Ten Examples of Japanese Video Games Borrowing From American Pop Culture

OC Weekly writes: "It’s common thought that the Japanese make the most interesting and original video games, right? Games like Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy and the Legend of Zelda involved saving a kingdom of mushroom people, riding birds the size of horses, and slaying boars with silver arrows–where do they come up with this stuff?

But! What many fail to realize is that most of the "original" game ideas from Japanese video games were stolen (or uh, "inspired by") from other sources of media. Character design and music from these games, in particular, seem to be carbon copies from others. Coincidence, paying homage, or straight-up plagiarism? Scroll through some of our fave instances and decide for yourselves."