History FollowTheLeader / Videogames

* To elaborate on the previous entry- {{Rogue}}, the GenrePopularizer for the appropriately named {{Roguelike}} genre, inspired a number of games, most notably Nethack and Angband. Both of which were essentially more advanced versions of their predecessors, which were in turn, descended from Rogue. Nethack went on to create a line of "hack-likes," while Angband created "band-likes", games that were heavily similar to their respective ancestors.

** ''TeamFortress2'' added loadout customization a while after its release.

* In spite of {{MUD}}s and [=GMUDs=] languishing in obscurity for ages, their day would only really come in the rechristened form of {{MMORPG}}s. The entire MMO craze was started with ''{{Ultima}} Online'', refined with ''{{Everquest}}'' and ''Lineage'', then given a further kickstart by the massive success of ''WorldOfWarcraft''.

* In an interesting turn of events, the production of ''{{Starcraft}} Ghost'' inspired productions a long line of games involving heroes fighting bizarre alien-like beings in apocalyptic environments, and, in some cases, strange abilities, such as ''GearsOfWar'', ''[[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'', and ''{{Resistance}}: Fall Of Man''. When ''{{Starcraft}} Ghost'' was [[{{Vaporware}} indefinitely suspended]] ( a month before its scheduled release), ''Gears of War'' (whose resemblances to the ''{{Starcraft}}'' world are as evident as its distinctions) was the first of this line of games, and subsequent games drew more additional inspiration from ''Gears''' squad like gameplay and more humanoid enemies.

* Square's NES games ''3D World Runner'' and ''Rad Racer'' were clones/imitations of Sega's ''SpaceHarrier'' and ''OutRun'', respectively. The former also had the clones ''Rocket Ranger'' and ''Cosmic Epsilon'' (NoExportForYou).

* The success of the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' games (which themselves were created to compete with the ''SuperMarioBros'' games) led to a slew of similar "[[MascotWithAttitude animals with attitude]]" games on the Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES. Some of these are considered classics but were sadly overlooked, such as ''RocketKnightAdventures'' and its sequel ''Sparkster'', but others were simply overhyped, unimaginative tripe such as the unfortunately titled, {{Anvilicious}}ly environmental ''[[AwesomePossum Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt]]'', and the infamous ''{{Bubsy}}''. The testament to Bubsy's complete failure is no doubt their attempt to reintroduce him to the gaming world: ''[[PolygonCeiling Bubsy 3D]]'', no doubt one of the worst games ever made, [[FranchiseKiller killing the franchise]].
* The surprise of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' becoming a KillerApp and introducing RolePlayingGames to a more general audience resulted in a slew of horrible games starring blond, [[AnimeHair spiky-haired]], moody young men who turn out to be the TomatoInTheMirror. ''LegendOfDragoon'' was probably the most notorious of those.

** ''RiseOfTheTriad'' did away with {{Hammerspace}} arsenals well before ''Halo'' did, albeit to a lesser degree (pistol, [[GunsAkimbo dual pistols]], an MP40, one heavy weapon that's usually a missile launcher, and one magic superweapon like the baseball bat).

** ''GuitarHero I/II'' (Harmonix/Red Octane)
*** ''GuitarHero III and up'' (Neversoft/Activision who had bought Red Octane)
*** ''RockBand'' (Harmonix/EA)
*** ''Rock Revolution'' (Konami)

* To elaborate on the previous entry- {{Rogue}}, the {{Genre Launch}}er for the appropriately named {{Roguelike}} genre, inspired a number of games, most notably Nethack and Angband. Both of which were essentially more advanced versions of their predecessors, which were in turn, descended from Rogue. Nethack went on to create a line of "hack-likes," while Angband created "band-likes", games that were heavily similar to their respective ancestors.

* ''GodOfWar'', as well as popularising ActionCommands, seems to have [[GenreLaunch spawned a genre]] of [[RatedMForMoney violent, gory]] third-person beat-em-ups with HeroicSociopath protagonists. Better examples include ''GodHand'', ''NoMoreHeroes'' and ''MadWorld'', but even the {{Wolverine}} movie based game is made in the style... which turned out surprisingly good.

* The popular mobile physics game ''AngryBirds'' is rather similar to many other physics-based projectile games, most notably Armor Games' ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/3614/crush-the-castle Crush The Castle]]'', inevitably leading to some fans of the latter to become detractors of the former.

* ''{{Doom}}'' is generally considered the progenitor of the FirstPersonShooter genre; and ''{{Halo}}'' unleashed a [[StealthPun flood]] of the genre on set-tops.

*** ''GuildWars'' is one of the ''other'' successful RPGs. It got that way by aggressively ''not'' imitating WOW; the original development team was made up of former Blizzard employees. Everything from its design to its classes to its pricing (free after purchase) seeks to differentiate itself from its big brother as much as possible. ''GuildWars2'' seems to be trying to go even farther, with such things as completely eliminating a class for TheMedic; ''every'' class has some sort of healing ability.

* Nintendo's ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' spawned the [[WackyRacing Kart Racer]], and ''SuperSmashBros'' popularized the MascotFighter, bringing forth cute cartoony variants of two previously popular genres.

* The success of the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' games (which themselves were created to compete with the ''SuperMarioBros'' games) led to a slew of similar "[[MascotWithAttitude animals with attitude]]" games on the Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES. Some of these are considered classics but were sadly overlooked, such as ''RocketKnightAdventures'' and its sequel ''Sparkster'', but others were simply overhyped, unimaginative tripe such as the unfortunately titled, {{Anvilicious}}ly environmental ''[[AwesomePossum Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt]]'', and the infamous ''{{Bubsy}}''. The testament to Bubsy's complete failure is no doubt their attempt to reintroduce him to the gaming world: ''[[PolygonCeiling Bubsy 3D]]'', no doubt one of the worst games ever made... somehow JumpingTheShark (or not, as the game killed the series) with a series that ''already'' sucked.
* The surprise of ''FinalFantasyVII'' becoming a KillerApp and introducing RolePlayingGames to a more general audience resulted in a slew of horrible games starring blond, [[AnimeHair spiky-haired]], moody young men who turn out to be the TomatoInTheMirror. ''LegendOfDragoon'' was probably the most notorious of those.
* The {{PlayStation}}'s other killer app, ''MetalGearSolid'', spawned a lot of stealth-game imitators that failed to realise that the glory was as much the story as the sneaking.

* ''[[{{Picross}} MariosPicross]]'' helped speed up the amount of nonogram games to soon follow, mostly in Flash form.

* Shortly after ''{{Fallout}} 3's'' success, several RPG/FPS hybrids with a wasteland setting were announced.
** So far, we have ''FUEL'' (a Open Sandbox racing game set in post apocalyptica,) ''{{Borderlands}}'' (where the developers have gone so far to say they loved ''{{Fallout 3}}'', and decided to make the game, 'but with co-op'. [[XMeetsY It gets a little more confusing then that.]]), ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}'', and ''{{Brink}}'' (''Fallout'' [[RecycledINSPACE IN THE]] [[{{Waterworld}}MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN!]])

* [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooters]] and [=RPGs=] have been a [[BelligerentSexualTension Takahashi Couple]] for a while now, but it was ''MassEffect'' that really woke up developers to the potential money involved. Ironically, while ''AlphaProtocol'' is often billed as MassEffect [[RecycledInSpace IN A SPY SETTING]], and was launched on the wave that Mass Effect started, it's actually more of a SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/DeusEx''.

** ''{{Battlefield Bad Company}} 2''
** ''{{Bioshock}} 2''
** ''[[AssassinsCreed Assassins Creed: Brotherhood]]''
** ''{{Crysis}} 2'', which will even have customization in single player.

** ''{{Killzone}} 2'' and the upcoming ''Killzone 3''
** ''{{Brink}}'' will have experience and customization.

** So far, we have ''FUEL'' (a Open Sandbox racing game set in post apocalyptica,) ''{{Borderlands}}'' (where the developers have gone so far to say they loved ''{{Fallout 3}}'', and decided to make the game, 'but with co-op'. [[XMeetsY It gets a little more confusing then that.]]) and the upcoming ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}'' and ''Brink'' ({{Fallout}} [[RecycledINSPACE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN!]])
** {{Fallout}} [[RecycledINSPACE in the middle of the ocean]]? ''{{Waterworld}}''?

* TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 can be blamed almost entirely on this, with a gamut of companies tripping over each other to make crappy cash-in games or their own consoles during the heyday of the Atari 2600. In fact, Nintendo of America's infamous "lock-out chip" and corresponding "seal of quality" licensing scheme was designed especially to prevent the former, and thus another crash.

* ''Espial'' and ''HAL 21'' were both carbon copies of ''{{Xevious}}'', as was Data East's ''Zaviga''. The original {{MSX}} versions of ''{{Zanac}}'' also look a lot like ''Xevious''.

* ''AceCombat'' inspired a few jet fighter simulations combining a somewhat realistic flight model with over-the-top scenarios and some less realistic elements. Examples include ''VideoGame/AirForceDelta'', ''Lethal Skies'' and more recently, ''VideoGame/{{HAWX}}''.

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* ''Espial'' and ''HAL 21'' were both carbon copies of ''{{Xevious}}''.

** Once ''MortalKombat'' made the scene, many of these knockoff fighters began featuring over-the-top gore and/or digitized graphics (including, somewhat ironically, ''Street Fighter: The Movie'' in the latter group).

* Countless {{shmup}}s in the '90s imitated ''{{Raiden}}''... which itself was inspired by ''Twin Cobra'' and other Toaplan shmups, as was Konami's ''Trigon / Lightning Fighters'', which [[DuelingGames came out the same year]] as the first ''Raiden''.

* ''{{Pong}}'' ''Tennis'' and other clones were extremely common in the 1970s despite technology allowing to make different games. These came out with most of the first-generation video game consoles after the success of 1972 game.

* ''{{Halo}}'' is a good example, as almost every FPS these days has copied the '[[RegeneratingHealth recharging health bar]]' thing (to varying degrees of success). It also eliminated the HypererspaceArsenal concept that most [=FPSs=] had and limited it to a primary and secondary weapon only.

* ''{{Halo}}'' is a good example, as almost every FPS these days has copied the '[[RegeneratingHealth recharging health bar]]' thing (to varying degrees of success). It also eliminated the {{Hammerspace}} arsenal concept that most [=FPSs=] had and limited it to a primary and secondary weapon only.
* Halo itself was remarkable for bringing many earlier concepts into a single game.(Vehicles, Recharging Health, adhesive grenades, there's probably a few more.)