow keeps drawing me to it, possibly just from a desire to see how it ends. Despite the fact that every time the author says it will end, he attaches another book to the series...

He said it was going to be a trilogy, but the length of the original third was too long, so he made it into a "Cycle".


Most blatant rip off? I can't really think of one.

 

[dagens24]

Every modern story is a re-telling of an older story.

 

[StrangerQ]

Firstly, I am aware that this may not be the most popular thing I could do, but im gonna defend Eragon, or rather the inheritance series in genreal.

Firstly, do NOT judge the books by the movie, it was killed by Hollywood who seem to baulk at the idea of complex plots or deep characters (ie Arya - very different in the book) in movies that are not so already assured to succeed that the will risk trying something new.

Secondly, although the plot started off as based on Star Wars (not a secret, Paolini states this in the intro to book 3), the plot does get much better and more original with time. I know "it gets better later" is a weak defence, but it does, so it's worth bearing with it.

Finally, there are some great original ideas and characters in the book - the completely new (to my knowledge, please correct me if im wrong) way he handles magic, and the witch Angela.

Anyway, rant over. Please correct anything I got wrong, but I quite enjoyed them so treat this post as it was intended, as a point of view not a fanboy "don't hurt my book" attack on other points of view.

damn i just got ninjaed -.-

Anyway when people start going THIS IS RIP OOOOOFFF *kicks movie to square hole*
They have habit to forget difference between rip off and loaning ideas.

good thing is that most of people have gone to real rip off where loaning... lets call them things that go like yathzees like god of war stamp. They are not the original but rely deeply on one game and use its working base mechanics to their own advantage which is loaning and good safe idea for game developer to try riding the wave.

And if we go to fantasy section it allways will go
*insert fantasy thing*---> rips off Tolkine/If asian go straight to part 3 ---> Rips off from dawn of time old myths, legends and folklore.

So the funny thing is that nothing new has born since ancient times... just ripping off and making it look new

 

[Diligent]

I think the real problem is that we've somehow got it in our heads that if something is even remotely similar to something else, it's a rip off. This method of thinking is WRONG!!

I was just going to say this but you beat me to it!
I think it's unfair to say that anything that follows the heroes journey archetype is a Star Wars rip off. Do you really think star wars was the first story to follow that formula?

There are quite a few more similarities between the Inheritance cycle and Star Wars than the simple monomyth.

Oh for sure, not to mention countless other pulp/classic sci-fi sources of inspiration.

 

[I'mANinja]

Darksiders, but it ripped off so many games and combined there mechanics so it was still a fun game in my opinion.

 

[Nouw]

Just a joke fanboys.

 

[Marcosn]

Starship Troopers. Take it as you wish mortals!

Starcraft and Halo fall in that category without any shame. But erm yes Starcraft is the great leech.

Seriously, even in Starcraft 2 they continue to persist with their so called 'originality.'

Are you saying that Starship Troopers is or isnt a ripoff?
If you're saying it is then i WILL GO HULK, i LOVE that film and i have no idea why :')

OT- I usually see things like this in comics and manga where they just blatantly copy whole panels.

Also i just find the horrible B movie ripoffs hilarious, better than most comedies nowadays anyway

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

I love Star Wars, a lot, but I also love fantasy book as well so a few years ago I picked up a certain fantasy book that people had been saying was super duper good and was the best thing ever (this was back in middle school I think). This book as Eragon. So I read it, and I somewhat enjoyed it although I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already read this story before, that's when I realized that I had, it was Star Wars... with dragons.

It had everything, princess is attacked by bad guy, send away something for old wise master to retrieve, fresh faced farmboy finds it, finds old wise master, gets his family killed as a result, runs away to train with old master, finds rougeish man who helps them...

I could go on and on but I'd rather know your thoughts on the matter of not just how crappy the Inheritance books are but also what other things have you seen or read that was an obvious rip off of another, better book/movie/anything else you can think of.

Spoiler

It gets even better in the second book when he finds out that the apprentice and right-hand man of the evil emperor is actually his father.

(Noooooooooooooooooooo...)

The term "rip-off" is overly used to describe differing forms of media that carry over similar themes and elements from other IPs in popular fiction and the like. A truly good example of a rip-off would be something along the lines of the Irate Gamer, using line-for-line dialogue taken from the works of the Angry Video Game Nerd before his popularity truly took off. However, the term doesn't accurately define to most of the comparisons I've seen over the years in gaming.

 

[Nouw]

Starship Troopers. Take it as you wish mortals!

Starcraft and Halo fall in that category without any shame. But erm yes Starcraft is the great leech.

Seriously, even in Starcraft 2 they continue to persist with their so called 'originality.'

Are you saying that Starship Troopers is or isnt a ripoff?
If you're saying it is then i WILL GO HULK, i LOVE that film and i have no idea why :')

OT- I usually see things like this in comics and manga where they just blatantly copy whole panels.

Also i just find the horrible B movie ripoffs hilarious, better than most comedies nowadays anyway

I meant the good book sir, the movie can be counted upon too. Watch the videos for Terran, I was just waiting for it to say 'would you like to know more?'

The book can arguably be called 'responsible' for a good part of Space Marines.

 

[pspman45]

Quantum Theory is an unashamadly collosally bad rip-off of Gears Of War.

I think pretty much everyone has figured that out by now

 

[there is no spoon]

Medal of Honor 2010 is a shamefully ripoffs Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. No seriously it is pretty much modern Warfare 2 in Iraq.

Interesting, Would you mind expanding on how exactly you came to that opinion?

 

[Giantcain]

Limbo of the Lost - it's a game that got somehow got published; it literally stole screens from other, better games [such as Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3 - the list goes on] placed them in an engine that allowed them to create a game around these pictures and released it as an adventure game - they even stole cut-scenes from films such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Spawn; not such much a rip-off as just plain plagiarism but there you go...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/06/12/limbo-of-the-lost-an-astonishing-tale/

Limbo of the Lost:

[img=Limbo of the Lost]http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/june08/limbo1-limbo.jpg[/img]

Oblivion:

They thought this was a good idea?

 

[Chefodeath]

Eragon is ludicrously derivative. From the Razac/Nazgul, to the Star Wars storyline, to the Pern-esque dragon bonding (the earthsea ancient language magic thing, the bad guy is your father/the guy you think is your father actually isn't... The list goes on).
The urgals/Beastmen were quite cool, but were then thoroughly fucked over in the film to just become a different race of humans.

Despite that though, the book series somehow keeps drawing me to it, possibly just from a desire to see how it ends. Despite the fact that every time the author says it will end, he attaches another book to the series...

This.

Despite its mass unorginality, I keep finding myself drawn to see how the series ends. I mean, sure he's ripping off more shamelessly than an overeager hooker, but at least his execution is good.

Creepy mental images now, gonna go take a nap.