Overlooked Counterparts To Franchise Games

[Sky10w10w]

Sega developed Sonic the Hedgehog as a counterpart to Nintendo's Mario. But what about the lesser known counterparts that were developed in response to a competitor's franchise games?

Here are some examples I can think of:

To counter the Zelda games, Sega developed Golden Axe Adventure for the Master System, and later developed Beyond Oasis for the Genesis.

To counter Eternal Champions (Sega's franchise 2D fighter), Nintendo developed Killer Instinct.

[white-zombie]

I don't about Nintendo developing Killer Instinct to challenge Eternal Champions, as I don't remember the latter being THAT popular.

Also, I'm not entirely sure that many games were so much developed to challenge the dominanance of certain games, more that some games raise the bar/set the standard and others try to copy.

Think: Bubsy, Cool Spot, Global Gladiators.