Suspiciously Similar Song / Video Games H To N

H-I

• The track "Dark Interval" from Half-Life 2: Episode Two sounds remarkably similar to "Final Hours" from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (fittingly, it plays over the ending credits of Episode Two, which is the final moments of the entire Half-Life series for now).
  • This isn't particularly surprising, as Half-Life 2's lead writer has stated that he was inspired by Majora's Mask when writing some of the atmosphere and characters of Half-Life 2.
• Halo Series:
  • Halo is another franchise that plagiarises itself: In Halo 2, the Delta Halo Theme is a suspiciously similar version of the series' Theme Tune, and "Leonidas" is a soundalike of "On A Pale Horse" from Halo: Combat Evolved.
  • "Ancient Machine", especially the remastered version from the Anniversary re-release, sounds like the Woodfall Temple BGM from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask crossed with "Devil's Wind" from Ys.
  • The choral ambience in the Flood-infected High Charity is reminiscent of Gyorgy Ligeti's "Requiem", particularly the Kyrie movement used for The Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • Breaking Benjamin's "Blow Me Away" is suspiciously similar to The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now".
• One track used in Halo 3: ODST and remixed in Halo: Reach rips off "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin.
  • "Move On"(second part of the clip) from Halo 3 sounds like "Ozar Midrashim" from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
• One scene in Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak involves finding a spoon (which later gets used in a catapult). The scene wherein you remove the spoon from its pedestal is a direct send-up of the "removing the Master Sword from its pedestal" scene from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and the music that plays during the removal is suspiciously similar to the "opening a large chest" music from the 3D incarnations of Zelda - where the original arpeggios go up, these arpeggios go down.
  • Not only that, but pay attention to the tune that plays when Spat, the Big Bad, appears. Ring any bells? Well, let's just say it's one of the reasons a reviewer said Spat was practically a hamster version of Kefka from Final Fantasy VI.
• Hard Corps: Uprising has a few examples. The boss theme sounds similar to Endless Despair from BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.
• The doujin game Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekitou features Konata and Akira from Lucky Star as unlockable secret characters. In the stage where you fight them, a Suspiciously Similar Song version of "Motteke Seifuku", the latter's Theme Song, can be heard.
• Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley has several examples of this. Compare Spring with Zelda's Lullaby, and Winter with Kakariko Village from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Happy Ending with Vana'diel March from Final Fantasy XI, and Alice's Theme with Cait Sith's Theme from Final Fantasy VII.
• A riff from "St. Pigenation's Institute" from the visual novel Hatoful Boyfriend is similar to Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" and Sugar Ray's "When It's Over".
• Haven (2020):
  • The A-section of "The Beginning of Something" is roughly a pastiche of the lead synth melody of Bryce Miller's "Spectral Drift" and the arpeggiated piano hook of Bruno Mars' "Grenade".
  • The climax of "Home" and the main hook of "Move It Muffin" are suspiciously similar to "Let's Love" by Siamese Youth.
  • "Blooting Hornets" sounds suspiciously similar to Hans Zimmer's "Supermarine" from Dunkirk.
  • The electric piano ostinato in "I Can't Stay Mad At You" is suspiciously similar to Sloan's theme from Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
  • The piano/synthesizer hook of "Source" and the riff near the end of "Nothing but Rust" sound like the intro riff of Duran Duran's "Save A Prayer".
  • The section of "Until the End of Time" from 4:06 to 6:08 resembles Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygène Part 2.
  • "Now Or Never" is a Self-Plagiarism of Danger's own "7:53" and "8:02" from Furi, The Game Bakers' previous game.
  • The end credits theme, "Free Fall", sounds like a downtempo take on Haddaway's "What Is Love?".
• This track from Hebereke's Popoon for SNES sounds very similar to Two Unlimited's "Get Ready For This".
• Hi-Fi RUSH has a "Streamer Mode" setting that replaces the handful of licensed tracks in the game with original soundalikes. A good example is "Too Big To Fail", which replaces "1,000,000 by Nine Inch Nails in the first boss fight.
• The PS2 remake of Sega's Hokuto no Ken side-scroller for the Master System features a soundtrack consisting of vaguely similar renditions of the incidental music from the anime.
• Hollow Knight:
  • The main theme sounds like a slower version of "Shatter Me" by Lindsey Stirling.
  • "Reflection" is similar to "Rebuild, Renew" from Fallout 4.
  • The Mantis Lords battle theme and the City of Tears theme resemble the first and second movements, respectively, of Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique.
  • Speaking of Beethoven, the Resting Grounds and Kingdom's Edge themes are both similar to the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata.
  • The Fungal Wastes' theme is similar to Kraftwerk's The Hall of Mirrors.
  • "Decisive Battle" sounds suspiciously very similar to the Assault Theme from Metal Slug. Which itself is a suspiciously similar song to the Mission: Impossible theme.
  • The first and second movements of "Sealed Vessel" are reminiscent of the Dies Irae movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem and the Sarabande movement of GF Handel's Keyboard Suite in D minor, respectively. The first part also resembles "Final Zone" from Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Nightmare King Grimm's theme sounds suspiciously like "Nothing to Lose", Dracula's Phase 1 theme from Castlevania, mixed with "Dance of Illusions" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Likewise, Troupe Master Grimm's first battle theme is very similar to "Finale Toccata" from the latter game.
  • Soul Sanctum sounds like an Ominous Pipe Organ pastiche of the dungeon theme from The Legend of Zelda and the aforementioned City of Tears theme.
  • The Greenpath BGM is similar to the main theme of the the originalTomb Raider trilogy, particularly the third game's arrangement.
  • "Queen's Gardens" is similar to "Peril (Jeopardy)" from Halo 2. The Battle Theme Music variation is also similar to "To Turn a Tide" from Halo 3.
  • The White Lady's theme sounds like a blend of Sheik's theme and the Minuet of Forest from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
  • The Crossroads/Deepnest action theme sounds like "Devils...Monsters" from Halo: Combat Evolved.
  • The main piano melody in Dirtmouth is very similar to Gwyn's theme from Dark Souls.
• In Sega's overhead racing arcade game Hot Rod, the third race BGM sounds like the famous Stage 1 theme from the NES version of Spelunker.
• House of the Dead:
  • In the first game, the Chapter 3 BGM is similar to the early '90s techno song "Stroboid Over" by Formicula 4.
  • The first game's boss theme resembles the PC Engine CD arrangement of "Ogre Battle" from Valis.
  • Magician Type 0's theme, especially the first 30 seconds, is suspiciously similar to the boss theme "Angel's Legend" from Touhou Reiiden ~ Highly Responsive to Prayers. Conversely, the main melody of "Deaf to All But the Song" from Imperishable Night resembles the B-section of the Magician's theme.
• The Corkscrew Carnival music in HuniePop is oddly reminiscent of the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends theme song.
• The NES RPG Hydlide has an overworld tune that sounds suspiciously close to John Williams' "Raiders' March", the theme song to the Indiana Jones films. (This tune was actually borrowed from Hydlide II, which was otherwise unreleased outside Japan.)
• Hyperdimension Neptunia:
  • The first game has a theme song similar to Tomoko Aran's "Barefoot Salome".
  • In Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, the ending song "GO Love and Peace" slightly resembles "June Bride" by Toshiki Kadomatsu on the Sea Is A Lady album. In addition, it also resembles "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by Chelsea Grin.
• Iji's Sector 5 and X theme, named "Seven Four" because it's in 7/4 time, has a synth line very reminiscent of the 7/8 synths in Rush's "Tom Sawyer". The composer swears blind that he'd never heard it before.
• The Ikaruga main theme (the beginning of "Ideal") sounds like a pastiche of the love theme from Romeo and Juliet (1968) and the The Legend of Zelda theme. The other major recurring theme from "Ideal" sounds similar to "Bloodlines" from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. The theme to Chapter 3 (Faith) is a sound-a-like of Hyrule Castle.
• One of the songs from The Incredible Machine: Contraptions is called "Hay Seed". Keen-eared players will notice that, disregarding the random comments interspersed, it sounds remarkably similar to an instrumental of Garth Brooks' "Against the Grain".
• It is readily apparent that the theme song that plays when you fight Ryth, a character from the Infinity Blade series that is fought as an Optional Boss in the second and third installments, is more than a bit similar to Duel of Fates, the most iconic song in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Considering the battle against him involves a duel with lightsabers by another name and he speaks with a voice that sounds somewhat like Darth Vader's, it's clear that this is intentional.
• Interstate '76 had a number of Suspiciously Similar versions on its soundtrack, mostly of '70s funk songs like the Ohio Players' "Fopp", The Isley Brothers' "That Lady" and Curtis Mayfield's "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go". Even the theme song bore a certain resemblance to the theme song to the TV series S.W.A.T. (1975) (albeit a bit sped-up).

J-K

• One guess as to what the theme of James Pond II: Robocod is suspiciously similar to. (Amazingly, the prior game did not use a knockoff of the James Bond theme.)
• Jet Moto series:
  • The first game's title theme is a sound-alike of Dick Dale's "Misirlou".
  • The first half of the Cypress Run BGM sounds like a cross between The Surfaris' "Wipe Out" and the James Bond theme.
  • Ice Crusher is similar to the Speed theme.
  • The main guitar riff of The Shaft from the second game sounds like the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers theme.
  • The Khumbu Ice Falls theme from the third game, especially the intro, is suspiciously similar to Juno Reactor & Traci Lords' "Control", AKA Reptile's theme in Mortal Kombat: The Movie. Ironically, the game has three licensed songs by Juno Reactor.
  • Urban Subway is similar to "Break In" by Cirrus.
• "That's Enough" from Jet Set Radio sounds very much like Fatboy Slim's "Always Read the Label", from the whistling, to the guitar and bass, to the vocal samples, to the way the track is structured in general. This comes as no surprise when you learn that Fatboy Slim is one of composer Hideki Naganuma's main inspirations.
• Appropriately enough, most of the character themes in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle take musical cues and riffs from classic rock pieces based on their characters' inspirations. A few examples:
  • Esidisi's theme has a piece that sounds like AC/DC's Back in Black
  • Yoshikage Kira's theme has a riff of Killer Queen.
  • Buccellati's theme is essentially a remixed Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones.
  • Akira's theme has a piece that borrows from Can't Stop by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
  • Zeppeli's theme has parts of Kashmir by Led Zeppelin.
• The soundtrack for the Commodore 64 game A Journey to the Centre of the Earth very closely resembles "House of Fun" from The Rise & Fall by Madness.
• Journey to Silius:
  • Stage 2's theme, ironically, is a soundalike of "Sirius" by The Alan Parsons Project.
  • The Stage 3 BGM is suspiciously close to "Nowhere Girl" by B-Movie.
  • The beginning of the Stage 4 theme is very similar to that of "Don't Wait Until Night" from Haunted Castle.
• "Temporal Quartet" from The Journeyman Project is similar to the B section of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Second Rendez-Vous", while the ending theme sounds like "Fourth Rendez-Vous".
• In the old Macintosh game Jump Raven, one of the BGMs has a guitar riff similar to White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65".
• Katamari Damacy:
• Compare "Katamari on the Rocks" from Katamari Damacy to "Paternal Horn" from NiGHTS into Dreams…
  • "Katamari On The Funk", the title song from the PSP-exclusive Me and My Katamari and one of the few original songs in the game, bears a striking resemblance to "Pulse Phaze" from the PSP version of Ridge Racer, which came out a year before. Both tunes were composed by the same person, Yuu Miyake.
• In Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, Battlefield Theme 2 sounds like the Peter Gunn/Spy Hunter (1983) theme,.
• In Kick Master, the Stage 6 theme, "Across the Swamp", is lifted from Castlevania II's "Bloody Tears".
• Jungle Bouncer, the theme of the Ikari Warriors team in both The King of Fighters '94 and 2002 for the most part sounded quite like Faith No More's Surprise, You're Dead!.
  • Igniz, one of the cheapest bastards that'll you ever face, pulls this twice. His 2001 theme , Kare koso Saikyo (I'm the Strongest!), is a faster rock version of Original Zero's theme. In 2002: Unlimited Match, he's given a new theme called Save The Universe, which sounds like Mildred Avalon's theme from Arcana Heart.
• Klonoa: Door to Phantomile: The music tracks that play during the first and third phases of the Final Boss ("The Instrumentality" and "The Ring") both sound like the iconic Mission: Impossible theme.

L

• Learn to Fly 2: The "Surfer" theme sounds much like a rearranged version of Misirlou.
• The menu music in The Legend of Dragoon syncs up well to the theme songs of Home Improvement and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The main boss battle theme's beginning also sounds like that of Final Fantasy VII.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has several:
  • "Ancient Makes" to Chrono Trigger's final boss theme.
  • "Etude of the Ruin" to Toccata and Fugue in D minor, although that's likely more overt.
  • "Whereabouts of Light" sounds somewhat similar to "Kimi o Nosete"(Carrying You) from Castle in the Sky. This is even more noticeable if the former is compared to the ballet version of the latter (which Azumi Inoue recorded for a Ghibli tribute album).
  • "Wandering in the Darkness" resembles "Sing of the Lord's Goodness".
• The theme music to online freeware game Legend of Princess is suspiciously similar to the Zelda theme because the game is a pastiche of Zelda.
• Acclaim's Legends Of Wrestling series features almost nothing but this, all composed by the former Trope Namer himself, Jimmy Hart!
• In LEGO Dimensions, although The Simpsons is included as a franchise, the Danny Elfman theme associated with the show doesn't quite make it in.
• In Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work:
  • "K Rap Talk" sounds like a pastiche of Kraftwerk, particularly "Ruckzuck" and "Showroom Dummies". The bridge section also suspiciously resembles Talking Heads' "And She Was".
  • "Nasty Girlz" directly rips from Janet Jackson's "Nasty".
  • The Atlantic City boardwalk theme sounds alot like "Dolce Vita" by Ryan Paris, whose video also involves roller skaters on an esplanade.
  • The third Hard Disk Cafe song has a bassline similar to WAR's "Low Rider".
  • And the series theme sounds similar to "When I'm 64" by The Beatles.
  • "K Rap Rap" is reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer".
  • The music during the Taj Mahal Dream Sequence is appropriately similar to Van Halen's "Dreams".
  • "K-Rap Rock" is similar to the Title Theme Tune of Fame by Irene Cara.
  • Doc Pulliam's theme resembles The Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way".
• The Little Busters! soundtrack features a track entitled "Mission Possible," which is pretty much as close as they could get to the Mission: Impossible theme song without actually being said theme song.
• The song that plays in the Kickstarter launch trailer for Little Nemo and the Guardians of Slumberland sounds like a peppier, 8-bit instrumental version of “Little Nemo” from the comic’s 1989 animated adaptation, with different legally distinct notes at times.
• The Buriki Daioh theme from Live A Live sounds suspiciously like the Mazinger Z intro theme. That one gets around quite a bit, it seems. Compare and contrast. The game even references the show's intro by opening up a lake for the giant robot to emerge.
• Lemmings features suspiciously similar versions of "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" and "Baby Face", in addition to the many Public Domain Soundtrack tunes.
  • Stage Theme 6 sounds similar to "{Keep Feeling} Fascination" by The Human League.
  • "Lemming 2" sounds strongly like Bronski Beat's "Hit That Perfect Beat".
  • Lemmings 2 has a version of the Mission: Impossible theme in the Shadow Tribe stages. The Amiga and SNES versions, anyway. The Genesis Shadow tribe theme sounds nothing like it.
• Light Crusader's inventory theme sounds very similar to "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" from Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
• The cinematic track "Space" in LittleBigPlanet 2 begins exactly the same way as Also sprach Zarathustra, but hits a different note and deviates from there. Especially odd, as Also Sprach Zarathustra is already in the game, but as a Funk Remix, which wouldn't really be mood-appropriate.
• LocoRoco
  • The bassline for the credits theme, "Etoule Pucoratte", is very clearly based on Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of...)".
  • The song "Uwauwau" has near-identical chord progression to the Chordettes' "Lollipop".
• The Game Boy Looney Tunes game has one on the title screen. Sunsoft's license evidently did not cover "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down".
• Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven song "Badump! Badump!" sounds suspiciously like Super Mario Bros. 3's World 4 Theme. "Comparison here!" between 25 seconds and 1:05
• In the PC Engine shumup Lords Of Thunder, "Dezant" is suspiciously similar to ..."Lords of Thunder" by Attacker.
• The soundtrack of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals consists mostly of Suspiciously Similar Songs of its predecessor's themes.
  • The saved game screen in the first Lufia resembles the theme song to Disney's The Wuzzles and to some extent "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Song of the South.
  • The castle theme in the first game resembles "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
  • Iris' theme in Lufia II is a soundalike of the main theme from The Terminator.
• Lunar:
  • The Boat Song in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Silver Star Harmony sounds suspiciously similar to the love theme from St. Elmo's Fire.
  • Lunar: Eternal Blue has "Running Hiro", a suspiciously similar song of "YaketySax", with the intended context.
  • Lucia's Theme in Lunar 2 also resembles "Only You (and You Alone)" as well.

M

• Marathon series:
  • "Landing" sounds very similar to Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygène Part 3".
  • "Leela" resembles the Mechanical Age entrance theme from Myst, as well as Jarre's "Oxygène Part 4". Conversely, it was also the basis for "Covenant Dance" and "Pursuit of Truth" in the Halo series.
  • "New Pacific" and its reprise have drawn many comparisons with Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence".
  • "Splash" is highly similar to Giorgio Moroder's "Chase" from Midnight Express.
  • The title song of the second game sounds strikingly similar to Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane".
  • The Infinity title theme is similar to The Immortals' "Techno Syndrome" from Mortal Kombat: The Movie.
• Mass Effect:
  • "Uncharted Worlds" is a pretty blatant riff on Tangerine Dream's "Love on a Real Train" from Risky Business.
  • One of the battle musics from the first Mass Effect sounds like it's derived from "Sphinx" by Harry Thumann.
• The theme of Mayhem In Monsterland for the Commodore 64 sounds a lot like the Title Theme Tune of Tiny Toon Adventures.
• The Jet Aircraft Faciity from Medal of Honor is similar to Attacking The Star Destroyer from The Empire Strikes Back. In fact, a lot of the music was inspired by John Williams, especially that from the Indiana Jones films.
  • The main theme of Medal of Honor: Underground sounds similar to Princess Leia's theme from A New Hope and the love theme from ESB. The climax of "Attack on Fort Schmerzen" is reminiscent of the Force theme (especially the version played when Luke rushes back home to find his aunt and uncle dead). "Rjukan Sabotage" sounds like "The Asteroid Field".
  • "Sniper Town" resembles the first part of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain".
  • The main theme of Allied Assault is a shameless crib from the Death of Jonathan Kent cue in Superman: The Movie, with some Star Wars thrown in.
  • Another Star Wars sound-alike is "Clipping Their Wings", which sounds like the Death Star theme, which itself was based on the climax of Gustav Holst's "Mars".
  • The U-Boat theme is this to the Emperor's Theme from Return of the Jedi, and the V2 rocket base theme sounds like "Into the Trap" from the same film.
• The main melody of Roll's theme from Mega Man: Battle & Chase and the piano melody present in all of "Mephiles" from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) are almost the EXACT same, besides Mephiles' version being lower. This is far more noticeable with the Chiptuned Rockman remix of the theme, as the lyrics are absent.
• In Psygnosis' Amiga shmup Menace, the main BGM resembles Parts 5, 6, and 7 of Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinoxe.
• Metal Slug:
  • Part of the series theme, from 0:40 to 1:09, sounds like the Crystal Stage theme from Gradius II.
  • "Windy Day", the Stage 2 theme in Metal Slug 5, is very similar to the theme from the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western film Hang 'Em High.
• While on the topic of racers, the Sega Dreamcast game Metropolis Street Racer has not one, but two similar songs: "Think About It" is a jazz version of "Sea Line" by Toshiki Kadomatsu, while "Show Me Your Love" resembles "Try Me Out" by Corona.
• In Mickey's Speedway USA, part of the music for the Grand Canyon track sounds like the chorus to "Up, Up And Away" by The 5th Dimension.
• Part of Midnight Resistance's Stage 1 theme, Surging Power, sounds like a minor-key version of the Space Harrier theme.
• Mirror's Edge Catalyst:
  • The main theme sounds like a slower rendition of the synth hook from "Will I" by Ian Van Dahl.
  • "Release" sounds similar to the Juno Reactor songs "Magnetic" and "Ice Cube", both from their Beyond the Infinite album.
  • The first part of "Back in the Game" sounds like "Chill Exposure" from Halo 2.
  • The 303 riff in "Savant" from 6:55 to 7:25 is similar to Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness".
  • The verses of "Warning Call", the Award-Bait Song by CHVRCHES, resemble "Castles in the Sky", Ian van Dahl's other signature song. The chorus, on the other hand, sounds suspiciously like the coda of "Plastic Love" by Mariya Takeuchi.
• Catch the step, one of the themes played in the PC-88 game Misty Blue sounds helluvah lot like Domino Dance from Pet Shop Boys.
• Monkey Island series:
  • The Secret of Monkey Island has the love theme Guybrush And Elaine which from around 0:23 on resembles "How Could I Be Such A Fool" by The Mothers Of Invention, particularly when the orchestra comes in at 1:34.
  • Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge has Captain Dread's theme which sounds like a slowed down version of Bunny Wailer's "Dance Hall Music" - a fact echoed in the steel drum and marimba tracks, which at points have identical sections.
• Mortal Kombat (1992)'s character select theme is a sound-alike of the s Mission 1-2 theme from the original Shinobi.
• In Mushihime Sama, part of the True Final Boss theme(0:21-0:48) sounds like the Ranking music from the original Gradius (Nemesis).
• Conspiracy from Muv-Luv sounds very reminiscent of the Ricky Martin song "Livin' La Vida Loca".
  • So much that the two songs were mixed together.
• Mystik Belle:
  • "Belle's Overture" is uncannily similar to "See You Again" from Ys I & II.
  • "Dubious Castle Safety Gigue is similar to the Mystic Cave Zone theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
  • The A-section of "When Night Comes to Play" is a shameless soundalike of "Poison Mind" from Castlevania.
  • "Fighting off the Madness (Forest)" is suspiciously similar to the Iris Tower theme from Ys IV: Mask of the Sun and Ys: Memories of Celceta.
  • The suspense theme, "Chaos Beckons", sounds like "Zebetite", the final boss theme of Metroid.

N

• "Aquila 303"(Atlantica/Aquatica techno) from Need for Speed III sounds suspiciously similar to "Emergency" by Pulsator.
• Neon Drive:
  • The music for Level 3, "Science Fiction", resembles the Blade Runner end credits theme. Likewise, the middle part of the Level 5 theme, aptly titled "Blade Driver", is similar to the film's intro theme.
  • The first melodic section of "Valkyrie" (Level 6) sounds like the verses of "The Touch" from Transformers: The Movie.
  • The first and third parts of "Mechanics" (Level 7) are similar to "Io Sulfur Mine" from Descent.
• Ninja Gaiden:
  • The arcade game feature a recurring pair of sub-bosses who are obvious pastiches of the legendary wrestling tag team known as the Road Warriors. Their background theme ("I Am Man") was such an obvious ripoff of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" (the entrance theme of the Road Warriors), that when Tecmo released the game on the Virtual Console, they had to remove the tune to avoid copyright infringement.
  • Ninja Gaiden (NES):
    • The intro theme is quite similar to Deep Purple's "April".
    • The ending theme, "A Hero's End", is very similar to Nino Rota's theme of Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 movie Romeo and Juliet.
• In NOBY NOBY BOY, by the creator of Katamari Damacy and also released by Namco, there are some selectable music tracks that sound like subtle instrumental versions of Katamari songs (such as Lonely Rolling Star and Cherry Blossom Color Season), and the hidden minigame music is from Metro Cross, both Namco tunes.
• No More Heroes:
  • The Thunder Ryu Building is a gym in which Travis can upgrade his abilities. The background music is almost, but not quite, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."
  • Masafumi Takada's "Mach 13 Elephant Explosion" sounds suspiciously similar to Soulfly's "Umbabarauma".
  • The credits music sounds very similar to the Star Wars theme. The version that appears on the official soundtrack makes it even more obvious: not only is it played by an orchestra, as opposed to the 8-bit style version in the game; but the track itself is called "Staff Wars: Episode I"
  • The music used in the No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle "toilet" promo video sounds an awful lot like the B-section from the theme to A Fistful of Dollars.
  • In its homage to Hotline Miami, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes has HLM for Silver Lights and the House Clear Theme for Horse Steppin'.

---