4. Alundra
Released in 1997 for the PlayStation, Alundra is an action adventure game which takes you through the deepest and darkest dungeons to encounter the most terrifying enemies. Playing as the elf Alundra, you've been shipwrecked on an island and have been given board while you rest, but unfortunately your arrival is twinned with weird and strange events on the island. Of course, the villagers are displeased with the upheaval of peace within their town and begin to point the finger of blame towards your wearied body. But since you're a silent protagonist, you don't get much say in the matter and are sent on a Hero's Quest to dispel whatever lurks in the shadows sound familiar? The similarities between The Legend of Zelda and Alundra are evident; gameplay is a top-down dungeon crawler, akin to A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, while puzzle-solving requires you to move blocks, flick switches and use your items to progress the storyline. Enemies also appear similar with slimes known as Buzz Blobs in the earlier Zelda titles or Chuchus in the later titles being the most common throughout the dungeons, as well as tough fighting Lizards (Lizalfos) and Ancient Guardians or zombies that parallel Zelda's ReDeads aesthetic look and cry. These enemies ascertain the tense atmosphere within dungeons and are quite common in many action adventure games, but the striking resemblances between them makes Alundra a carbon-copy of Zelda. Despite its Zelda influences, Alundra is in no shape or form any less of a good game, as in its heyday it was a fantastic title and garnered great scores across the critics' board. In fact, Alundra's storyline is what sets it apart from Zelda and looks at the dreamworld, rather than the darkworld as in A Link to the Past, giving it a nightmarish feel which instantly creates a darker world than the original Legend of Zelda. Developers Matrix Software has shamelessly ripped off Zelda to an extent, but Alundra's storyline and often frustrating levels of difficulty brings the game to new heights.