Jim Power Amiga cover (1992) 🔗

Sure was a choice from Loriciel to take a tough martial arts movie star like Jean-Claude Van Damme and stick him in the game protagonist's super dorky outfit. The game isn't even horror themed, but they complemented that with the body horror image of one of the thugs from Robocop grossly melting away after getting doused with toxic chemicals. The nasty face in the background is from another movie, An American Werewolf in London. The rocket powered guy to the upper right is from yet another kind of source, a painting by sci fi illustrator Peter Elson, apparently originally commissioned for Harry Harrison's short story collection Prime Number (but also published on a variety of other books). This is incidentally also the only element this cover has in common with the otherwise very different PC Engine version.

The Peter Elson connection was discovered by ‪'just hangin around' (that's the screen name) on Bluesky. An American Werewolf in London was identified by HyggeState on the Insert Credit Forum.

Jim Power PC Engine CD cover (1993) 🔗

Now, the original Amiga box art of Loriciel's Euro platformer has its own history of 'inspirations', but when Jim Power was brought to Japan for the PC Engine CD, it got a brand new cover image – which was once again cobbled together from other media. The hero is represented by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the poster for Raw Deal, whereas president's daughter he's tasked to rescue in the game is Lesa Ann Pedriana ripped straight from a Playboy photoshoot (which Loriciel had sourced for a cover before). There's two things I'd like to know about this cover: First, why did the artist feel the need to change up the positioning of both character's arms, quite weirdly in Schwarzenegger's case. Second, did they like the little rocket man in the background (scraped from a book cover painted by Peter Elson) so much that they chose him as the only element retained from the Amiga cover?

Ashura / Secret Commando title screen (1986) 🔗

This Sega title has the distinction of being both a properly licensed Rambo tie-in (in North America) as well as a Rambo rip-off (in Japan and Europe). But while the latter two versions don't have the lovingly pixeled movie poster pose the US release proudly features on the title screen, they still grabbed some photos from throughout the movie for reference. (They only use various vaguely Southeast Asian looking buildings for the images in between stages where the licensed one has more John Rambo, though.) Interestingly, the characters were redesigned for the Japanese original to give them a more unique look, but in the later European release they were turned (back?) into proper clones. In turn, only the Japanese version also features Sly's body on the box cover.

Ashura cover (1986) 🔗

While this game was released in the US as an actual Rambo game, the same isn't true for this Japanese version, so this is absolutely an illegitimate use of Stallone's likeness. I'm almost convinced the left guy isn't taken from the same movie (which is odd, given how deliberately the game borrowed from it), or it might have been a really obscure still only found in some contemporary Japanese magazine.

Golden Axe flyer (1989) 🔗

It's no secret that the Golden Axe series owes a lot to Robert E. Howard's Conan character. For later installments, Sega got to commission one of the great Conan artists with Boris Vallejo for later installments, but for the original arcade game, they still had to settle for some imitations. The illustrator didn't go for any famous fantasy artists for references, though, but directly to the Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tyris Flare is based on Sandahl Bergman posing as Valeria for Conan the Barbarian, while Schwarzenegger Himself stands in for Ax Battler from the Conan the Destroyer set.

Discovered by barbarus and chaoticgood from the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums.

Adax cover (1992) 🔗

A late addition to the Atari 8-bit library made in Poland, Adax is a platformer with a sci-fi bend where you fight enemies mostly by punching and kicking them. Nonetheless, the dude on the cover art got a massive rocket launcher. That is of course because his pose is very recognizable as the poster for Rambo: First Blood Part II.

Mercs (1991) 🔗

Even though Capcom's game Commando predates the movie Commando, perhaps they got cold feet about similarities when coming up with the English title for the seque, but that still didn't prevent them from ripping off the Schwarzenegger vehicle in the game. Another character's portrait pose was taken from Raw Deal – not the most celebrated of Arnie's action movies, but it seems to have gained some popularity in Japan (where it was known as Gorilla), at least judging by the number of games riffing on the film's poster. The third guy in the game obviously has the Schwarzenegger physique as well, but I haven't found a matching pose yet. The item merchant that's only found in the Sega Genesis version also looks like she's based on something real.

Double Hawk cover (1990) 🔗

Sure, the two muscle men on Sega's shooting gallery are made to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, but there's a kind of reverse Gryzor situation going on: At least both torsos are clearly both taken from the latter's Rambo poses, as you can clearly make out on the muscle definitions and even the scars on his chest. The big faces on top are a bit of a guessing game and they might be from different or a mix of references. I'd wager on the soldiers and war machinery in the foreground also being lifted from somewhere else, but those are a bit harder to find and identify.

Ikari Warriors flyer (1986) 🔗

The entire raison d'être for SNK's Ikari Warriors series is to let you play at Rambo in a legally (barely) distinct manner, so it would be weirder if the original artwork for the Japanese arcade version didn't rip off several publicity photos from First Blood Part II. The artist tried to draw one of Sylvester Stallone's arms in a different pose to have him appear ready to throw a hand grenade, with rather mangled results.

The Kung-Fu / China Warrior title screen (1987) 🔗

There's many photos showing Bruce Lee doing his famous flying kicks, but this one is by far the closest I could find to the guy on the title screen for the PC Engine action curiosity China Warrior. Seems like it would have been easier to use a photo from a movie where he appears already shirtless with the more traditional pants and shoes, like Way of the Dragon or Enter the Dragon, but the original Japanese cover already stole a pose from Game of Death, so maybe that was just what they had at hand.

The Kung-Fu cover (1987) 🔗

Bruce Lee was such an iconic presence in martial arts media that almost every other fighting game series has a character mimicking his looks, mannerisms, or fighting style. This brawler is about nothing but running around and beating up dudes as a Bruce Lee clone, so why not also cloning one of his actual poses for the cover? It's kinda funny that the depth of the angles he's pointing his fingers don't really translate to the imitation, so he kinda looks like he's missing a joint on his index finger. It also seems like the fact that you can't really make out Bruce's hair against the pitch dark background has given the artist license to go a little bit wild with the hair (which isn't really mirrored in the actual game).

Discovered by drpepperfan from the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums.

Crusader Kings II: Way of Life key art (2014) 🔗

An unusually recent example for this collection, and yet it goes back to the same source than many of its predecessors in crime from the previous millennium. The brooding king on the key art for this Crusader Kings II expansion is no lesser monarch than Arnold Schwarzenegger as old King Conan at the end of Conan the Barbarian.

Freedom Force cover (1988) 🔗

When I first saw this cover, I thought it was a reference to Natural Born Killers, until I checked and (re)discovered that it predates that movie by more than half a decade. Of all the game covers that borrow Clint Eastwood's iconic Dirty Harry pose, this is the only one where the gun is almost as big as the original. The head, on the other hand, comes from a different source this time. His features are a bit distorted, but it's still identifiable as Rutger Hauer on a publicity photo from the set of Blade Runner. (Thanks to downchasm and Disc B on Bluesky for the tip on Rutger Hauer.) His lady friend remains a mystery for now.

Big Challenge! Gun Fighter cover (1989) 🔗

The cover for this Famicon Disk System exclusive action game kinda makes you wonder if there weren't enough actual western movies around to imitate for the cover, but maybe the logic was that Clint Eastwood had been in a bunch of westerns as well, so him as Dirty Harry was close enough. This one's not an exact copy, but I think the gun hand and overall posture are enough to make this a confirmed hit.

Impossible Mission II cover (1988) 🔗

The sequel to Epyx' classic "not Mission: Impossible" action platformer was published with an astonishing number of different covers. In the UK, many versions sported this rogue cop on the case, whose sunglasses and modern attire do a poor job of hiding his origins. Makes me wonder if the guy reflected on his glasses is also lifted from somewhere else... At any rate, you gotta love how a video game cover artist looked at Clint Eastwood's gun and was like: "That's a bit much, innit mate?"

Sherwood cover (1993) 🔗

This Slovakian-made Robin Hood game sure tries to cover all the Robin Hoods. Besides Kevin Costner on the title screen, the cover adds Patrick Bergin's interpretation from the British production that amazingly came out the same year as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and even reaches all the way back to 1938 to bring Errol Flynn from The Adventures of Robin Hood back from the dead. The smaller scenes at the bottom are a bit harder to determine, but the Sherriff of Nottingham in the sword scene clearly shows features of Alan Rickman's portraial of the villain. The (presumably) Maid Marian is unidentified so far, but she definitely isn't from any of these films.

Sherwood title screen (1993) 🔗

I know. I get it. If you're making a Robin Hood game, you'll probably end up borrowing from iconic Robin Hood movies here and there. But just digitizing Kevin Costner's mug from the poster of the most recent and most famous of them all, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, as the makers of this ZX Spectrum title from Slovakia did, might be a bit much. And this isn't even the only Robin Hood this game has stolen: The cover art features several more.

1001 Spikes key art (2014) 🔗

This being a recent indie game with a clear 1980s retro flair, I'll grant that this is mostly an intentional homage to the poster for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that you're supposed to recognize, but it's still really darn close to the original.

Zed Blade character portraits (1994) 🔗

For the promotional flyer publisher SNK graced NMK's Zed Blade (aka Operation Ragnarok) with original art by Shinkiro, but for the in-game portraits of the characters they had to gey by using other means, namely scraping them from famous movie stills. Zed Blade's Uncle Beard matches up near perfectly with a somewhat rare photo from the production of 1978's Deer Hunter (except for the animal on his shoulder), while Corporal Swift Arnold is a very obvious stand-in for Maverick from Top Gun. (The actual photo used might be a more obscure variant than the one in the comparison, but even the partially visible patch on his uniform seems to read 'TOPGUN'.) Only Sergeant Ms. Charlotte is currently unidentified.
Credits: The Deer Hunter reference was identified by downchasm on Bluesky.

Navy Moves cover (1989) 🔗

Navy Moves is a home computer game made in Spain, that's basically a series of different action sequences where you're riding a boat, diving, infiltrating an evil underwater lair, and so on. You might not have heard about this game, but the cover is once more graced by a familiar face - and not only the cover, as you can see Arnie's mug at the bottom of the screen all throughout the game, too. This specific pose originates from the poster motive for Commando. If you're wondering why I took the Italian variant for this, it's because the US one has a black background, so it would have been hell to cut out the dark parts of his clothing there.

Wrath of the Black manta cover (1990) 🔗

It doesn't take a master detective to guess that the main inspiration for the North American cover variant for Taito's Wrath of the Black Manta was probably a Ninja movie. And lo and behold, the ninja's attacking pose was lifted directly from the ninja movie of the 1980s, at least from a Western awareness of the genre standpoint.

Super Contra arcade flyer (1987) 🔗

Much like the first game in the series, the artist for Super Contra's promo material clearly understood the assignment, this time really uniting both of the 1980s big muscle action stars on one flyer. Not satisfied with telegraphing the game's influences through a picture, the English version of the flyer also proudly proclaims: "He's not human. He's not alien. He's the predator!!" There's some liberties taken, especially with the faces, but Sly's neckline is still an exact match. The Schwarzenegger stand-in doesn't fit quite as neatly, so either the artist modyfied the pose somewhat, or there might be an obscure alternate still out there that was used as a reference.

Metal Gear cover art (1987) 🔗

The cover for the original Metal Gear may be one of the most widely known and recognized examples that'll ever appear in this gallery. Series creator Hideo Kojima famously being the absolute American action and sci-fi movies freak that he is, it's not at all surprising that it is ripped straight from one of the all time greats from the 1980s, Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in The Terminator. The character's face and pose are hardly disguised at all, although he does get a few additional tech gadgets strapped onto his combat suit, as well as a comically enlarged barrel on his gun. But my favorite part of this is that there seems to be some strange lighting situation going on over the upper half of Michael Biehn's left thumb, which the artist apparently misinterpreted, leaving Solid Snake with an unusually short digit.

Gryzor / Contra cover art (1987) 🔗

It's often assumed that the iconic Contra title art brings together facsimiles of Arnold Schwarzenegger from Predator and Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo, but don't let yourself be misled by the second guy's dark hair and red bandana: In reality, they're both based off stills from Arnie's movie. The art was originally drawn by the late Bob Wakelin for Ocean's European home computer releases under the title Gryzor. Bob doesn't seem to have enjoyed working on this one too much (source: exotica), but someone clearly must have liked it, as it ended up making its way across the pond onto the official NES cover in the US.