Success Mirrors

[Kakea]

I saw a few games, that tried to copy others, and became successful on their own.
I know this happened specific times, but most of the time, from what I see... the game
is usually found out and either hated for copying or it's so bad at pretending to be
another game it's remembered only because it is bad!
Is there any game made by a indie developer, inspired by a AAA game, that seems as good?
(or better than it's "inspiration Sama")

 

[wyll001]

Portal and Portal 2
Bayonetta 1 & 2
Saints Row & Watch Dogs (debatable success)
Final Fantasy / Tales of Namco ( one is copying the other, but they're both came out around the same time in 80s is kinda hard to point out who )
Resident Evil (seriously guys! Silent Hill is WAYYYY better! I keep telling you people!)
and basically everything made by Artix Entertainment

 

[Kakea]

Good... I actually thought those were original
games... I wouldn't of known they're copying
others until you said this!

 

[etrian_warrior]

I don't quite understand where the success comes from though, what makes it worth it if they are spin offs of better games to begin with? I don't have any examples but I can say that it's becoming harder and harder to create an original game idea and that we somehow need to up creativity. I just think mirrors of already great games don't deserve their success and that bothers me. That might just be me though, this thread just got me thinking of how to make the video game industry better through originality. Then again who doesn't mind a good spin off once in awhile?

 

[2205]

I don't think there are "mirrors" that are success.

However, games can draw inspiration from other games and improve on them.

 

[Starry Windy]

I think so. This reminds me a bit, don't we have Crash Team Racing back then? I still remember when I used to play it on my PSone. However, the thing I didn't know until years later is the fact that it's similar to Mario Kart (64 and up) in some way, to the point that initially I was confused which one between these two comes first.

Even though Crash Team Racing is clearly inspired by Mario Kart, I think it's still a huge success because Playstation was booming back then, and some says that one of CTR's features, hopping through a ramp/jump to get a power boost, is implemented in Mario Kart's later games, too! Plus, CTR also spawned some more games in similar fare like Crash Nitro Kart.

 

[Kakea]

Ah... @etrian_warrior , Sunny and Starry I see your point, originality IS hard to come by nowadays...
People might have to copy others, just to become successful... Further I found out sine games that I thought were original, actually copied lesser known companies... Now I'm actually trying to recreate 2 ideas I liked, and make them mire original, for games I'm working on. I still hate there might be a hole in the game world, no one can escape though...