Games with formulas that inexplicably haven't been copied much?

[iamthemilkman]

Definitely Alpha Protocol. Why don't we have more espionage RPG's? A Bond RPG, a Splinter Cell RPG, a Perfect Dark RPG, etc., would be cool.

Why does every RPG have to either be science fiction or fantasy? Alpha Protocal, despite its faults, stands out, because there's no other RPG like it. Deus Ex would perhaps be the closest one since it's also a stealth game, but it's also very different from Alpha Protocol.

 

[DreamCPS]

The Great Gianna Sisters (but it was a ripoff).

No idea if it was patented or not but then again Kid Chameleon was also marketed as "it's like Mario Bros but with more levels and transformations".

:
Yeah, Gianna é essencially Super Mario with another characters.

As for Kid Chamaleon, Super Mario 3 already had transformations (clothes with different powers) as well.

Post automatically merged: Oct 12, 2025

One more: beatemups with kick combos, and not only punch ones. Double Dragon kind of did that, and Technos did stick to the formula on later games. But then after Final Fight, most beatemups adopted the more traditional jump-punch-special controls setting.

 

[GamingWarthog]

Code Name S.T.E.A.M. It is simultaneously a turn based strategy game and a third person shooter where you have a squad of four characters, each with their own steam resource determining how much they can move and fire their weapons on their turn. There are also a few levels where you pilot a giant robot. An incredibly inventive, unique game slammed by Nintendo fans for the sin of not being a remake of an N64 game.

Also while many games have used Pikmin as a point of comparison, I'd argue it has never truly been imitated because none of those games have a time system at all. And Pikmin is defined in a large part by the daily time limit. None of the other 'you control little guys' games I've played have the same inherent emphasis on efficiency as Pikmin. At least we're still getting new Pikmin games.

 

[UnDubious]

Has anyone mentioned Dick Tracy on the Genesis? Really good (but hard) game that I overlooked forever because I expected some crappy licensed game. It's a side-scroller in the style of Shinobi, but there's a big twist; there's a background plane from which you get attacked too. One button shoots ahead of you on the regular plane, and the other fires a machine gun at the background plane. To my knowledge, no other game ever did this, and it's a lot of fun. A decent indie game could steal this combination and gain popularity IMO.