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Bobby Prince was involved in the soundtrack production of Duke Nukem 3D (See the Doom entry below) so it's not surprising at all that there's suspiciously similar songs there.
The end theme to the original Resident Evil, "Still Dawn", is clearly inspired by the second half of Layla by Derek and the Dominoes.
An Eye of the Tiger soundalike plays in Breath of Fire 3 when Deis awakens. Followed by Falling Green sounding similar to Secret of the Forest from Chrono Trigger and the Game Over theme and Chrono Trigger's Windy Scene during the first notes.
Super Smash Bros. 4 has Pollyana (I Believe In You)" which contains the last part of the refrain of "Tomorrow" from Annie.
For some reason, the first-level theme from God Hand sounds a great deal like the theme song from Hawaii Five-O (odd, considering this is a Western-themed level).
Godhand also has a Suspiciously Similar Song to the Mazinger Z theme song with new lyrics as its ending credits song.
The Buriki Daioh theme from Live a Live also sounds suspiciously like the Mazinger Z intro theme. That one gets around quite a bit, it seems. Compare and contrast. The game even references the show's intro by opening up a lake for the giant robot to emerge.
The title theme from Donkey Kong Country 2 sounds a lot like the theme from Hook. Other songs in this game that play this trope straight:
The swamp level BGM "Bayou Boogie" sounds a lot like Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", which inevitably led to this.
The winter-themed tracks in the Snowflake Mountain hub courses borrow heavily from Christmas songs. Walrus Cove has pieces of "Here Comes Santa Claus" ("Bells are ringing, children singing...") and "Winter Wonderland" ("In the meadow we can build a snowman..."). Frosty Village has "Winter Wonderland" right off the bat.
Not to mention Snowball Valley, which is a blatant ripoff of the Chicken Dance and actually copies the entire second part verbatim. Why on earth anyone would want to include that awful song in any video game is a mystery.
There's a part of that song that sounds exactly like The Brady Bunch theme, of all things.
The Spaceport Alpha theme from Diddy Kong Racing is suspiciously similar to the Thunderbirds theme.
Guitar Superstar is a plug-'n'-play Guitar Hero ripoff filled with Suspiciously Similar Songs. Just to give an idea, one of the songs is called "Granite Man", which is somewhat reminiscent of "Iron Man".
The Little Busters! soundtrack features a track entitled "Mission Possible," which is pretty much as close as they could get to the Mission: Impossible theme song without actually being said theme song.
Parts of the Doom and Doom II soundtracks were suspiciously similar to metal songs, but executed in such a fashion that few people really noticed. See thesepages for some comparisons.
It should be noted that the games' composer used to be a lawyer, so he knew how much plagiarism they could get away with. The story goes that the lead designer essentially gave him a set of his favourite metal albums and asked the composer to make the Doom soundtrack sound like those.
Coincidentally, the open-source project Freedoom contains Suspiciously Simlar Songs to Doom music, making it somewhat Meta.
The music track for the Doom II level "Barrels o' Fun", entitled "Bye Bye American Pie" (no relation to that song, incidentally), is by far the most egregious example of this trope in the game. It is literally just a few minor variations away from being a note-for-note MIDI transcription of Alice In Chains' "Them Bones", minus the vocal melody, and about half as long. It's essentially a karaoke version. Here, listen for yourself.
Oddly enough, a number of the songs from Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power that didn't get lifted for Doom were reinterpreted on the Quake II soundtrack, though it wasn't Bobby Prince in that case.
Just wanted to point out that pretty much every game id produced followed this trope at least once. Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure had a song that was "Tush" by ZZ Top to a tee. Wolfenstein 3D had a song that was a mashup of Suspiciously Similar Songs to classic "war" tunes. Let's face it, Bobby Prince isn't known for his originality.
Duke Nukem II had a song that was pretty much a slightly reworked version of Megadeth's "Angry Again".
And on the Apogee front, one level tune in Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold has an intro that sounds quite similar to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." It should come as no shock who did the music for this one.
In a Power RangersSNES game, the Player Select music is very similar to X Japan's "Sadistic Desire".
The second overworld music in Super Mario Bros. 3 heavily resembles the Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star", especially the second half. This hook also appears as a Recurring Riff in the "Snowman's Land" music in Super Mario 64.
The Airship music in Super Mario Bros. 3 is suspiciously similar to of Mars: The Bringer Of War from Holtz's "The Planets" suite. The similarities are even more obvious in the orchestrated version from Super Mario Galaxy. But then again, "Bringer of War" is a pretty appropriate theme for those levels.
Also, the first overworld theme in Super Mario Bros. 3 is basically a speeded-up interpretation of Sentimental Journey (especially the Ringo Starr version).
The first part of the fortress theme (before it goes into the loop) in Super Mario World is suspiciously similar to Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain mixed with the SMW main theme.
Another Super Mario World example would be the main theme, which sounds a lot like Dave Seville's "Witch Doctor." "Ooh eeh ooh ahh ahh bing bang walla walla bing bang ooh eeh ooh ahh ahh bing bang walla bing bang!"
Invisible Forest from SMV uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to Mozart's 40th symphony.
Weirdly, the Nintendo DS game based on Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart used Suspiciously Similar Songs to several themes from the anime (most noticeable is the Marble Screw music). What's weird about this is that they used the real version of the show's opening theme song. That, and the whole "same franchise as the original music" thing.
It happens again in Super Mario 3D Land. The first movement of the main theme sounds suspiciously similar to the New Super Mario Bros. overworld music, while the second movement is all but identical to Super Mario Bros. 3's.
The Spin-Dig and Boulder Bowl Galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy 2 start with a riff that is suspiciously similar to Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"...
Also, the music for "Sky Station Galaxy", "Fluffy Bluff/Cloudy Court Galaxies", and "Bowser's Galaxy Generator" are actually Suspiciously Similar Songs to the music for "Good Egg Galaxy", "Gusty Garden Galaxy", and "Bowser's Galaxy Reactor" (especially the last two) from the first Super Mario Galaxy game, respectively.
Bowser's two themes from his boss battles in the first Super Mario Galaxy game are actually Suspiciously Similar Songs to "Imperial March" and "Duel of the Fates" (especially their harmonies) from the Star Wars films, respectively (possibly because they match his desire to control the universe). His two themes from Super Mario Galaxy 2 are actually Suspiciously Similar Songs to "Across the Stars" (possibly because of his obsession with Peach), also from Star Wars and Carmina Burana (again especially its harmony), respectively.
The Comet Observatory theme apparantly sounds like a mix between the songs "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and "Someday my Prince Will Come" from Cinderella and Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, respectively. Also, the Lumas' theme sounds an awful lot like the song "When You Wish Upon A Star" from Pinocchio.
The music that plays when one first reaches the observatory reminds me of Mario Kart for some reason.
Alternatively, Comet Observatory is an orchestrated version of the main theme from Clu Clu Land.
The Flipsville and Chompworks themes from Galaxy 2 closely resemble "Funkytown", as well.
The Fire Flower theme sounds an awful lot like 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready for This." And the Ice Flower's theme sounds an awful lot like... ...the Fire Flower theme.
The map theme for World 1 of Galaxy 2 sounds very similar to John Denver's "The Flower that Shattered the Stone", and World S's map theme sound a lot like Coldplay's "Viva La Vida."
The Mario Party series, particularly games composed close to one another, are prone to having JHVs of each other. Compare, for example, Mario Party 1's soundtrack with Mario Party 2's.
Spy Hunter of course used the Peter Gunn theme for its main music, supposedly this was licensed. Ironically, Super Spy Hunter, which was not originally titled as a sequel, instead being named Battle Formula in Japan, used a Suspiciously Similar Song to Peter Gunn music in its second stage.
In another ironic twist, the Spy Hunter game also provides an aversion of this trope. The makers of the game originally wanted to use the James Bond theme song, but couldn't obtain the rights to it. Instead of using a Suspiciously Similar Song to it, they went with the Peter Gunn theme.
The original arcade version of Taito's Rainbow Islands uses an upbeat remix of "Over The Rainbow" (yes, the song from The Wizard of Oz!) as its background music. Needless to say, there were some issues with licensing the music when the game was released on home systems. Many home computer ports of the game got away with using the original tune, but the North American NES release uses a very noticeable Suspiciously Similar Song; the European NES release uses an entirely different tune altogether; and later re-releases, including the PC re-release, are back to Suspiciously Similar Songs again.
The arcade port found on Taito Legends is an aversion. It uses the same theme, but with the offending melody simply muted.
Also, Parasol Stars, the sequel to Rainbow Islands, uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to the Lambada as the boss battle music!
In a possibly unintentional case, the music in Tourian in the original Metroid resembles the music from Bowser's Castle in the original Super Mario Bros., especially the opening notes of the bassline. The resemblance is further notable in that Tourian is roughly the Metroid equivalent of Bowser's Castle, since the final boss confrontation takes place there.
The Tourian theme is also extremely similar to a section of the movement "Gnomus" in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
The theme music to some versions of Pengo is suspiciously similar to "Popcorn" by Gershon Kingsley/Hot Butter.
Seeing as Legend of Mana and Super Mario RPG share a music composer (Yoko Shimomura), it only figures that the former would include some versions of songs from the latter. For example:
"Mystic City Geo" is suspciously similar to the Mushroom Kingdom theme.
The Toad Town theme from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, which Shimomura also composed, is in turn suspiciously similar to Mystic City Geo (with multiple pastiches of the first nine notes of the infamous "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms" from Super Mario RPG thrown in for good measure), to bring this full-circle.
"Pastoral" uses the same measurement and beat as the Marrymore theme.
And speaking of Super Mario RPG, the music for Bandit's Way and Bean Valley is obviously modeled after "Trepak/Russian Dance" from The Nutcracker.
The credits sequence is clearly inspired by Disneyland's Electrical Parade; naturally, the background music is suspiciously similar to "Baroque Hoedown", the theme music from that parade.
Gritzy Desert from Partners in Time sounds a lot like Agrabah's theme(s) in Kingdom Hearts (especially the Brawl version). Again, Shimomura was the composer for both songs, so it's not surprising.
The battle theme that Shimomura did for Superstar Saga has a remarkably similar structure to the one she did for Mario RPG.
Fawful's Castle Garden in Bowser's Inside Story sounds strangely similar to Ganon's theme.
The Ninja Gaiden arcade game feature a recurring pair of sub-bosses who are obvious pastiches of the legendary wrestling tag team known as the Road Warriors. Their background theme ("I Am Man") was such an obvious ripoff of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" (the entrance theme of the Road Warriors), that when Tecmo released the game on the Virtual Console, they had to remove the tune to avoid copyright infringement.
In Chrono Trigger, "Jolly Ol' Spekkio", the theme of the shapeshifter of the same name found at the End of Time, sounds a heck of a lot like "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King.
Also, there's Ayla's Theme (here) and "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones (here).
Try listening to the music in this video from around :30, and tell me it doesn't sound like a sped up version of the MMPR theme
The music that plays during the trial early in the game is very similar to a song in The Wall called, fittingly, The Trial.
The Spider-Man/Venom beat-'em-upMaximum Carnage for the SNES and Genesis was advertised as featuring a soundtrack composed by Green Jelly (later Green Jello) - who came up with an original title tune and Suspiciously Similar Songs to metal classics for the rest of the game. Most notable as well as fitting was Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules" for boss fights.
The soundtrack to Forza Motorsport 1 features instrumentals to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", ZZ Top's "La Grange" and a redone version of Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein", as arranged by renowned musician Junkie XL.
In Daryl Gates' Police Quest: Open Season, a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Can't Turn You Lose" by the Blues Brothers can sometimes be heard in Ragin' Records at Hollywood & Vine.
The protagonist's headquarters being Parker Center, it also featured a near note-for-note ripoff of the Dragnet theme, another variation of which was used as the theme for Police Quest I.
In Quest for Glory 3, the music playing in the background at the Apothecary's store is a somewhat mediterranean Suspiciously Similar Song to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit". Very suitable, given the Apothecary's profession (sells drugs...) and hippie-like demeanor.
In Leisure Suit Larry 5, "K Rap Talk" is suspiciously similar to Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science".(same beat, the characteristic pulsing bassline, similar synth hits). Some versions, however, use a completely different song in place of it.
The third Hard Disk Cafe song has a bassline similar to WAR's "Low Rider".
And the series theme sounds similar to "When I'm 64" by The Beatles.
"K Rap Rap" is reminiscent of Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step".
The music during the Taj Mahal Dream Sequence somewhat resembles Van Halen's "Jump".
Tails' theme in Sonic Adventure is suspiciously similar to the Bridge Zone theme from the 8-bit version Sonic the Hedgehog, which itself is suspiciously similar to the theme from Full House.
The day music for Mazuri in Sonic Unleashed is essentially a remix of the credits music from the 8-bit Sonic 1, without the Green Hill rendition in the middle.
In Carnival Night Zone, the beat from Michael Jackson's "Jam" is used, along with the trumpet riff and stock glass-breaking sound, and the melody is based on "Entry of the Gladiators", a famous orchestral circus piece that everyone has heard at least once.
The Hydrocity zone music is reminiscent of the Mike Mareen song "Heavy Water".
The Ice Cap Zone theme has a bassline similar to "Smooth Criminal", and a melody derived from "Who Is It".
The ending theme is the basis of "Stranger in Moscow".
The Launch Base Zone music uses elements of "Bad", as well as a bass hook similar to Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait".
The bass line in the beginning portion of the song, which gets re-used throughout, is very similar to the bass line from the song "Soaring Mosaic" by John Kaizan Neptune.
The Marble Garden theme and "Thriller" are quite similar.
Metropolis Zone somewhat resembles Van Halen's "Jump" and the Pointer Sisters' "Jump(For My Love)".
The 16-bit Sonic 1's Star Light Zone music is based on the J-pop song Kusuriyubi no Kesshin by Dreams Come True. In fact, the soundtrack was composed by Masato Nakamura, a member of that band.
For the same reason, the music from the ending cutscene of Sonic 2 is essentially a 16-bit version of their song "Sweet Sweet Sweet".
Scrap Brain Zone is suspiciously similar to the Blade Runner ending theme(twice as fast) complete with the drum hits. The latter half also sounds like Kraftwerk's "Spacelab", and the bassline resembles that of another KW song, "Metropolis" (not Metropolis Zone).
The music to the Neo Green Hill Zone board in Sonic Pinball Party is a messed-up version of the tune to Neo Green Hill Zone Act 2 in Sonic Advance Series. This is especially bizarre considering that the game's other boards (also based off of Advance levels) take the music verbatim from their models.
Take a listen to "Back-2-Back", the theme for Water Palace from Sonic Rush Series. Now, if it hasn't sprung to mind already, take a listen to "Start the Commotion" by The Wiseguys. The similar repeated use of the guitar hook sample is just the tip of the iceberg. It's like Hideki Naganuma composed a tribute as a BGM!
The ending theme for the Revenge of Meta Knight subgame in Kirby Super Star (and Ultra) sounds suspiciously similar to The Animals' rendition of "House of the Rising Sun".
And the Game Over screen sounds quite similar to the chorus of Queen's "You're My Best Friend".
"Katamari On The Funk", the title song from the PSP-exclusive Katamari Damacy sequel Me and My Katamari and one of the few original songs in the game, bears a striking resemblance to a tune from the PSP version of Ridge Racer that the same person had composed.
Guilty Gear is built on rock and roll references. Bridget alone has "Shoot The Moon", "Kickstart My Heart" and a teddy bear named for Roger Taylor of Queen. Five characters were directly named after bands (Cloudberry Jam, Millia Rage, ABA, Slayer and Testament). Ky Kiske seems pretty normal (and not band related) until you learn that he was named after Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske, two former members of Helloween. Furthermore, Justice's Gamma Ray super takes its name from the band of the same name
In Mega Man, the music in Elec Man's stage is pretty similar to "All the Right Friends" by REM.
It also somewhat resembles "Faithfully" by Journey, which was written not long before the REM song. "Faithfully" may be the more likely source, as "All The Right Friends" was a very obscure R.E.M. song at the time and had yet to appear on any official releases.
The chorus of the Eurobeat song "Back to 80's" by Mega NRG Man and Domino also sounds like those.
As does Sky Sanctuary from Sonic & Knuckles.
The music in the first part of Dr. Cossack's castle in 4 resembles a certain Russian folk song.
Cossack Castle's second theme sounds a lot like the Bionic Commando theme. In turn, it the second Skull Castle theme in the same game is in turn a Suspiciously Similar Song.
Then, 5's Skull Castle theme was suspiciously similar to that version.
Slash Man's theme is reminiscent of "Magical Sound Shower" from Out Run, as well as Quick Man's theme from MM2 and Wave Man's theme from MM5.
A riff from Cut Man's theme from the original sounds very similar to the character select screen music from X-Men: Children of the Atom.
The infamous Dr. Wily Castle - Stage 1 theme from Mega Man 2 opens with nine notes that are remarkably similar to Michael Jackson's 'Beat It.' This same string of notes would go on to show up in Mother 3 in the music that plays during the 'Natural Killer Cyborg' fight.
The Stage 5 theme from Blaster Master is suspiciously similar to Bomb Man's theme from Mega Man 1, and one of the guys at Overclocked Remix did a mash-up remix of the two.
One scene in Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak involves finding a spoon (which later gets used in a catapult). The scene wherein you remove the spoon from its pedestal is a direct send-up of the "removing the Master Sword from its pedestal" scene from The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past, and the music that plays during the removal is suspiciously similar to the "opening a large chest" music from the 3D incarnations of Zelda - where the original arpeggios go up, these arpeggios go down.
Not only that, but pay attention to the tune that plays when Spat appears. Ring any bells? Well, let's just say it's one of the reasons a reviewer said Spat was practically Hamster Kefka.
Although said bosses originally had Something Person-esque names in the original Japanese version (and were left untouched in the US version's manual for some reason)...
Mega Man X5 had a couple itself. The opening theme borrows from both the first Mega Man X game (the dramatic piece when Zero dies) and from Mega Man 3 (the "get power" theme which was quite awesome). The Shadow Devil music is a homage to the Yellow Devil music from the original Mega Man, and Lamdabamda's music is from the first Mega Man X. And the Duff McWhalen/Tidal Whale stage song...well, just compare it to X2's Bubble Crab stage song.
Even weirder, "Saria's Song", the iconic theme music for The Lost Woods from the same game and Twilight Princess is suspiciously similar to the Jupiter suite from Gustav Holst's The Planets.
Additionally, Twilight Princess features a hidden area in the form of a town that's been abandoned for years, composed of one main street lined with buildings... with dust and tumbleweeds everywhere... and the buildings full of enemies launching arrows at you, necessitating a big bow-and-arrow shootout through the town. The music for this set-piece did a wonderful job of capturing the feel of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Western scores.
For that matter, the Kakariko Village theme from ALttP bears resemblance to the second movement of Pathetique by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Noticed a resemblance between the original game's Underworld music and the Halloween theme?
The refrain of A Link to the Past's ending theme sounds very similar to "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem.
The first eight notes of Chancellor Cole's Leitmotif in Spirit Tracks are a blatant steal from Mordack's theme in King's Quest V - the first note was duplicated, but the two are basically identical otherwise.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai had a few pieces of background music which were suspiciously similar to Stratovarius music, as seen here.
Many of the dancers you encounter in Final Fantasy IV do their routine to a short song that directly resembles the first section of Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance.
One that falls between this and orchestration: Terra's Theme from Final Fantasy VI and Alkan's La Chanson De La Folle Au Bord De La Mer which dates to 1847. The beginning of Alkan's piece is very close to that theme apart from it being slower and for piano. In fact this trope could also be called the Final Fantasy version because it is not uncommon for Uematsu to do this. For that matter, Golden Saucer is clearly inspired by BMV 655.
The first Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers video game for the NES uses a soundalike of "When I'm Sixty-Four" in a few levels.
Area H from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 is a Haunted House level that sounds VERY Castlevania inspired.
The NES RPG Hydlide has an overworld tune that sounds suspiciously close to John Williams' "Raiders' March", the theme song to the Indiana Jones films. (This tune was actually borrowed from Hydlide II, which was otherwise unreleased outside Japan.)
The stage music for Dracula's stage in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse sounds an awful lot like the Billy Joel song "Pressure" inverted (bass line on top, melody on bottom). Go into music demo mode, and what's that stage's music called? "Pressure."
Most if not all of the music in the CAVE shmup Dangun Feveron are suspiciously similar to Saturday Night Fever music; for instance, 2 stage themes are more than a little similar to "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever".
In Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, "Ernst" is suspiciously similar to "Moon Over The Castle", the theme song from the Japanese versions of the Gran Turismo games. There's even a fan-made mashup of the two songs.
Actually it's a sped up JHV of To The Last Whale by Crosby, Stills & Nash... then again, Kiss From A Rose is also a JHV of that song...
Crevia's theme in the PlayStation 2 version sounds similar to the Beast's theme from Beauty and the Beast, which itself was inspired by the Aquarium movement of Camille Saint-Saens' The Carnival Of The Animals.
In Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, Lava Field" sounds like the first level theme from Demon Sword, and "A Great Ordeal" sounds like "Wheel of Fortune" by Tony MacAlpine.
In turn, the first level theme from Jim Power for Amiga and SNES bears a striking resemblance to "A Searing Struggle". Chris Hülsbeck had indeed played Wanderers From Ys before composing the music for Jim Power, but claims that the inspiration was purely subliminal-- he had mostly forgotten about the Ys soundtrack by that point.
The primary riff of "Holders of Power" from Ys I and II sounds like a faster version of the opening riff of "Flash of the Blade" by Iron Maiden.
The opening notes of tower theme in the first Ys game and the underground theme in the Super Mario Bros. games sound suspiciously similar.
In Mother 3, the "Mr. Batty" enemies have theme music that sounds strikingly similar--especially in its intro--to the 1960's Batman theme. You know--"Nahnahnahnahnahna nana nahnahnahnahnahna nana BATMAAAAAN!"
In addition, the Jealous Bass music sounds rather similar to the Grease Lightning song.
The Love Theme itself sounds a lot like "Beauty and the Beast" from, well, Beauty and the Beast.
In-series, it's suspiciously similar to "Boy Meets Girl" from EarthBound.
In the Animaniacs game "The Great Edgar Hunt", the main Studio Lot theme is suspiciously similar to the Cartoon Show's theme tune.
Depending on who you talk to, the Metal Gear Solid melody could be a shameless rip-off of the Speed theme tune or an up-beat suspiciously similar to "The Winter Road" by Sviridov. In each case the stylistic similarity is more obvious when looking at Gregson-Williams' orchestral version of the theme from the 2001 MGS2 trailer, but the melody's present in TAPPY's original 1998 version.
Big Boss's Leitmotif is suspiciously similar to the Metal Gear Solid theme, which sounds a little more tender than the actual melody due to the changing of two chords in the progression.
The song "Old Snake" seems to be suspiciously similar to the main theme as well, slower and sadder.
And the Metal Gear KODOQUE theme in Metal Gear Acidand its sequel was suspiciously similar to the Metal Gear Solid main theme with the same chord progression but a different melody.
The main Recurring Riff in the original Metal Gear Solid(ambience, alert music, boss music, etc.) resembles Kraftwerk's "Radio-Activity", especially with that synthesized choir.
Merry Gear Solid has a lot of these. The Merry Gear Solid 2: Ghosts of Christmas Past is full of them, often with hilarious results. For example, the Konami-ripoff logo at the beginning starts with the normal "doo doo doo, do do do" then finishes with Jingle Bells via pitch-shifting.
The indoor infiltration theme in the NES version of Metal Gear features a tune similar to the Mission: Impossible theme.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake had a soundtrack hacked together from gutted, chiptuned versions of the best action movie themes of the 80s. Some, like the similarity between "Advance Immediately" and the Terminator main theme, and the "Theme of Solid Snake" and the theme from Escape from New York, are subtle. Other, like the relationship between "Chasing The Green Beret" and the Mission: Impossible theme, are less so. Night Sight's theme was such an obvious ripoff of Michael Myers' theme music that it was excluded from the OST album. The bonus track "Swing, Swing~ A Jam Blues" is suspiciously similar to Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman.
The Recurring Riff in the first two Wario Land games is, inexplicably, an upbeat Suspiciously Similar Song to "Beautiful Dreamer".
The song that plays in the early routes of the first generation of Pokémon games sounds suspiciously similar to Polly Wolly Doodle mixed with Old Folks at Home.
The first few bars of Prof. Oak's lab theme in Generations I and III (and later the theme for his radio show in Gens. II and IV) sounds nearly identical to the first few bars of the "Chinese Dance" (or "Tea") from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
The theme for Route 29 in Gold and Silver (and their respective remakes) sounds very similar to both the original Route 1 theme and "O Susanna".
Route 209 (from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum) shares an extremely similar tune to the choruses of Electric Light Orchestra's "Telephone Line" and Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes".
The music in the Celestial Tower in Black and White sounds quite a bit like the "Secret of the Forest" track in Chrono Trigger
Let's add some Touhou. The Final N battle theme has parts of "Now, until the moment you die" from Highly Responsive to Prayers about 0:47 onward.
The opening bar of the "Farewell" track from Pokémon Black and White is pretty much exactly the same as the start of Mother 3's famous "Love Theme". Other parts bear resemblance to "To Far Away Times" from Chrono Trigger.
"Route 10" has also been compared to "Run, My Dod, Run" from Mother 3
Parts of the Mistralton City theme sound very similar to the original Star Trek theme.
The pool level in the SNES/Genesis game Cool Spot resembled, but was not quite, Fats Domino's "Walkin' to New Orleans," while the train level used a song that was just a few notes away from The Magnificent Seven theme.
One guess as to what the theme of James Pond II: Robocod is suspiciously similar to. (Amazingly, the prior game did not use a knockoff of the James Bond theme.)
The "Meet the Engineer" trailer used a guitar piece suspiciously similar to a song called, oddly enough, "Someone Else's Song", by the group Wilco. When the song was added to the game as main menu music nearly unaltered from the trailer, it was quickly changed out for a Suspiciously Similar Song twice.
The theme music to online freeware game Legend of Princess is suspiciously similar to the Zelda theme because the game is a takeoff of Zelda.
No More Heroes's Thunder Ryu Building is a gym in which Travis can upgrade his abilities. The background music is almost, but not quite, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."
Also, the credits music sounds very similar to the Star Wars theme. The version that appears on the official soundtrack makes it even more obvious: not only is it played by an orchestra, as opposed to the 8-bit style version in the game; but the track itself is called "Staff Wars: Episode I"
Done in Elite Beat Agents, when most of the songs are covers. Most of them are exactly the same, but with different vocals, although some become faster (such as "Let's Dance", which is incredibly jarring listening to the game and original versions back-to-back). The exceptions are Sk8er Boi and September, which might as well be the original versions, and "Jumping Jack Flash"; if it weren't for the lyrics, you'd think it was an entirely different song. This was for the betterto the extreme.
Earlier versions of Eversion used music from the obscure Famicom game Cocoron for their title screen and first world. Version 1.7, however, uses tunes that are clearly suspiciously similar to the original Cocoron music.
One of the shmupArmed Police Batrider's boss themes, "Let Ass Kick Together", has an opening riff like the main riff from Iron Maiden's "Powerslave", just in a different key and with a couple of notes different, although the rest of the theme is different.
"Heian Alien", the Bonus Boss theme in Undefined Fantastic Object is suspiciously similar to "U.N. Owen Was Her?", the Bonus Boss theme from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, to the point of referring to the former as "UFOwen Was Her?"
"Our Hisoutensoku" from Touhou 12.3 is an intentional Shout-Out to the theme from Mazinger Z.
In a similar vein, doing Reimu's Fatal KO move in the same game makes the background music jump to a suspiciously similar version of Ai Wo Torimadose. Like "Our Hisoutensoku", this was an intentional Shout-Out, due to the move being called "Musou Tensei".
Sakuya's "Flowering Night" theme from Phantasmagoria of Flower View sounds an awful lot like the beginning of Iron Maiden's"The Trooper".
The first portion of Suwako's theme "Native Faith" is pretty heavily based on the final boss theme from Night Striker. This isn't random; ZUN used to work at Taito, so there's a good chance that this was his version of a tribute to Mar (Night Striker's composer).
“Himorogi, Burn in Violet” from stage 4 of Story of Eastern Wonderland somewhat resembles “The Decisive Battle” from Final Fantasy VI.
“Septette for a Dead Princess”, the final boss theme from EoSD, has traces of “Rockface Rumble” from Donkey Kong Country 3.
The main in-game theme of Transformers: Convoy no Nazo sounds very similar to the main theme of the Jaleco arcade/NES Shoot'Em UpArgus.
As does Boktai, more frequently than you could imagine them getting away with.
Final Fantasy VIII has a track called "The Landing" that plays when your team lands in Dollet to fight the Galbadian army. In the demo version of the game, the track was an altered version of the main theme from The Rock. Apparently, it wasn't altered enough, as the track was changed for the actual game. Apparently, someone involved with the movie complained.
Another same franchise example: the NES Rambo game features a Jimmy Hart version of the original First Blood theme as the title theme, as well as a Jimmy Hart version of "Peace in Our Life" as the ending theme.
The title theme to Snake Rattle and Roll is, as one might expect, a knockoff of "Shake, Rattle and Roll".
The climax of the Mantid Hive theme in Turok 2 resembles the third part (by Skaven) of the soundtrack from Future Crew's Second Reality.
The Theme Tune of the first three Space Quest games is either a Jimmy Hart version of "Attack of the Hawk Men" from the 1980 Flash Gordon movie or the Superman movie theme. The fourth game's version sounds more like the Star Trek theme.
In addition to the cameos by the Blues Brothers and ZZ Top and their respective songs, the "alien trio" music in the Rocket Bar copies the bass riff of Styx's "Too Much Time on My Hands" ad verbatim.
Compare Tager's theme, Motor Head, to Straight to Hell by Rage. Considering that the Rage song "Black In Mind" was referenced in Guilty Gear, this may well be intentional.
The PC game Interstate '76 had a number of Jimmy Hart Versions on its soundtrack, mostly of '70s funk songs like the Ohio Players' "Fopp", The Isley Brothers' "That Lady" and Curtis Mayfield's "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go". Even the theme song bore a certain resemblance to the theme song to the TV series S.W.A.T. (albeit a bit sped-up).
The town theme of the PC game "Torchlight" appears to be a Jimmy Hart version of the Tristram theme from the original Diablo. Not suprising, considering several of the people from the Diablo team worked on Torchlight. In particular, Matt Uelman composed the music for both Diablo and Torchlight.
Gruntilda's Lair from Banjo-Kazooie is a Jimmy Hart version of "Teddy Bear's Picnic". It also became well associated with the character.
In Banjo Tooie, the theme of the level Witchyworld bears some resemblance with House of the Rising Sun by the Animals (the beginning, anyway)
And in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, the music when you first enter each of the new worlds is suspiciously similar to a television theme tune. (Nutty Acres is Dallas, for instance.)
Apogee's Monster Bash uses this for a number of pieces of music in the game. The most obvious example being the title theme, which arguably sounds better than what it's supposed to be imitating.
The independent Point And Click AdventureThe Adventures of Fatman features suspiciously similar versions of both the 1960s Batman show theme, and the Danny Elfman movie theme.
In another bizarre example involving a licensed game, the developers of The Flintstones: Burgertime in Bedrock for Game Boy apparently couldn't manage to get the license to the series' iconic theme song. Several tunes in the game, including the title tune, have the same rhythm but a completely different melody.
The NES American Gladiators game used a Jimmy Hart version of the show's Theme Tune, while the 16-bit games didn't use it at all.
In Noby Noby Boy, by the creator of Katamari Damacy and also released by Namco, there are some selectable music tracks that sound like subtle instrumental versions of Katamari songs (such as Lonely Rolling Star and Cherry Blossom Color Season), and the hidden minigame music is from Metro Cross, both Namco tunes.
In the Game Boy Color game Diva Starz, one of the selectable pieces of runway music bears an unlikely resemblance to "Lux Aeterna" from Requiem for a Dream. The song is a frequent target of Jimmy Hart versions in general, but hearing it play as a Bratz expy walks a blue bunny down the catwalk is just bizarre.
The Ikaruga main theme (the beginning of "Ideal") sounds like a pastiche of Tchaikovsky's "Romeo & Juliet" and Zelda theme. The other major recurring theme from "Ideal" sounds similar to "Bloodlines" from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. The theme to Chapter 3 is a sound-a-like of Hyrule Castle.
The music used in the No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle "toilet" promo video sounds an awful lot like the B-section from the theme to A Fistful of Dollars.
When Frogger was included on a Konami compilation for Game Boy Advance, all of the musical themes (including the anime themes, and even "Inu no Omawari-san" the traditional Japanese nursery rhyme that serves as the "game start" music) were given Jimmy Hart versions.
When Track and Field was included on a Nintendo DS compilation, "Chariots of Fire" (which was heard in the original arcade release) was turned into a Jimmy Hart version.
The rhythm dance game series Pump It Up features several Jimmy Hart versions of songs created by an in-house production band, BanYa. Among these include "Extravaganza" (Burnin' by Daft Punk), "Mr. Larpus" (Wipeout by The Surfaris), "Miss's Story" (Beethoven's 5th Symphony), "Beethoven Virus" (Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique), "Beat of the War" (Holy Wars...The Punishment Due by Megadeth), and "Love is a Danger Zone 2" (Motorbreath by Metallica).
Another franchise suspiciously similar to itself: in Halo 2, the Delta Halo Theme is a Jimmy Hart version of the series' Theme Tune, and "Leonidas" is the JHV of "On A Pale Horse" from the first game.
Blast Corps: Almost every song in this game is based off a real song, and one completely rips off Front Line Assembly's Circuitry. I'm surprised they never sued Rare.
A JHV of "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen is heard in Pictionary for the NES.
Wipe Out, the theme of the Osaka Stage from Capcom vs. SNK 2, is pretty much a rock-heavy version of Lei Wulong's theme from Tekken 3 (moreso the OST than the AST).
This is even funnier when you realize that Lei's theme is a cover of Steam by East 17, which preceded T3 by a margin of about two years. The lyrics "Outside it's raining / but inside it's wet" is a bit humorous given the nature of Lei's stage in that game.
Lemmings features Jimmy Hart versions of "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" and "Baby Face", in addition to the many Public Domain Soundtrack tunes.
Stage Theme 6 sounds similar to "{Keep Feeling} Fascination" by The Human League.
Lemmings 2 has a JHV of the Mission: Impossible theme in the Shadow Tribe stages.
The Amiga and SNES versions, anyway. The Genesis Shadow tribe theme sounds nothing like it.
One of the songs in the second Dukes of HazzardPlayStation game is an instrumental JHV of "I Fought The Law".
In Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, the music in Stages 9-12 is an obvious ripoff of Kraftwerk's "Home Computer".
The last few bars before the loop in "Child Abuse" (the Robo-Rat/Thesso fight theme) from Persona is basically "It's a Small World".
In keeping with its theme, 3D Dot Game Heroes has Jimmy Hart versions of songs from Dragon Quest, The Legend of Zelda, and the early Final Fantasy games.
In the old Macintosh game Jump Raven, one of the BGMs has a guitar riff similar to White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65".
The theme for SWIV sounds a lot like Depeche Mode's "People are People", even going as far as containing samples from the song.
Parappa the Rapper: The cinema before the fourth level includes a short ditty that sounds remarkably like the song "Tijuana Taxi".
The driving lesson song is a pretty blatant ripoff of "Turtles Have Short Legs" by Can.
The little riffs that play as you wonder around in New Austin contain a melody that for a few notes more would be the theme of The Good the Bad And The Ugly played on an electric guitar. There's also a slow rhythmic guitar and English horn piece which is obviously reminiscent of the repeated "Per Un Pugno Di Dollari" cue from A Fistful of Dollars, but slowed down and without the key changes, and a harmonica riff reminiscent of the "Man With A Harmonica" theme from Once Upon a Time in the West.
The bounty hunting, raiding a hideout and ambient battle music in New Austin is basically "L'Inseguimento" from A Fistful of Dollars in a swung time signature.
The harmonica piece occasionally played by harmonica-playing NPCs is very, very similar to the "Marcetta" melody from The Good the Bad And The Ugly (the one that plays when Tuco and Blondie are being led into the prison camp).
There's an ocarina playing the coyote-call from The Good the Bad And The Ugly amongst the ambient riffs in Mexico, although with a couple of notes added on the end, or with slightly different articulation. Sometimes it's even followed up with a harmonica playing a 'waa waa waa' reply, with the same pitches in a different order. The battle music while attacking banditos in Mexico also contains the screaming voices associated with Tuco in the same film.
The PS2 remake of Sega's Hokuto no Ken side-scroller for the Master System features a soundtrack consisting of vaguely similar renditions of the incidental music from the anime.
Konami's NES game of the film Top Gun has, as its attract mode demo music, a Jimmy Hart Version of "Danger Zone".
In Bust-A-Groove (Bust-A-Move in Japan), Strike's theme "Power" contains a recurring sample of Michael Jackson's "Bad" and a similar back beat, to the point where its title is often mixed up with the title of Heat's theme-- which is actually called "2 Bad", though it's (ironically) an entirely different song with no Jimmy Harting to be found.
The music to the Golden Gate Bridge stage in Super Double Dragon (used for Duke's Hideout in the Japanese version) sounds like the Big Blue theme (with a touch of Port Town's theme) from the F-Zero series.
The Nintendo Power promotional video for "Star Fox 64" features a song that sounds similar to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
Wario Land: Shake It contains a few. "Soggybog River" is clearly a Jimmy Hart version of "Eye of the Tiger" and "Gurgle Gulch" being one of the original Underground theme from Super Mario Bros.
"Celebrate" from the Dance Dance Revolution series is an obvious JHV of "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Ironically, there was also a remix of the real "Boogie Wonderland" in some DDR mixes.
"Blue Fog" from the first game sounds similar to "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MG's. "STL" sounds like the main riff of The Just Brother's "Sliced Tomatoes".
Sam's Homoerotic Daydream about getting engaged to Max in The Penal Zone is accompanied by a very close JHV of "Pallidio" by Karl Jenkins.
In They Stole Max's Brain!, the music that plays when Sam fights Skun-ka'pe is a JHV of the Star Trek fight music.
More as homage and less as parody, the theme to the The History of Sam and Max featurette on the Season 3 DVD is a live-instruments JHV of the theme to Sam and Max Hit The Road; particularly nice, since the Office Leitmotif from the Telltale series serves as their 'theme' in those. Unusually, the actual theme from Hit The Road is played in one of the episodes - perhaps Telltale had the rights to play the theme, but not to rearrange it?
Flash of Sword from Valis: The Fantasm Soldier, and Level 1 from Final Zone II. In this case, the games were made by the same company, so it may be Self-Plagiarism.
In Ring King, when you win a match in one player mode, you get a tune that is very similar to the one from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from Disney's Alice in Wonderland... you know, the part where it goes, "The time has come, my little friends, / To talk of many things: / Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, / Of cabbages and kings."
The soundtrack of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals consists mostly of Suspiciously Similar Songs of its predecessor's themes.
The saved game screen in the first Lufia resembles the theme song to Disney's The Wuzzles and to some extent "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Song of the South.
Many of the themes in Wild Arms Alter Code: F are not direct remixes of tracks from the original Wild Arms but Suspiciously Similar Songs, for example, the Curan Abbey theme.
Unlicensed Sega Master System game The Dinosaur Dooley, released in the early 90's, had some blatant ripoffs of popular songs of the time - for instance the title screen music is based on the intro to Nirvanas "Smells Like Teen Spirit", while the third level's music is clearly "Two Princes" by The Spin Doctors.
In Thwaite, the music for 2 AM is a parody of the music for 2 AM in Animal Crossing: Wild World and City Folk, showing that song's own similarity to the second movement of Pathetique by Ludwig Van Beethoven.
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