Four More KnockOffs Of Iconic Characters On Arcade Machines

It has been over a year since I was rather baffled as I analysed five knock-offs of iconic fictional characters that can be seen in arcades or casinos, from Cash Bandiloot to The Winsons [35] [36]. When I was gaming at the South Pier in Blackpool back in February, I encountered a “community play” edition of Ticket Raider [29]. You know, the one starring the awfully familiar heroine mooching off the legacies of two famous experts in archaeology [35] [36]. As an arcade admirer, I have seen her several times. As I have mentioned before, I am not fond of plagiarising an intellectual property and profiting off it unless it is clearly a parody under fair use [27], but a blatant knockoff would be fascinating to analyse to an extent. I am looking at you, Fur Fun, also known as “Kewpie-Jazzy” [33]. Did you know that there are about four more corny wannabes? Besides Freddie, who else is a Yabba Dabba Don’t for the sake of not having to pay companies for permission to legally use real deals [35] [36]? Prepare to be unamused at four more knockoffs that you might encounter at the next arcade you visit on your next holiday.

Lara Jones is gorgeous and self-empowered, despite her blatant lack of originally [35] [36]. Who else is amusingly unoriginal? [Williams, 2021]

Aladdin
During the week I spent in North Wales back in Summer 2021, I have encountered about two of these arcade machines that feature some of these knockoffs. One of them was “Disney’s” Aladdin-themed [2]. Pffft. Disney, my bum. There is no sign of the Disney logo anywhere. The fake Aladdin within the cabinet’s artwork looks like a younger Jafar cosplaying as the real deal. The genie’s facial features resemble Jafar if he were a loyal sidekick instead of the main antagonist. The Iago reject looks cheerful enough to be considered a good guy. The Abu reject seems happy enough near a pot loaded with gold coins. The overall design of this cabinet did not try to hide the fact that it is trying to capitalise on the iconic animated film in the slightest. The utter lack of subtly in ripping him off is stupendous! At least Cash Bandiloot and The Winsons were more subtle with highly notable differences in character design and names that sound like parodies [35] [36]. I guess the true Disney Aladdin forgot to wish for this to not ever happen as the design of the cabinet probably never had a friend like originality [2]. Of course, this is not the only time this has happened [3] [6].

I can be a knockoff. No, they can’t tell the difference. Tell me, Player. When did you last let a coin inside [2]? [Williams, 2021]

Manic Mushrooms
All the way from Reflex Gaming, a slot machine popped out of a blue pipe and into the gambling section of every arcade [26]. I also encountered this specimen in North Wales back in 2021. The name “Manic Mushrooms” may have a nice ring to it, but it does not cover up that fact that it is ripping-off Super Mario. Is this guy wearing yellow gloves instead of white ones to match his scarf the long-lost brother of the real Mario? Well, that would be rather doubtful due to Nintendo’s history of harshly taking down fanmade games [5]. The rosy-cheeked Princess Peach wannabe is holding a gold staff but she is still part of the copying and pasting [26]. Could the rip-off of Yoshi be an unknown breed of Yoshi or something? Seeing the mushrooms with smiles is rather unnerving as they could have been the decapitated heads of Toads! Seriously! I thought this cabinet was ripping off the Super Mario series, not the Mortal Kombat series [32]! There was quite a missed opportunity to include a Luigi reject too, considering he was employed at a casino once [17]. However, wouldn’t it be more fitting to rip-off Wario due to his money-hungry personality [18]? Thank you, Not Mario. But I guess originality was in another castle [26]. 

It’s-a him! A rip-off! Have we learned nothing from the two Mole Cart games and The Great Giana Sisters [33]? And some of us thought Bugs Bunny wearing yellow gloves was a bit awkward [25]. [Williams, 2021]

JNC’s Super Heroes
During my second time away at Isle of Wight, I have encountered a new league of superheroes printed on a ticket machine that operates like a fruit machine [12]. I bet you can imagine my reaction to its design. There is a man in attire that just shrieks “Classic Thor” in your face in a pretentious tone, along with Superman vibes by the way he is posing [31]. You can tell that the green guy is blatant Hulk wannabe without much subtlety by his fit of rage [12], even though his face and lack of hair remind me of Piccolo from the DragonBall Z franchise [10]. The superheroine appears to be a fusion of Black Widow and Wonder Woman, oddly consisting of potential to be a completely original character without having to be part of a cheesy rip-off of DC’s Justice League and Marvel’s Avengers [12]. Well, at least there are only three of these superzeroes. No reference to the Powerpuff Girls’ alter-egos, Liberty Belle, Harmony Bunny and Mange intended [14] [22]. I just wonder if their arch nemesis is a lawyer wearing a Marvel or DC Comics badge on one of his lapels yearning to sue them, as harsh as that sounds [12]. 

Wannabes assemble! [Williams, 2022]

Flying Tickets 
Flappy Bird was the huge hit that irritated so many mobile gamers with its rather basic yet intensely challenging gameplay from mid-2013 to early 2014 [7] [9] [24]. So many Flappy Bird clones were released, including a minigame in My Talking Tom named “Flappy Tom” [20], even after the real deal was taken off the App Store. To this day, I can still an unofficial arcade adaption named “Flying Tickets” at Hollywood Bowl [1]. Despite how the game’s premise is a shameless copy of Flappy Bird, the only thing that seems original is that two players can play the game at the same times. Player One takes control of a yellow bird wearing a blue helmet by pressing the blue button at the left side and Player Two controls a white bird wearing a red helmet by the power of a red button at the right side, similar to how Player One controls a chicken and Player Two moves a duck in the multiplayer arcade version of Crossy Road [11]. I will at least cut the birds some slack as they at least wear helmets during risky flights when Flappy Bird’s protagonist did not [1] [9]. I just wonder if Not Mario from Manic Mushrooms ever bumped into either bird while going down a green pipe [26]. 

Here is me playing Flying Tickets in 2021 [1]. Talk about a rehash of early 2014 [7] [9] [24]. Pity the real Flappy Bird is no longer available to download and is so early 2014, but at least some clones can still be played to this day, including Flying Tickets and Flappy Tom [1] [20]. At least the two birds in Flying Tickets are more visually pleasing than the flappy bird that started the thankfully outdated trend. [Williams, 2021]

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery [28], but when it comes to imitating an iconic franchise on an arcade game cabinet or casino slot machine in a shameless and rather cheesy way, it would be the sincerest form of unoriginality [35] [36]. That would not always be the case though as The Lion King is one of the most acclaimed animated Disney films of all time, despite the accusations of Simba being a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion and how its plot is a rehash of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet [8] [39]. At least we can tune into new adventures with real deals, such as a mysterious female equivalent of Count Dracula as part of the Monster High Skullector doll collection and Lightyear, the cinematic origin of Buzz Lightyear from the timelessly adored Toy Story franchise, in spite of its mixed reception and unfortunate failure at the box office [4] [16] [17] [23] [37] [38]. With all of these interestingly cringey knock-off characters combined, they can all have a whacky race for an insanely large amount of tickets for a big prize [35] [36]. Until then, fellow arcade admirers. I guess a certain song sung by the Watterson family ought to teach these knockoffs a lesson [27]. 

As I have mentioned before, there is a difference between an inspiration and a blatant knockoff when it comes to identifying similarities [34]. If you prefer Kimba over Simba, that is no problem at all [39]. The same goes for if you prefer Simba over Kimba. I hope you liked my spoofing of theme songs that take the mick out of the knockoffs I described [35] [36]. [13]

References

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