The 10 Biggest Fighting Game RIPOFFS

Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport (1995)

To its credit, Xenophage does have some level of originality, particularly in its character design. Even so, it does not mask the more glaring issues like the stiff controls, mundane music, and lack of mechanical depth. It honestly feels like Xenophage was cobbled together to rival another monster-themed fighting game, and it most likely was. Primal Rage was another monster-themed fighting game that had been released roughly a year prior to Xenophages debut. Granted, there were a number of fighting games trying to out-edge and out-violence each other in the 90s, but the timing of Xenophage is just a little too coincidental.

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2006)

A fighting game wasnt exactly what fans were wanting from a Billy & Mandy game, but this one turned out to be really cool! Play as one of several of your favorite characters to duke it out in an arena and collect Mojo orbs to unleash devastating attacks. If we have any Capcom fans in the audience, this formula sounds an awful lot like Power Stone, doesnt it? Yes, Billy & Mandy the game does not hide its Power Stone 2 influences here between the recovery rolling, the level design, real-time stage transitions, and pseudo boss battles. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. The game is still a ton of fun! But for those of us who played a good amount of Power Stone, its a little funny seeing how much influence Capcom had over this game.

Breakers (1996)

Okay, now were starting to get into the too close for comfort side of ripoffs. Breakers was a 2D fighter from Visco Corporation that tried to rival the likes of Capcom, particularly with their arcade giant, Street Fighter. Breakers was a great game with its tight controls and unique backdrops. However, one look at the roster shows that the co-developers might have tried a little too hard to be like their inspiration. Some characters felt like mash-ups of two specific Street Fighter stars while others came off more like direct rips. Despite this, Breakers has managed to live on as a super niche yet lively part of the fighting game community, especially in Japan.

Street Fighter EX series (1996-2000)

With the excitement of 3D gaming came a massive push from every company to transition every one of their franchises into the space. In an effort to get their flagship fighter onto the scene, Capcom created the Street Fighter EX series, and they found quite a bit of success in both arcades and console ports! Alas, that didnt stop die-hard Tekken and Virtua Fighter fans from calling it a total knockoff. By this point, Street Fighter had already been dominant as a 2D fighter, and some just werent willing to accept its potential in the 3D fighting space. Thankfully, as the years have gone on, more and more folks have grown to appreciate Street Fighter EX a lot more than they might have back in the day.

AEW Fight Forever (2023)

Developer Yukes and the AEW brand were not shy about what they were aiming for with AEW Fight Forever. During the marketing and hype cycle, there was a lot of talk about nostalgia for classic wrestling games like WWF No Mercy. Thats cool and all, but when the game dropped, it felt like a half-hearted attempt at replicating an N64/PS1 gem. AEW Fight Forever was severely lacking in unique game modes, and while it sort of matched the chaotic nature, the poor optimization and ugly character models failed to recognize the expectations and innovations of modern gaming. Really, you can only get away with archaic design so much before youre just straight up copying too hard.

Samurai Shodown Sen (2008)

Going back to fighting games trying to go 3D, SNK struggled in making Samurai Shodown a 3D fighter. Folks were not happy with the Tekken-like Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage, but what if SNK borrowed some ideas from, say, Soulcalibur? Well, you get Samurai Shodown Sen, the worst game in the franchise. Not only did Sen fail in transitioning characters into a 3D space properly, it failed to implement a movement system as responsive as Soulcaliburs. Combine that with the uncomfortable focus on realistic viscera and saturated visuals, and what you get is a game that would kill the Samurai Shodown franchise for the next decade.

Tattoo Assassins (Canceled)

Now, we can easily chalk up Tattoo Assassins as a Mortal Kombat rip-off because it used digitized actors. However, thats just pointing out a common practice in game development, one that was common in the 90s as soon as that technology became widely available. No, what makes Tattoo Assassins a blatant MK ripoff is because of the massive focus on finishing moves. The game wanted you to put your quarters in because, Look! We have more than two thousand ways to kill your opponent! Isnt that so cool?? Well, only a couple hundred have been discovered, and most of them are pretty lame. Tattoo Assassins was only ever released as a prototype in some corners of the market, but it never got an official launch. Although, at the time of this video, exA-Arcadia is looking to bring the game to modern hardware for the first time ever.

Cartoon Network Punch-Time Explosion (2011)

Yes, it was only a matter of time before a Smash Bros. knockoff was going to rear its ugly head, and Cartoon Network Punch-Time Explosion is the biggest offender. It's one thing to just copy the UI format and general formula that Smash would invent for the platform fighter subgenre. Its another when the majority of your roster plays the exact same way as Nintendos all-stars. Were not joking! Whether youre a Pikachu main, a Link main, or even a Wario main, anyone who has played Smash Bros. will be able to point out which Cartoon Network character is copying which Nintendo character. Inspiration would be a generous moniker for Punch-Time Explosion.

Tekken (1994)

Oh, were you not expecting one of the biggest 3D fighting games ever made to appear on this list? Well, yes, Tekken is a ripoff of another game, but it managed to be that way because of certain events that occurred prior to its development. After SEGA published the grandfather of 3D fighters, Virtua Fighter, much of the development team had left the company (each for their own reasons) only to be poached by Namco almost immediately. Namco wanted the team to basically do what they did for Virtua Fighter with the exception of incorporating texture mapping into the game. Not only did the staff achieve that, they also refined controls and mechanics more than SEGAs 3D fighter had at launch. Next thing you know, Virtua Fighter and Tekken are suddenly competing with each other in the subgenre. But this was nowhere near as excessive as our final entry

Art of Fighting (1992)

After Street Fighter II had taken over arcades in 1991, SNK wanted to compete with a 2D fighter of their own and they wanted to play aggressively. SNK went so hard that they actually went and poached the original director of Street Fighter to work on Art of Fighting. The thing is that when the game was released, Capcom noticed a lot of Street Fighter in SNKs work. What followed was years of new characters being added to Street Fighter and Art of Fighting, many serving to be nothing more than a parody of one competitors character designs. In the end, which franchise do you think managed to stick around longer? At the time of this video, the last Art of Fighting game was released in 1996.

Have you played any of these ripoffs for yourself? Full admittance, I played a lot of Billy & Mandy before I knew what a Power Stone was. Fred Fredburger main right here. But let us know what you played down in the comments below, and dont forget to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!