History Main / TheyCopiedItSoItSucks

* UnhappilyEverAfter was so strikingly similar to MarriedWithChildren because the former was co-created by Ron Leavitt, who worked on the latter. WordOfGod says it wasn't their intention to be so similar to ''Children'', but it simply turned out that way.

** Sometimes ''{{Digimon}}'' has the issue of being compared to ''[=~Pokémon~=]'', though there aren'rt ''that'' many similarities.

* I'm not sure if there was any back then, but I'm pretty sure ''DuckTales'' or ''DarkwingDuck'' may have been labeled ''MegaMan'' ripoffs because of similar engines (Okay, Darkwing Duck used the ''MegaMan 5'' engine, but still), Ducktales had it's own original gameplay though, your weapon didn't shoot plasma at the opponent, you had to use Scrooge's cane as a weapon, pogo stick (not making that up), and to trigger things, ''DarkwingDuck'' works a little more similar to Megaman, so it's slightly more justified, the only difference? You can grab a hold of something to get higher in the stage.

* ''{{Harukanaru Toki no Naka de}}'' constantly gets bashed by reviewers for being ''FushigiYuugi'' with {{serial numbers filed off}}, on the grounds of having exactly the same combination of plot devices[[hottip:* :TrappedInAnotherWorld + FantasyCounterpartCulture + {{Miko}} + TheFourGods + BlueBishonenGhetto + GottaCatchThemAll + DucksInARow + ElementalPowers + PersonalityPowers + BodyguardCrush]] as the basis. Note that ''Haruka'' is originally a [[{{Shoujo}} female-oriented]] DatingSim, for which a premise of a girl getting stuck in a fantasy world with loads of pretty guys as her guardians wouldn't exactly be a bad idea.

** When ''SonicColors'' was initially revealed, some people, going by just a couple short CG trailers, are comparing it to Super Mario Galaxy. Funny, when you consider there's a level in Sonic Adventure 2, a game from 2001, that is very reminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy and gravity gimmicks as such were already present in Genesis-era Sonic games. As more information was revealed, the comparison was further extended by the presence of the Luma-like Wisps, Sweet Mountain Zone and the drill power.

** The Werehog was accused of being a GodOfWar ripoff due to [[FanDumb Sonic's arms being stretchy]].
** Likewise, it was accused of ripping off The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess because they both involve the protagonists turning into wolf-like creatures.
*** It was also much more specifically called a rip-off of Jak & Daxter 2 a few times.
** The Werehog is obviously the byproduct of a cancelled next-gen Ristar game. For those who don't know, Ristar was developed by Sonic Team [[OlderThanTheyThink for the Sega Genesis]]. So they're ripping off themselves.

* {{Limbo Of the Lost}} gets most of its flak for [[{{Plagiarism}} stealing copyrighted assets]] from games like ''{{Thief}}'', ''TheElderScrolls'', ''Painkiller'', ''[[{{Wolfenstein}} Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'' and ''[[{{Unreal}} Unreal Tournament]]'', among others. But disregarding all the bad press, deep down at its core, the game is...[[SoBadItsHorrible still an inexcusable piece of shit]].

* During the development of ''{{Quake}} II'' and ''{{Unreal}}'', members of id and Epic's teams would often sling mud at eachother in their public .plan files, which reached the point of one of Unreal's staff members openly accusing the team at id of stealing ideas from Unreal. His justification? ''"[[http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/index2.shtml Unreal has a bald guy and a girl with a ponytail. Quake II has a bald guy and a girl with a ponytail]]."''

* {{Disney/Aladdin}} and TheThiefAndTheCobbler are both accused of ripping off the other one. The latter went through DevelopmentHell so it was only ''released'' after Aladdin, and in a heavily meddled-with cut at that, making ''it'' look like the rip-off to people who didn't know that it was in production before Aladdin was.

* In what is probably the crowning example of the trope, thousands of people wrote off the the 2009 horror film ''Orphan'' for ripping off ''TheGoodSon'', acting as if a beloved, many decades-old classic had been violated. This hilariously overlooked the fact that TheGoodSon was an obscure film despised by most everyone(some would even call it underrated) except for those who made joking HomeAlone references to it because Macauly Culkin played that film's villain, it had even been ripped to shreds by TheNostalgiaCritic. But when Orphan came out, suddenly people began acting as if TheGoodSon was one of the most popular and beloved films of all time, and that Orphan was some kind of abomination. What these people overlooked was that both films are predated by TheBadSeed, which came out literally [[OlderThanTheyThink decades]] prior, and that all subsequent [[CreepyChild "Evil Child"]] films are derivative of that film, and that Orphan, in fact, is probably the most original of them, and that the similarities between the films are completely undone by Orphan's twist-ending. The likely explanation is that the trolls responsible had little knowledge of cinema predating the late 80s-90s, and thus, remembering TheGoodSon, thought they were making a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome brilliant]] discovery and were eager to become "famous" for pointing it out.

** And so is ''{{Coupling}}'' pretty much just because it has six leads, divided perfectly by gender.
*** ''And'' a LocalHangout where they sit on the only sofa! The only way it could be any ''more'' of a ripoff would be if, er, there was the slightest similarity in characterisation or humour...

* ''Thirteen Going On Thirty'', has often been criticized for ripping off on ''Film/{{Big}}'' - completely disregarding the fact that the former has TimeTravel in it, while the latter didn't.
** The RobinWilliams movie ''Jack'' was accused of ripping off ''Big'' as well. This was mostly by people who never saw the actual movie, [[NeverTrustATrailer just the trailers]]. ''Big'' was a comedy, ''Jack'' was a ''TearJerker''.

* Name a movie, and the odds are that someone has derided it for elements it shares with another film. For example, the train fight in ''BatmanBegins'' is accused of being a rip-off of the one in ''Film/SpiderMan 2'', and many Disney films are accused of plagiarizing from anime, the latter of which is a real [[Wallbanger]] because Walt Disney's style inspired early anime and manga.

* Name a movie, and the odds are that someone has derided it for elements it shares with another film. For example, the train fight in ''BatmanBegins'' is accused of being a rip-off of the one in ''Film/SpiderMan 2'', and many Disney films are accused of plagiarizing from anime, the latter of which is a real ''Wallbanger'' because Walt Disney's style inspired early anime and manga.

* Name a movie, and the odds are that someone has derided it for elements it shares with another film. For example, the train fight in ''BatmanBegins'' is accused of being a rip-off of the one in ''Film/SpiderMan 2'', and many Disney films are accused of plagiarizing from anime, the latter of which is a real Wallbanger because Walt Disney's style inspired early anime and manga.

* Name a movie, and the odds are that someone has derided it for elements it shares with another film. For example, the train fight in ''BatmanBegins'' is accused of being a rip-off of the one in ''Film/SpiderMan 2'', and many Disney films are accused of plagiarizing from anime.

* Britsh band The Horrors are often accused of being a rip-off of Australian post-punk band The Birthday Party.

* DeathCore.

** Atlantis, from start to finish, ''was'' the Stargate movie. Broke, but talented linguist is invited to translate gibberish for a privatized military expedition. He's disliked by his team for being a hopeless dork, and wears big glasses and messy bangs. There are strong anti-military themes, including a guy who brings scary weaponry into the 'primitive' world, a subplot concerning a dying race achieving immortality, and nobody in Atlantis or Abydos can read. There's a scene where the tribal girl drags the geek aside to show him a secret site that concerns the history of the strange society, which he instantly comprehends, a gruesome death for the villain involving explosions, and at the end of the film, the linguist stays behind with the girl. He even makes sure the others bring back a shiny necklace for the cool old person, [[BlatantLies claiming that Atlantis/Abydos is dead and inaccessable.]] Sure it was pretty, but RAGE. ''RAGE.''

**** Rip-off? More like "the same, with peddleable name". The only difference is that the old generation used "chessboard" space. But it was the same with single-player games and you ''could'' put a graphical client on the same [=DikuMUD=] looking like an old CRPG, SoYeah.

* In what is probably the crowning example of the trope, thousands of people wrote off the the 2009 horror film ''Orphan'' for ripping off ''TheGoodSon'', acting as if a beloved, many decades-old classic had been violated. This hilariously overlooked the fact that TheGoodSon was an obscure film despised by most everyone(some would even call it underrated) except for those who made joking HomeAlone references to it because Macauly Culkin played that film's villain, it had even been ripped to shreds by [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses the Nostalgia Critic]]. But when Orphan came out, suddenly people began acting as if TheGoodSon was one of the most popular and beloved films of all time, and that Orphan was some kind of abomination. What these people overlooked was that both films are predated by TheBadSeed, which came out literally [[OlderThanTheyThink decades]] prior, and that all subsequent [[CreepyChild "Evil Child"]] films are derivative of that film, and that Orphan, in fact, is probably the most original of them, and that the similarities between the films are completely undone by Orphan's twist-ending. The likely explanation is that the trolls responsible had little knowledge of cinema predating the late 80s-90s, and thus, remembering TheGoodSon, thought they were making a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome brilliant]] discovery and were eager to become "famous" for pointing it out.

->''"That old Koopa may have thought he was super. But when you're talking ''SuperMarioBros'', there's just no substitute for the real thing!"''
-->--'''Toad''', ''TheSuperMarioBrothersSuperShow'', "Super Koopa"-

->''It's a [[WritingAroundTrademarks Fargate]]! Not a {{Stargate}}! We'll put it in a wheelchair and give it a mohawk if we have to!"''
-->---'''Oglethorpe''', ''AquaTeenHungerForce'', "Universal Remonster"