Top 10 Games That Ripped Off Movies

For the sequel to Infinity Ward's insanely popular instalment in the Call Of Duty franchise they took some inspiration from the Michael Bay's "The Rock". While the setup of a military-operated prison infiltration isn't new, the narrative beats the game hits along the way definitely come too close to ignore. Among the underwater approach of the prison, the ex-military villain, a grizzled Scottish mentor and even green flares to stop a bombing, there's seemingly endless similarities. The cementing detail however is one scene where you're forced to fight enemies in a shower, virtually recreating the film's biggest turning point down to where the men are located.

While Greek mythology is definitely public domain at this point, modern adaptations like "Clash Of The Titans" and "Jason and the Argonauts" are definitely recent enough to remember. A man facing the forces of the gods and even the gods themselves is the most obvious comparison but smaller details bring the game even closer to the notable films. Kratos has epic sea voyages and fights countless hoards of demons just like Jason and Perseus before him. He goes on to encounter Medusa, an army of skeletons and most notably the Kraken in his long and blood-fueled tale of battling the gods.

Sometimes it seems like game creators sneak stuff into games after seeing a movie once but this was definitely a case of unbridled fandom. When the Grand Theft Auto creators were crafting this installment in the franchise, "Scarface" story of a random nobody becoming a criminal-god clearly resonated within their game. Featuring several nods to the Babylon Club and Tony's Mansion, which itself includes security screens showing the real mansion, the deepest cut comes in the random apartment with a bloody shower and chainsaw from the film's most gruesome scene. On top of the many visuals lifted from the film, the final mission involves a climactic mansion shootout much like Tony's last stand.

Nathan Drake's stories over the years seems to have drawn inspirations from so many movies that not even Pixar has remained sacred. Obviously the Indiana Jones series takes the biggest takeaway, in fact if it weren’t for the different time periods, the two series' could even be mistaken for each other, thanks to similar scenes of our heroes hanging on to speeding trucks and unearthing mystical golden artefacts definitely ring bells. However it's the almost identical scene's of love interests getting captured and the two's mirrored escapes from booby trapped tombs that found Drake stealing more than just treasure in his games.

Although they never got along too well on film, "Aliens" and "Predator" inspired one of gaming’s finest sci-fi series. Master Chief's first tale was a unique treasure of a story but not without a lot of familiar moments along the way. Space Marines flying to a desolate planet? Check. Sassy Sergeant and a birdlike ship? Check. Invisible, blade-wielding super soldiers and their human transforming counterparts... you get the idea. However thanks to great game design and many fresher creative choices it was easy to forgive Bungie for such obvious parallels, even when scenes themselves were adapted.

Aping on a film that's sixty years old means you probably won't be the first person from retelling a classic, especially "Seven Samurai." The Bioware team are known for making RPG's with some of the deepest and most fleshed out stories in gaming but you don't get to be the best without knowing the best. Following Captain Shepard's mission to save the galaxy, the game finds him recruiting an unlikely gang of heroes from various backgrounds to fight the Collectors, retelling Akira Kurosawa's iconic samurai story in space, with cool aliens no less. The game features enough unique lore and fun combat to freshen its take on the samurai epic but there's no denying its Japanese roots.

The now famous strategy game by Blizzard Entertainment pushed the genre forward and brought some fun sci-fi along for the ride but not without drawing heaving inspiration of James Cameron's "Aliens". The games plot features space marines on a distant space colony, attacked by a manufactured alien race trying to harvest them, sound familiar? While the story moves beyond this setup and the gameplay doesn't try to recreate the film scene by scene, there's enough quotes from the familiar drop ship pilots and similar cut-scenes to reflect this homage.

And now the lawyers are getting involved. 2 years after this game’s release, Capcom was faced with a lawsuit over the game's appropriation from "Dawn of the Dead", and went so far as to put disclaimers on the game’s packaging. Both follow survivors fighting off zombies in a mall, so it's not exactly rocket science to understand why someone would raise a stink. Never the less Capcom ended up winning the case, as the premise alone was too basic to hold any legal ground. Still it goes to shows that not everyone see’s imitation as a form of flattery.

Intimidating a movie is one thing, but cloning a director's trademark is a whole other level. Remedy Entertainment didn't focus on one film when making their game, instead they crafted it in the style of action director John Woo, pulling from him as a whole. While the slow-motion bullet-time shootouts, featuring the classic dual pistols while jumping is littered throughout the game, it even goes to a self-aware level. Max dresses like several of Woo's characters in the game and the developers even named one of their difficulties "Hard Boiled" in clear reference to the director. As if there was any doubt left, John Woo is even a password to a mobster base in the game.

For this arcade classic, one reference to "Big Trouble in Little China" wasn't enough, oh no. First off there’s the broader concept of mixing Asian mysticism with the Western world, with almost identical villains in evil old sorcerers Lo Pan and Shang Tsung respectively. Add to the fact that the protagonist is all-American Jack Burton or Johnny Cage in the game's case, along with his side-kick who could easily translate into Liu Kang. But the cherry on top here is Raiden, who not only bears the lightning powers of one of the film's Three Storms, but even dresses the same, down to the massive hats both of them wear.