The Legend of Zelda has had many imitations over the years, and this is to be expected. Every time there's a breakthrough, others will echo it. Ford may have made the first car, but now it is not the only producer of cars. After Bruce Lee's passing, there were so many imitators (clones) that the term Bruceploitation was born. I think it is safe to coin the term Zeldaploitation, and we can define it as games that take advantage of the success of The Legend of Zelda franchise by duplicating its base gameplay and looks. I ran into the following video by Boku No Eruption which takes a closer look at the phenomena. It focuses on 2-D clones, and be warned, it uses the F-word every now and then (parents, cover your kid's ears).
As you can see from the video, some of these games look rather interesting. I personally vouch towards giving them a try because I believe that the more Zelda or Zelda like games, the better. Of course, they would never replace the original, but they might just be entertaining enough to be worth the time. Zeldaploitation would then, I believe, not be a bad thing.
