I Made This

Travis Touchdown is an otaku who is obsessed with anime, professional wrestling, action figures, and porn. He could be viewed as a critique of the typical gaming audience, but his appearance and brazen personality were actually inspired by Johnny Knoxville. They share a similar fashion sense and a penchant for aviator sunglasses, but the similarities between them are more than skin deep. Knoxville’s bold antics in Jackass are not all that different than the daunting missions that Travis Touchdown accepts in No More Heroes. Granted, Knoxville never finds himself facing off against world class assassins, but he is foolish enough to box with Butterbean or use baby alligators as makeshift nipple clamps. During the development of No More Heroes, creator Suda51 would regularly play clips from Jackass to help his staff understand what kind of person Travis was.

Contra was released during the golden age of American action films, so it make sense that its main characters would borrow from contemporary action heroes of the day. No stars were more closely associated with the genre than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, and the gun-toting commandos in Contra were clearly inspired by them. The in-game sprites were nearly identical to one another, but the title screen depicted Bill Rizer as a blond with a flat top while Lance Bean was defined by an unmistakable mullet. The cover art for the NES version of the game made the similarities even more obvious. The bodies of both Bill Rizer and Lance Bean looked exactly like Dutch from Predator, although Lance was given the aforementioned Rambo hairstyle for the sake of variety. As an added bonus, the last game was a spitting image of the xenomorph from the Alien franchise!

There are a number of expies in the Metal Gear franchise. The cover of the first Metal Gear featured artwork that was obviously traced from a publicity still of Michael Biehn in Terminator. In the MSX2 release of Metal Gear 2, Snake’s in-game character portrait was a dead ringer for Mel Gibson. Solid Snake himself was inspired by contemporary action movie heroes, and much of this inspiration came from Snake Plissken – who was portrayed by Kurt Russell in John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. The references were not subtle, and Snake even used “Pliskin” as a pseudonym in Metal Gear Solid 2. Series creator Hideo Kojima is usually forthright about what inspired him. In a 2010 interview, John Carpenter explained that Kojima had even written him to ask for his blessing. Given the cloning antics that take place in the series, several Metal Gear characters have a resemblance to Snake Plissken.

Hideo Kojima strikes again! The parallels between Blade Runner and Snatcher are many. Blade Runner is a neo-noir science fiction film set in a dystopian future. Rick Deckard (portrayed by Harrison Ford) is assigned to hunt down genetically engineered “replicants” which are visually indistinguishable from humans. Snatcher is a neo-noir science fiction game set in a dystopian future. Gillian Seed is assigned to hunt down cybernetic “snatchers” which are visually indistinguishable from humans. Rick Deckard and Gillian Seed have similar occupations, they dress in a similar fashion, and they live in similar universes. There are clear differences between the characters, however. Gillian Seed is somewhat less cynical and a lot more perverted than Deckard is.

Anybody want a peanut? The Andore family are pro wrestling street thugs who are associated with Metro City’s notorious Mad Gear gang. The family towers over their rivals and can be identified by their trademark afros and strong facial features. Comparisons to the legendary Andre the Giant are pretty much unavoidable. To their credit, Capcom has never denied that they were inspired by Andre. In that regard, Andore can be viewed as a tribute to wrestling’s greatest giant. In Street Fighter III, the intro that plays out before Hugo Andore’s fights Alex is a direct reference to the stare down that took place between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan prior to their match at Wrestlemania III. As far as I know, no member of the Andore family ever drank over 100 beers in a single sitting. Advantage: Andre.

Ellie was devised as a strong female lead and a subversion of the damsel in distress trope. Various designs were tested during the development process, but a striking resemblance between Ellie and actress Ellen Page was noted after the character was initially revealed. The creative director of The Last of Us has suggested that Ellie’s design was modified over time to look more like Ashley Johnson (who provided the voice acting and motion capture for the character), but the Ellen Page influence was still apparent to anyone with eyes. The similarities were so obvious that Page herself accused Naughty Dog of “ripping off” her likeness. Page didn’t appreciate her likeness being used without her permission, but Naughty Dog have always held that it was merely a coincidence.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Hideo Kojima’s follow up to Snatcher plays homage to existing works. The main characters were clearly inspired by Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon – who were played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover respectively. Jonathan Ingram is a charismatic hot shot detective weighed down by a traumatic past. Ed Brown, for his part, is getting too old for this shit and is just biding his time until he can retire. The futuristic setting puts a new twist on the buddy cop formula, but the Lethal Weapon references are pretty blatant. Everything from Ingram’s shaggy mullet to Brown’s slutty daughter reminds me of Lethal Weapon, and it’s not coincidence that a saxophone is so prominently featured in the soundtrack. Policenauts could basically be described as “Lethal Weapon in space.

In the most blatant example of gimmick infringement on this entire list, Titan Morgan was created in the likeness of the iconic Hulk Hogan. Their names are similar, they both have horseshoe moustaches, and their physiques border on the ridiculous. Titan Morgan even wears yellow ring attire and uses a leg drop as a finisher! All of the characters in Wrestle War take inspiration from real pro wrestlers, but Titan Morgan is given the brightest spotlight since Hulk Hogan was the sport’s biggest star. The similarities between Titan and Hulk are most apparent on the cover of the original Japanese version of Wrestle War. Titan’s bandana even references “Python Power” in the same way that Hulk’s does. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the artwork was changed for North American and European versions of the game.

The Street Fighter series was built around common character archetypes, so its only natural for its roster to be filled by expies and knockoffs. Popular manga characters served as the inspiration for many fighters and Fei Long was basically a Bruce Lee clone, but Balrog is the best fit for this list. Mike Tyson was the most famous boxer in the world when Street Fighter II was released, so similarities between Balrog and Iron Mike were impossible to overlook. In Japan, Balrog was actually named M. Bison (with the “M” standing for Mike) and was conceived as an intentional homage to the famous boxer. For the American release, Capcom rotated the names of the boss character to avoid a potential lawsuit. With that, M. Bison became Balrog, Balrog became Vega, and Vega became M. Bison.

Sega’s Dynamite Deka is a beat ’em up that follows the exploits of a cop name Bruno Delinger who battles terrorists, rescues hostages, and fights his way through endless waves of enemies. Bruno bares a striking resemblance to Bruce Willis, and his name is an apparent reference to the alter ego used by Willis for his singing career. When Dynamite Deka was ported to America, it was released as Die Hard Arcade and Bruno was renamed John McClane. It’s not unusual for characters to be renamed or modified to distance themselves from the individuals that they were based on, but the release of Die Hard Arcade made it even more obvious that Bruno Delinger was based on John McClane from the very beginning. Bruno Delinger would later show up in Dynamte Deka 2 (released as Dynamite Cop in the west) and Namco’s Project X-Zone.