As far as AM1 is concerned it was never a studio with a very strong identity. It can be argued that Golden Axe was a cash in on Conan the Barbarian (well Uchida san has actually agreed with that statement so not much of an argument) and House of the Dead was a cash in on Resident Evil (this however is debatable).
AM#1 used to be one of the best development studios inside the SEGA group - Most Am#1 games had great tech and were brilliant games in their own right . And so what if they use films or other games for inspiration, guess you must hate the likes of Outrun, AfterBurner, Shenmue and Virtual Fighter, Virtual Cop for AM'2
Outrun used Cannon Ball, AfterBuner used Top Gun, Shenmue is a ripp off of countless Hong Kong films , VF used Street Fighter 2 for inspiration and Virtual Cop look is straight out of reservoir dogs .
The likes of HOTD series, Get Bass 1 and II, SEGA GT 2002/Onilne, Die Hard Arcade, Golden Axe are some o of my fav SEGA games of all time