Another common form of copycat games in China

  This article was originally posted on Chinese game news site http://www.doyo.cn/, the author is 菜小花. Junxue edits it and reposts here.

  Talking about copycat games, they steal other developer’s properties at different levels. Some steal source code, or art design, and some are mere imitations.

  Please look this example, on the left is the art of the original Triple town game, and the right is a Chinese game made by unrelated developer. The game play is different, we can call this “borrow the idea” to the most.

  And today I want to introduce to you another common form of copycat games in China, one considered most brazen and ridiculous.

  Last year, my younger sister sent me a QQ message, inviting me to play the iOS version Pokemon. I was shocked, for by then no Nintendo title was announced on iOS. And then she sent me the link, ok, it’s another copycat. It’s name is still Pokemon (口袋妖怪 in Chinese), and with all the characters takeover from the original.

  In China, Nintendo’s franchises and Japanese anime have great fan base. And with loose IP administration, many developers would steal their IP and graphic design, to make games. Here I have a few samples, I cover the names, that you may understand that I’m not promoting them here.

Pokemon

  This game has the key words 口袋妖怪 in the name, so you can find it in App Store by searching. It takes over all the pokemons from the original and even invented a few.

Kirby

 This game is relatively better than other Kirby copycats we have here: it preserves the puff up feature. Most copycats have it removed, for it’s a complicated animation.

Dragon Ball

  There are too many Dragon Ball copycats here, CCG, platformer, fighting game. This one has the subhead “A Tale of Alien Tramp Strikes back”

  And a few copycat CCGs are otherwise good in making, if they are not riddled with in-app-purchase traps.

Saint Seiya

  It also have dozens of copycats. The two games below, one remakes the graphics somehow, and another take over the original’s directly.

Crossover Fighting Games:

  These developers give players the chance to fight each other with beloved characters, those characters may otherwise never meet in official crossovers.

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