NES Wizards & Warriors arcade port?

[the antithesis]

I wonder if anyone else has noticed the similarities between the NES classic Wizards & Warriors and the arcade title Legend of Makai.

 

Wizards & Warriors:

 

Legend of Makai:

 

There's quite a few similarities in the gameplay. According to Wikipedia, there is further connection. Wizards & Warriors was developed by Rare in 1987 and published in Japan by Jaleco in 1988. Legend of Makai was released by Jaleco also in 1988. So if the similarities in the gameplay are not a coincidence, then Legend of Makai is essentially a port of the NES title. Jaleco has done this sort of thing before. The Ninja Kid series, which was practically the company mascot at one time, was originally created by UPL.

 

I just find it interesting and haven't managed to find anyone else comparing these two games.

[Great Hierophant]

It seems the lack of inspiration in Legend of Makai's gameplay extended to the other elements of the game, music, sound effects, graphics and control. Nothing that stands out, even for 1988.

[0078265317]

Yes but a lot of games are similar and do this. At least its not an exact ripoff. The forest, main guy, ect, are all different.

[7800fan]

Similarities in games have been around for years. Sometimes it leads to nasty lawsuits.

 

Here's another one:

Fan of 1982 Tron will notice something about the box art that looks like blatant rip off. The lower right looks like map of game grid as seen on Sark's carrier ship. The top left image is virtually the same as inside the laser as Flynn was being beamed back to the real world. Yet the game itself doesn't look like Tron, only the box and label art are copied from Tron.

[+Black_Tiger]

Jaleco also published Astyanax for arcade and NES, but both use the style/engine of Legendary Axe for PCE/TG-16 and the unreleased Sega Mega Drive game Dando looked similar as well.

 

In all cases, they likely shared members of and/or dev teams.

[Austin]

Makai seems to have similarities, yes, but it's far from a port of Wizards and Warriors. Both games seem to share more differences than similarities if you ask me and the likeness between the two is more aesthetic than anything (graphics, primarily). Gameplay looks pretty wonky in Legend of Makai, but that's just me. Maybe I'll give it a try on MAME sometime.

[+Black_Tiger]

Makai seems to have similarities, yes, but it's far from a port of Wizards and Warriors. Both games seem to share more differences than similarities if you ask me and the likeness between the two is more aesthetic than anything (graphics, primarily). Gameplay looks pretty wonky in Legend of Makai, but that's just me. Maybe I'll give it a try on MAME sometime.

Their similarities set them apart from most 8/16-bit games. So they're likely related on purpose.

 

Ghost Manor for TG-16 is another Wizards & Warriors style game.