Gaming's biggest movie rip-offs

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Can't get the license? Make the game anyway!

Perpetrator: Starfox 64 | Nintendo 64

Starfox has always had a penchant for taking inspiration from sci-fi films, the first game's asteroid field in particular doing a great job of making us feel just like Han Solo. But with Starfox 64, Nintendo got the lawyers on standby and really went all-out with the filmic thievery. The dialogue reeks of Star Wars from time to time ("Trust your instincts" and "I've got a bad feeling about this" don't even pretend to be there by innocent coincidence), but where familiarity swapsits outfitfor the big red "Can we actually get away with this?" suit is the Katina dogfight level.

A minute or two in and all's pretty normal. A swarm of ships flitting around a base waiting to be shot down and that's about it. But then a huge saucer-shaped spaceship slowly thunders overhead, casting its vast shadow over the whole play area before coming to rest, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, just like a brick doesn't.Sound familiar?

Oh, and if you don't complete the level in time, it unleashes a huge white vertical beam of toasty death from its centre, obliterating everything in the area. When Nintendo eventually gets round to making the next game in the series, we demand that Falco Lombardi be voiced by Jeff Goldblum.

David Houghton
David Houghton
Former GamesRadar+ Features Writer

Former (and long-time) GamesRadar+ writer, Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.