It's not what it did, but they WAY it did it that was unlike anything else before it (see: Hydra battle). To call it a blatant copycat would imply it contributed nothing to the genre. If that were true it wouldn't have outsold Devil May Cry and it wouldn't have its own copycats. All the other games you listed have been in the shadow of the game that inspired them while GoW was a landmark title. It's the odd one out here.

I'm thinking you just lumped it in there to get some more replies.

Too many to sum up but the entire gameloft catalogue...

No, that is NOT what I wrote or implied at any point in the OP. Perhaps I used the wrong word here, but unless you can think of a word in the English language that means "copying something, but still may or may not have something new to contribute", we can use that word instead of "copycat". Seriously, if there is such a word, we can use it.

Furthermore, people didn't buy the game because of any supposed contributions. They bought it because it was good. It was the gaming industry that thought this was just out of the blue and then decided to copy it wholesale.

Finally, post your own top five if you disagree with me.

Urrrm...with the god of war part that apllys to most hack and slash games...

And? This thread is to list games you think are really good games, and are copies of other games, to variying degrees, and to ask that VG Chartz then make one of their Top 10 lists based on what we voted on.

If any of you think this thread is something else, it's not, and please stop responding to the thread as if it is. The word "best" is in the title, not "most".

Now is anyone going to add their own votes instead of just trying to convince me to change mine, as though you can't simply outvote those you don't like?

The mist in FF9 and Legend of Legaia.  Probably they both got that from Stephen King's The Mist though...

Modern Warfare 2. It copied COD4

I suggest you lookup Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and Age of Empires 2.

It used the same engine, retained the same gameplay and even had the 4 "Ages". It may as well have been a mod of Age of Empires 2 in the Star Wars universe, and sold at full price as a full game.

I would go so far as to call it a shameless copy. Lots of fun though!

at the OP, a Ninty fan like CTR??? Has hell frozen over?? but seriously, kudos to you for recognizing quality kart racing games. There were alot of kart copiers on PS1, hell even Square had one, and they all blew. Except CTR, so for those who couldnt get N64(like me) this was a god send I still play it on my PS1.

And Alundra, hell yeah thats Zelda copycay, but dammit, its just as good, played it for the first time on PSN a couple weeks back.  Call of Duty was straight up ripping off the whole World War 2 thing from Medal of Honor