10 Video Games Popular Franchises Stole From
7. Ms. Pac-Man Stole From Pac-Man
I know what you're thinking. "How can the sequel of Pac-Man be a knock-off of Pac-Man?"
Okay, bare with me on this. Everyone knows Pac-Man was the most popular arcade game of the 1980s. Even today, it has sold more arcade cabinets than any other game in history.
But two years after the game was released, two MIT students modified one of the Pac-Man cabinets to create their own version called Crazy Otto. They tweaked it a bit so the main character was given legs, the enemies were made smarter, and the levels were vastly improved.
Naturally, Pac-Man's distributor, Midway, was about to sue the pants off the students...until they realised that Crazy Otto was making a ton of money. Instead, Midway agreed to buy the Crazy Otto game and change the main character so it looked like a female version of Pac-Man.
This version, which is called Ms. Pac-Man, was released weeks later and became a global sensation. Ironically, Ms Pac-Man never started off as a sequel to the original game. Instead, it is a rip-off of a rip-off of Pac-Man!
The weirdest thing is the this isn't the only time this has happened...