8 Video Game Rip-Offs Better Than The Original

Shortly after the plagiarised Pong's release - and apparently failing to see the irony - Atari began developing a series of games expanding upon its basic premise in a bid to bat back the slew of clones it had spawned. The man at the helm of the Ralph Baer heist, Nolan Bushnell, was determined to refocus Pong as a single-player game, on the assumption that halving the player requirements could double the cabinet profits. The block-hitting result, Breakout, turned out to be a blockbuster hit.

Inevitably, its own derivatives soon followed, but it'd take some twelve years for one to surpass it, rather than merely simulate it. In many ways, Taito's Arkanoid, released 1986, was gaming's first 'HD remaster'. Sure, the basic concept was practically identical to Breakout - smashing bricks with a ball - but it was presented with hypnotic speed and colour, and now featured power-ups, multiple stages, and - yes! - even lasers! In fact, so definitive was the game, that all block-breakers would henceforth be known as Arkanoid clones.