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[alienator]

here's atari ripping off my friend svennzon in ghostbusters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJVFntSiuWA

not really copying.. just plain stealing

 

[Mass Effect]

Just in case anyone hasn't seen the (revived) Doom thread: http://www.doomworld.com/linguica/doomcovers/

lol, how the hell did they get away with Them Bones and Angry Chair? They are literally midi-fied versions of those songs.

Well, at least they had good taste in music.

And I see the DBZ Budokai ordeal is already covered.

 

[BGBW]

If you wanted a case of actual cribbing, then the loading screen of Daley Thompson's Decathlon is a crib of Rydeen by Yellow Magic Orchestra.

 

[JNT]

Doom: The thread.

Doom and Metal/Rock: A Comprehensive Comparison

 

[Rainbow In The Dark]

Megaman X6's Infinity Mijinion stage theme was very similar to The Final Countdown.

 

[TheChaos0]

wild arms map theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFhD87di0I

the ectasy of gold ennio morricone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOr0na6mKJQ

Damn, I knew it sounded similar to something. More of a homage I think though.

 

[Kyzon]

What are your favorite cases where popular songs were re-used in video games? I'm told this happened in Sonic games a bit, but here is my favorite example:

Dragon Ball Z Tournament

is a flash game that uses the main riff from

The Thong Song

This is also my fav. I always boogied down to that game.

Also Spyro had The Amanda Show theme song in it iirc

 

[Dunan]

Final Fantasy 2 (the Japanese original) has music from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

 

[PotionBleue]

The other way around – Green Day's 21 Guns sounds like a Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Route music:

Green Day - 21 Guns
Pokémon D/P - Route 209
(Comparison video)


Oh and obviously several K.K. songs (Animal Crossing) are covers of real songs:

K.K. Western
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun

 

[Slamtastic]

Arrivederci! (Bruno Buccellati's Theme)
vs
Brown Sugar

Ultra Super Guitarist (Otoishi Akira's Theme)
vs
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop

The Disturbing ACDC (ACDC's Theme)
vs
Back in Black

 

[GreggTheGrimReaper]

Ken theme from SF2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O0AxIDnCqc

Mighty Wings by Cheap Trick (Top Gun OST):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-4XsDQYDi4

 

[Moofers]

One of the early Castlevania games takes riffs directly from Yngwie Malmsteen's "Far Beyond The Sun"

Far Beyond The Sun

Dwelling of Doom (Simon's Quest)

 

[L Thammy]

Surprised Guilty Gear hasn't been posted.

A Solitude That Asks Nothing in Return
Napalm Death - Breed to Breathe

D.O.A.
Dokken - Kiss of Death
Stratovarius - Kiss of Judas

Blue Water Blue Sky
Skid Row - Forever

Fuuga
Motley Crue - Live Wire

Midnight Carnival
X Japan - Kurenai

To be fair, most of the music is original and Guilty Gear hardly hides its heavy metal influences.

 

[True Underdog]

Another Mega Man one.

Mega Man X3 - Neon Tiger's Stage is inspired by Guns N' Roses - My Michelle

 

[galvatron]

I don't know...some of these seem to inspired by the associated songs, but aren't lawsuit worthy.

On that note, I give you:

Turrican's take on Escape from Transformers the Movie

Robert Miles' Children in Rock Howard's stage of Garou: Mark of the Wolves

 

[oconnomiyaki]

Streets of Rage II: The Thread.

Wasn't the Streets of Rage soundtrack all just covers of pop songs?

I remember watching a video comparing them all and they were uncanny. It broke my heart (I can't find it now)

You mean this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpntMeUjTmc

EDIT: Some of them are tenuous, but the Black Box and Soul II Soul ones are fucking blatant.

EDIT 2: Also understand being heartbroken. I found out Utada's Exodus '04 rips off some random Arab song and it made me sad. It's because she worked with Timbaland (who we all know if a thief) but it still sort of stained it all a bit, especially given her pride in writing her own stuff.

 

[FlynnCL]

I love A Great Ordeal, but it's pretty shameless. Listen to how blatant it really is (it's essentially the same).

Ys IV - A Great Ordeal

Malmsteen - Far Beyond The Sun

 

[AzureSkies]

A majority of tracks from Dragonball Z's Budokai's soundtrack are stolen from Stratovarius' Infinite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCoiG7unOvY

The now current era of the band knows and they're not interested in pursuing any action.

 

[Red Chocobo]

You mean this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpntMeUjTmc

That's the one It destroyed my childhood lol.

 

[Mr. X]

Thong Song actually sampled this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZa3Supq79Y

 

[hardvibes]

 

[oconnomiyaki]

That's the one It destroyed my childhood lol.

I was living in England at the time it came out and I totally recognised Move Any Mountain being used. At the time, though, we just thought it was the song being included. Innocence.

 

[MrDenny]

Final Fantasy VIII - Raid on Dollet
The Rock Movie - Navy Seals Theme
The changed the song in the final release to The Landing probably because of plagiarism.

 

[Neo-Saiyan]

Silent Hill 2

Flo Rida - Whistle

 

[MrCunningham]

Might want to add the Sabbath song it rips off of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5raE8lvquA

Also here's another one that that I noticed thanks to a thread from a few days ago:

The Original Robocop theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4PQRpo2Wng&feature=player_detailpage#t=93

James Pond II: RoboCod: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOFvxcfDEJo

 

[Neo-Saiyan]

Here's a couple more:

Yoshi's Island map screen

Enya - Anywhere Is

 

[LordEssdot]

Prince George's Island (Antartica) in Tekken 1 & 2 straight bit Emerald City from the Wiz.

 

[Sojourner]

Anyone notice Planescape Torment and the movie Speed have the same theme music?

 

[MrCunningham]

Also, I'm not sure if I am the only one, but does anybody remember that 80's cartoon M.A.S.K? Well the Electroman's theme from Mega Man always sounded like the MASK theme music to me. Most notably the "chorus line".

Electroman's theme : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwjUMTF4p5k&feature=player_detailpage#t=2

MASK intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh11NDMHVl0&feature=player_detailpage#t=8

But then again the MASK theme sounds a lot like Laura Branigan's Gloria.

 

[Frologic]

VVVVVV Pushing Onwards. Guiles theme at 2:30


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhNmIL7nrDQ

Also does

Spoiler

Bioshock Infinite

count?

 

[Gormless Noodle]

Double Dragon II: Stage 2 theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAtVCeTGWAE
vs
Phil Collins - Easy Lover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOXvnGPzDYc (You may have to search that on Youtube yourself due to copyright crud)

 

[G-Fex]

Doom: The thread.

Doom and Metal/Rock: A Comprehensive Comparison

This is good stuff. Great stuff.

Have you heard the 3DO soundtrack of DOOM?

 

[AzureSkies]

Might want to add the Sabbath song it rips off of...

Black Sabbath - The Mob Rules

Also

DOOM II: The Demon's Dead vs Black Sabbath - After All (The Dead)

To be fair, Romero did want After All (The Dead) to be the theme of the original DOOM game, so it's very possible that this wasn't stolen. I think that Tony Iommi may have mentioned DOOM in his biography, but I can't remember to be exact.

 

[denshuu]

Final Fantasy VIII - Raid on Dollet
The Rock Movie - Navy Seals Theme
The changed the song in the final release to The Landing probably because of plagiarism.

Holy Christ, I have been looking for that Raid on Dollet song for over 10 years.

I always knew exactly what scene it was from based on really, really early beta footage of FF8. I always knew it sounded different from The Landing in those old ass realmedia videos from ign64 back in the day.

 

[BHZ Mayor]

Prince George's Island (Antartica) in Tekken 1 & 2 straight bit Emerald City from the Wiz.

Night in Chicago (Lee's Theme in Tekken 1 and 2) sounds a lot like a Prince song, but I can't find it or remember enough of the lyrics to search. If someone could find it, that would be great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ZPRtONA9c&t=1m35s

 

[jbueno]

MARIACHI MADNESS!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTB3blqFg3g
Come on it's gotta count right?

Bullshit, I thought that was a videogame take on el Mariachi Loco.

 

[SegaShack]

Electric Man in Mega Man 1 and Journey.

Also there are a lot of orchestral compositions copied in very famous games.

 

[Mephala]

What about something like Sleeping Dog's Karaoke? Its some of the best and worst moments in the game.

 

[MaximoffZero]

Maximum Carnage.

Awww yisss.

I like that game. I like that song. How in the world did I not notice that!?

 

[DracoBlade]

Pretty sure in one of the B/W Pokemon games there's a gym leader with a remarkably familiar tune to Miley Cyrus song....

 

[mothball]

Also the majority of Doom's soundtrack is slightly altered versions of different rock/metal songs.

Apparently the guy who made the soundtrack was a lawyer, and knew exactly how much he needed to alter the songs so that he couldn't be sued.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z81virrz6TY

Easily the most blatant one on the whole Doom 1/2 soundtrack; it's funny how close it is.

Speaking of which, it seems Doom 2's songs were a lot more obviously inspired than Doom 1's songs.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Banjo Kazooie and the Teddy Bear Picnic

What's funny is it didn't hit me later how absolutely appropriate a perversion of the song was. Banjo's "picnic" easy live ruined by Gruntilda, the corrupted version of the song being this in music form

...which is probably not at all why it's that song, but whatever.

 

[RangerBAD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00mrFv2QbG0

I love Blade Runner's end credits in my video games.

Damn, that's more uncanny than the MGS1 theme.

 

[IncandescentPrecept]

Song of Storm from OoT is copied from Golden Brown.

 

[BeekleMatter]

The only good track in Mass Effect 2 was ripped straight from a NFS game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOOuarA7xA

Where is this song in the game? Isn't in the Afterlife club or something? I had no idea this was just a straight up NFS song.

 

[Deleted member 8095]

Also, I'm not sure if I am the only one, but does anybody remember that 80's cartoon M.A.S.K? Well the Electroman's theme from Mega Man always sounded like the MASK theme music to me. Most notably the "chorus line".

Electroman's theme : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwjUMTF4p5k&feature=player_detailpage#t=2

MASK intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh11NDMHVl0&feature=player_detailpage#t=8

But then again the MASK theme sounds a lot like Laura Branigan's Gloria.

Elecman's theme is Journey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLThSLBQv8

 

[MrCunningham]

Elecman's theme is Journey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLThSLBQv8

Holy crap... so it is...

 

[AlexBasch]

I like that game. I like that song. How in the world did I not notice that!?

Don't worry I played that game on release and always found the game tracks as fucking awesome, blew my mind when I learned that it was from Black Sabbath. It made sense.

 

[Uhyve]

The only good track in Mass Effect 2 was ripped straight from a NFS game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOOuarA7xA

Speaking of Mass Effect 2, was this trailer meant to be "Nine Inch Nails - The Day The World Went Away" or was it just suspiciously similar?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBRo7JWy744

Edit: Apparently it's totally not just a remix of NIN, sure...

 

[linkeds2]

if anyone watches the anime "the world god only knows" I'm pretty sure they got most of their soundtrack from final fantasy 13