10 Video Games That Are Shameless Rip-Offs

9. Golden Axe Warrior

Golden Axe Warrior is one of those head-smackingly incredulous rip-offs that just makes you sit back and ask, "Why?". Despite boasting the likeness of the famed Golden Axe series on the front cover, it bares little-to-no semblance to this namesake in-game, and is actually best recognised, as you can easily see above, as a gigantic rip-off of The Legend of Zelda. From pretty much the first second you start playing, all of the main environments are exactly the same, and the real main difference is that the protagonist has been re-skinned, an unimaginable stretch for the developers but one which apparently was enough to dupe plenty of gamers into buying it. The developers even had the gaul to copy the same music and even the events that take place, yet its crassness ensures that it's regarded by most retro enthusiasts as one of the most shameless rip-offs in gaming history, and rightly so. When a developer is this lazy and appears to think so little of its audience - that they're dumb enough to fall for these sorts of tactics - we want them to fail, and Golden Axe Warrior is absolutely a fail. Thankfully, we'd like to think we've moved on from this, and devs wouldn't dare try to pull these sorts of tricks.
 
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.