The No. 2 free app on Apple’s app store is Cut the Birds by SolverLabs, which is a mashup of two really popular iOS games: Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. Sure, they are not “exactly” the same, but play the game for a couple of minutes and you quickly realize why the app is getting angry reviews. I am just surprised it slipped past the Apple censors.
You writing about this is what the developer wants. The app store charts are being gamed every day and if every one of these apps got an article published about it it would promote devs to make more scammy garbage.
I have often wondered why so many of the top free apps are so horrible and have so many negative reviews… should more bad than good reviews drop it in ranking?
no because the rating is by numbers of downloads not how many people like the game
Maybe I am missing something… Why is the Apple’s app review process supposed to catch this? Because it is animal cruelty? Copyright infringement? Bad quality?
gigaom needs to start a section covering trivia and philosophy
Vikram
I am not sure what you are trying to say. Clearly it has nothing to do with the post.
gb
Look at that game – it is a straight rip-remix of two awesome games and you don’t see anything wrong with Apple not catching this?
Om,
they have knowingly accepted the app for good reason, it will in some way promote the sale of the original game(s) and create awareness of the publishers – and mustve done some good work already. these things can be tracked and who knows they must have tons of data on similar inspired/ripped off games.
abt my comment – i was just off a web page ‘the pit’ on a guitaring forum (ultimate-guitar) which covers topics that dont find a straightforward place – maybe you can start one for such interesting topics:)
regards
Vikram
You think this is bad, you should search for angry birds on the Android market and see how many pages of rip-off crap comes up.
Agreed/ I don’t think Google app store has that much control as the Apple store with its legendary approval process.
I don’t see how it’s Apple’s job to catch this and frankly I’m glad they don’t see it as their’s. Parodies and derivative works are great sources of innovation and creativity. Whether this game is innovative I don’t know or care – that’s for the people to decide in whether they download or play it. If either company feels the game violates their trademarks, they will no doubt complain. I certainly don’t want the Apple store rejecting apps because they seem similiar to others. I know they’ve done that in the past to prevent too many simple fart apps, and that’s more understandable although I don’t support it.
Better title for this article:
“App store reviewers wouldn’t know a good parody if they played it.”
The interesting point here is that people are free to publish and make whatever they want – in this case, Angry Birds is trademarked and they should use the normal procedures to ensure their brand is protected – relying on Apple (or anyone else) to be that gatekeeper is ridiculous. If this was a private site distributing this game, the makers of Angry Birds would try and stop them. I am not sure why everyone wants to jump on Apple – they are merely the distributor.
The only thing original about Angry Birds is the story line. There are hundreds of “sling shot X into building Y” flash games available and have been for years. Similarly, Fruit Ninja isn’t very original either… just look at the Wii Resort game where you slice things. Not to mention, this app is free.
It’s not Apple’s prerogative or duty to police copyright infringement. If Rovio asks Apple to remove this app, they will, but it is not for Apple to decide when somebody else’s IP has been violated.
Wow. No wonder the birds are angry http://t.co/R7EFH2LW