In the gaming industry, there are a lot of games that either seem to imitate a trend-setting game in terms of story or play mechanics, whether deliberate or not. But sometimes you might enjoy one of the “imitators” more, whether because of play mechanics or whatever. I know this is a pretty btoad topic.

For me, one example that comes to mind are Final Fantasy X (2001) and Tales of Symphonia (2003-4). Both games centered around sacrificial maidens and protagonists battling antagonist fathers. I enjoyed ToS more in this case, because I enjoyed Mithos as a villain more than Sin, and there was a lot more story after the big reveal.

Another example of this type: Lunar: The Silver Star clicked more with me than FFIV, with both games being character-driven sci-fi/fantasy RPGs loosely themed around the moon and the “four gods” concept, 

And here’s a bit of a different example: Mr. Do! versus Dig-Dug. Again, both great games, but I prefer the faster/paced action of the former.

What are some of your examples, and why?

The obvious example that comes to mind for me is Rock Band, though I'm not sure that counts as an "imitation" considering it was made by the Guitar Hero developers after they sold the IP to Activision.

Banjo Kazooie took the format pioneered by Mario 64 and did it even better.

Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing both did the Kart genre better than Mario Kart 64.

Wipeout series for me. Much better than F-Zero series.


Rollercoaster Tycoon over Theme Park


Burnout series over Need for Speed.


Forza Horizon over Test Drive Unlimited.

Oh this might be controversial, but on the NES, Ducktales was my favorite platformer. Even over the Mario ones.

They aren't my cup of tea, but Blizzard in general does this sort of thing. Westwood Studios' Dune II and Command & Conquer established the RTS genre as we know it, but Warcraft and later Starcraft have arguably eclipsed it. Same thing happened with World of Warcraft compared to earlier MMORPG's, Diablo compared to earlier dungeon crawlers, and Overwatch compared to Team Fortress 2 (albeit only for a few years).

But how is it imitating Mario? It's mechanics are entirely different, where Gianna Sisters is imitating Mario. Same genre is a not imitation unless it's copying mechanics. Doom and CoD are the same genre but neither are alike.

Stardew Valley. Liked it better than Harvest Moon.

Most MMO's (EQ, FFXI, FFXIV, WoW, etc...) I've played are a lot better than the Elder Scrolls games. Elder Scrolls games are known for being huge open world with a lot to do, but all of these MMO's have huge open worlds with even more to do than an Elder Scrolls game, not to mention a social environment and an organic economy. Mostly people don't want to pay the subscription cost, so they play Elder Scrolls instead.