History CaptainErsatz / VideoGames

* Forget that, how about Vario Kraatz from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesII''? Jeez, the guy is Music/ElvisPresley!

* Wild Dog from ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'', and Dr. Curien from ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead''.

* In ''Alpha Runner'', some characters resemble the design of Homestar from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', including Homestar wearing office attire.

** Tweek Tweak as Wonder Tweek is based off of ComicBook/WonderWoman and can manipulate the weather, much like ComicBook/{{Storm}}. He also spouts quotes from Manga/SailorMoon, particularly the Creator/DiCEntertainment English dub.

* The FinalBoss of ''Best Bout Boxing'' is the imposing, blond, red-wearing Russian boxer Draef Varona. Totally not [[Film/RockyIV Ivan Drago]].

* One example of taking this too far comes from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters 2001'' with the character K9999, a CaptainErsatz of Tetsuo Shima from ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' who even had [[Creator/NozomuSasaki the same voice actor]]. After SNK Playmore bought the rights to all of the Eolith-owned characters from ''[=KOF=] 2k1'' and ''[=KOF=] 2k2'', K9999 became a legal liability for the company and was replaced by a more original character Nameless in the UpdatedRerelease ''The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match'', who substitutes K9999 in the canon. Then in ''[=KOF=] XV'', he gets another SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in the form of Krohnen, [[spoiler:only for his team's ending to reveal that he ''is'' K9999, just under a different identity to hide from NESTS remnants]].

** J resembles Mai Shiranui from ''VideoGame/FatalFury'', complete with [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Benimaru's]] hair.

** Mishell is clearly Yuri Sakazaki from ''VideoGame/ArtOfFighting'', apparently dressed as [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Leona]], or [[VideoGame/MetalSlug Fio]].

** T-660, the FinalBoss, looks suspiciously similar to Choi Bounge from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters''.

* In ''Super Strip Fighter IV'', Mari is an expy of Marin from ''Seifuku Densetsu Pretty Fighter'', and Ran is an expy of Mai from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters''.

** The Wrestling/RandySavage clone Slim Jim Mr. Mann from ''Fire Pro Wrestling'' on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance! Actually, that was probably one of those rare instances where a Fire Pro Wrestling game got an English translation that was intentionally silly.

* Mighty Manager from Data Age's ''VideoGame/JourneyEscape'' for the UsefulNotes/Atari2600 bears an uncanny resemblance to Kool-Aid Man.

* The original version of ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' was developed as a love letter to ''VideoGame/KnightmareIITheMazeOfGalious'', and features a lot of references to other UsefulNotes/{{MSX}} games made by Konami. For the remake, which is paid software unlike the original, the dev team had to remove some obvious copyrighted elements from it:

* The UsefulNotes/Commodore64 homebrew games ''Leisure Suit Leo'' and ''Leisure Suit Leo 2 - The Secret Of Maniac Island'' parody ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'', ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', and ''VideoGame/{{Paperboy}}''.

* ''VideoGame/TheMastersFighter'', a 1997 FightingGame for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, is notorious for being considered one of the worst fighting games of all time, due to unresponsive controls, HitboxDissonance and poor graphics, but the main reason is, the characters designs were plagiarised from sprites from other games (The only possible exception is Gamp), and some of them are even fusions of two characters:

* The UsefulNotes/NintendoDS fighting game ''VideoGame/WindyXWindam'' has character designs that are heavily based on ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''. Big is basically Potemkin minus his gigantic gauntlet; swordsman Kirikou is Ky Kiske with fire abilities instead of lightning; and Jack and Stin are clones of Slayer and Bridget, respectively.

** Sister Psyche heavily resembles ComicBook/JeanGrey, down to being [[HeroesWantRedheads a redhead]].

* The lottery game ''Dian Shi Ma Li'' starred an illegitimate relative of Mario called Fortran.

* Solid Snake of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' looks and acts like Creator/KurtRussell's [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork Snake Plissken]], doesn't he? No wonder he appeals to the American audience. [[AmericansHateTingle Raiden]] [[ReplacementScrappy on the other hand...]]

** In ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'' while hiding his true identity, Solid Snake actually operates under the alias "[[GeniusBonus Iroquois]] Plisken."
** Also the cover art for ''Metal Gear'' is based on a screen shot of Kyle Reese from ''Film/TheTerminator''. In addition, the first game had a Franchise/{{Terminator}} ersatz named... Creator/{{Arnold|Schwarzenegger}}.
** In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Revengeance]]'', the character Jetstream Sam resembles Vamp, due to similar appearance and rivalry with Raiden. Ironically, Vamp's voice actor is playing a whole different character here.

* Most of the unlockable characters in the MobilePhoneGame ''Bowmasters'' are thinly-veiled parodies of popular licensed characters. Just to name a few: there's "Bad Girl" (ComicBook/HarleyQuinn), "Ice Lord" (ComicBook/{{Loki}}), "T-666" ([[Franchise/{{Terminator}} the T-800]]), "Mancat" (Franchise/{{Batman}}), "Young Tree" ([[ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Groot]]), "Anonymous" ([[Film/VForVendetta V]]), "Maestro" ([[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]]), "Dr. Sick" ([[Franchise/RickAndMorty Rick Sanchez]]), "Fernando" ([[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]), "Reddish" (ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}), "Master Chef" ([[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]]), "Frost" ([[Franchise/MortalKombat Subzero]]), "James" ([[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]), "Robert Spark" ([[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]), "Space King" ([[ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Star Lord]]), "Gabe Freeman" ([[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]]), "Hunger Girl" ([[Literature/TheHungerGames Katniss Everdeen]]), and "Templar" ([[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor Kenway]]).

* For the web game ''Caesary'' (which has actually been advertised on TV Tropes itself), there's this amazon character... which is blatantly meant to be a Franchise/WonderWoman knockoff. Seriously, the only differences are that she has more armor and (slightly) less clothing.

** Manticore is Franchise/{{Batman}} with the fighting style of Green Arrow. (So basically, Batman.) That, or Hawkeye. And the friendly sparring between Statesman and Manticore resembles that of Captain America and Hawkeye in ''ComicBook/TheAvengers''.

** Synapse, the token speedster, is generally considered an equivalent to Franchise/TheFlash.

** Bullet is Franchise/TheFlash.
** Liberty Lad is Robin. A [[Series/Batman1966 Burt Ward-campy Robin]]. And Bucky, as the sidekick of the Minuteman.

** The Ant, whose 'Secret Origin' video may as well have just said "Yes, he's [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]]. Now go have fun."

** Craig Tucker as Super Craig is clearly a parody of Franchise/{{Superman}}, particularly when it comes to ClarkKenting.
** Jimmy Valmer as Fastpass resembles Franchise/TheFlash with both his appearance and being a super-speed themed superhero.

** Tweek Tweak as Wonder Tweek is based off of Franchise/WonderWoman and can manipulate the weather, much like ComicBook/{{Storm}}. He also spouts quotes from Manga/SailorMoon, particularly the Creator/DiCEntertainment English dub.

* One example of taking this too far comes from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters 2001'' with the character K9999, a CaptainErsatz of Tetsuo Shima from ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' who even had the same voice actor. After SNK Playmore bought the rights to all of the Eolith-owned characters from ''[=KOF=] 2k1'' and ''[=KOF=] 2k2'', K9999 became a legal liability for the company and was replaced by a more original character Nameless in the UpdatedRerelease ''The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match'', who substitutes K9999 in the canon. Then in ''[=KOF=] XV'', he gets another SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in the form of Krohnen, [[spoiler:only for his team's ending to reveal that he ''is'' K9999, just under a different identity to hide from NESTS remnants]].

* ''Front Page Sports Football'' boasted of rosters with real-life NFL players when it had the NFLPA license. Well, almost everyone. For a couple examples, Joe Montana became "Maurice Dakota" (presumably nicknamed Mo), while the much lesser-heralded wide receiver Jeff Query became Johnny Ask. And what about the tight end named Lawyer Tillman? He became [[IncrediblyLamePun Attorney Farmer]].

* The BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/FatalFury Real Bout Fatal Fury Special: Dominated Mind]]'' is White, who's appearance, personality and mannerisms make him a dead ringer of Alex [=DeLarge=] from ''Literature/AClockworkOrange''. Unlike [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2001 the next time]] a blatant character ripoff appeared in one of Creator/{{SNK}}'s games, the relative obscurity of ''Dominated Mind'' plus the fact that he was rather quickly KilledOffForReal at the end of that game meant that White didn't become as notorious as K9999 did.

** When the [[VideoGame/DragonQuestIV Zenithia]] [[VideoGame/DragonQuestV trilogy]] [[VideoGame/DragonQuestVI were remade on Nintendo DS]], some of the characters' portraits scream DBZ's character designs. [[VideoGame/DragonQuestIV Rex]] is Teen Gohan, while [[VideoGame/DragonQuestV Parry]] is pretty much Super Saiyan Goten.
* One of the ''Dream Club'' characters Rui is an Ersatz of LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts Himeji. Heck it even has Hitomi Harada voicing her. Making Rui the future version of Himeji (Aka teacher by day, hostess by night)

* If it's possible for a ''series'' to have a CaptainErsatz, then ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaQbntJ4Yw&feature=related H.A.V.E. Online]]'' (known in America as ''VideoGame/{{Microvolts}}'') a Korean online multiplayer shooter, is this in artistic tone to ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' (The gameplay of both are pretty dissimilar actually - H.A.V.E. Online is not class based, and is in 3rd person view). The choreography in the trailer is also pretty blatantly copied. Some people were not happy, to say the least -- though once the original outrage had passed they were a little more forgiving. It also has its own ripoff of LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya. Ironically, [[http://www.haruhisuzumiya.net/2011/03/27/haruhi-suzumiya-in-online-shooter-toy-wars/ the Japanese version of the game has the real Haruhi]].

* Melody from ''VideoGame/NostalgiaRedEntertainment'' is the spitting image of [[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Lina Inverse]]. Doctor Brown is also pretty close to Franchise/{{Ind|ianaJones}}y in appearance.

* ''VideoGame/{{MUGEN}}'' characters are very often these, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Mkyq55vGo Dragon Claw]] stands out for being both hand-made from scratch, yet very clearly meant to be a Katana from ''VideoGame/OneMustFall 2097''. It has the triangular blade-hands, the muscular physique, ribbed thighs, and stubby feet, as well as all of the Katana's special moves from its native game such as the Rising Blade, Head Stomp, and Razor Spin. It even has powers based on the BonusBoss Fire from the same game. It has additional physical features and moves not found in the original game, but it's undeniable what it's supposed to be. Unfortunately, no answers or updates will ever be had, as the creator of Dragon Claw is the [[DiedDuringProduction belated Reuben Kee]].