Are there any story ripoffs that are actually good?

That's been debunked, afaik. There are only surface similarities.

Now, if someone watches the restoration of the original unfinished 1960s ‘The Thief and the Cobbler’, they might notice some glaring parallels to another Disney cartoon. Not in the story, though, for the most part.

In case anyone is interested in watching a lengthy video essay about how that not the case here: YMS: Kimba the white lion

Which I think is genuinely incredible. Watching the show evolve from a Star Trek Spoof to a Star Trek Comedy all the way to Just Star Trek was breathtaking.

And to think, one of the most crucial plot points of the show--and how it evolved to encompass bigger and more profound issues--came from a gay joke.

🎵I-----aye am a maan, of constant sorROWS🎵

From what I've heard, 'TMNT' is basically a wide-reaching parody of the comic genre at the time. 'Daredevil' was one of the influences, just like noted in the Wikipedia article:

The concept parodied several elements popular in superhero comics of the time — the teenagers of New Teen Titans, the mutants of Uncanny X-Men and the ninja skills of Daredevil — combined with the comic tradition of funny animals such as Howard the Duck.

They developed a backstory referencing further elements of Daredevil: like Daredevil, the Turtles are altered by radioactive material, and their sensei, Splinter, is a play on Daredevil's sensei, Stick.

Idk how you read that article to have missed that. It's also been noted more than once before that the 'radioactive spill' or whatever by which the turtles are affected is supposedly the exact same incident that is Daredevil's origin story.

Eastman and Laird were taking potshots at everyone because they had nothing to lose, and were both having fun and working hard. It's a specific kind of indie spirit that I'm glad to see all over the place in webtoons and webcomics these days.

The first versions were pretty brutal, even by the standards of the day. After all the revisions, those stories were probably more tolerable, but they were still pretty metal IMO. For example, here's a quote from Cinderella.

And when it was evening Cinderella wanted to go home, and the prince was about to go with her, when she ran past him so quickly that he could not follow her. But he had laid a plan, and had caused all the steps to be spread with pitch, so that as she rushed down them the left shoe of the maiden remained sticking in it. The prince picked it up, and saw that it was of gold, and very small and slender. The next morning he went to the father and told him that none should be his bride save the one whose foot the golden shoe should fit. Then the two sisters were very glad, because they had pretty feet. The eldest went to her room to try on the shoe, and her mother stood by. But she could not get her great toe into it, for the shoe was too small; then her mother handed her a knife, and said, "Cut the toe off, for when you are queen you will never have to go on foot." So the girl cut her toe off, squeezed her foot into the shoe, concealed the pain, and went down to the prince. Then he took her with him on his horse as his bride, and rode off. They had to pass by the grave, and there sat the two pigeons on the hazel bush, and cried,
"There they go, there they go!
There is blood on her shoe;
The shoe is too small,
Not the right bride at all!"
Then the prince looked at her shoe, and saw the blood flowing. And he turned his horse round and took the false bride home again, saying she was not the right one, and that the other sister must try on the shoe. So she went into her room to do so, and got her toes comfortably in, but her heel was too large. Then her mother handed her the knife, saying, "Cut a piece off your heel; when you are queen you will never have to go on foot." So the girl cut a piece off her heel, and thrust her foot into the shoe, concealed the pain, and went down to the prince, who took his bride before him on his horse and rode off. When they passed by the hazel bush the two pigeons sat there and cried,
"There they go, there they go!
There is blood on her shoe;
The shoe is too small,
Not the right bride at all!"
Then the prince looked at her foot, and saw how the blood was flowing from the shoe, and staining the white stocking. And he turned his horse round and brought the false bride home again. "This is not the right one," said he, "have you no other daughter?" - "No," said the man, "only my dead wife left behind her a little stunted Cinderella; it is impossible that she can be the bride." But the King's son ordered her to be sent for, but the mother said, "Oh no! she is much too dirty, I could not let her be seen." But he would have her fetched, and so Cinderella had to appear. First she washed her face and hands quite clean, and went in and curtseyed to the prince, who held out to her the golden shoe. Then she sat down on a stool, drew her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe, and slipped it into the golden one, which fitted it perfectly. And when she stood up, and the prince looked in her face, he knew again the beautiful maiden that had danced with him, and he cried, "This is the right bride!" The step-mother and the two sisters were thunderstruck, and grew pale with anger; but he put Cinderella before him on his horse and rode off. And as they passed the hazel bush, the two white pigeons cried,
"There they go, there they go!
No blood on her shoe;
The shoe's not too small,
The right bride is she after all."

That wasn't from the latest Saw movie. That was from a book that's intended for children, as far as the author is concerned. Who knows how messed up the first version was.

The video game Spec Ops: The Line is essentially both stories, but set in Dubai after a cataclysmic sandstorm.

There was a YouTube trend of making Avatar trailers with the audio but then using the graphics for movies like Fern Gully and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). Turns out there are a lot of 'going native' movies.

Another example of the 'gone native' plot line in the wake of Dances With Wolves. Pocahontas had the advantage of Dances With Wolves coming out first. So it smoothed some of those edges.

That was the only one I knew offhand, but yeah, his schtick was writing rhyming dialogue for existing stories.

No. It's a list of The Seven Basic Plots. Themes are different.

The TV show on HBO wasn't, which may be what they're referring to here.

Would that fit OP's question of "actually pretty good" though?

That’s what it was!

Adaptation, not necessarily rip off.