In an unexpected move, publisher ngmoco announced that its acclaimed action-puzzler Rolando would be pulled from the App Store following the impending release of Rolando 2.

The original Rolando has remained an App Store favorite since its initial release in December, and has received several free batches of expanded content in the months since. Though the title would no longer be available for purchase after Rolando 2’s release, ngmoco hinted that Rolando might reappear in the future after being updated to be compatible with the company’s Plus+ social networking platform.

The announcement sparked an outcry among fans, and ngmoco issued a response soon after the initial update.

“You’ve roared and we’ve listened,” the company’s official Twitter feed stated. “Rolando will stay put on the App Store.”

ngmoco also announced plans to reissue its previously removed puzzler Topple. Rolando 2 will be released on July 1st.

Tags: ngmoco, rolando, rolando 2

This week has been a momentous one for the iPhone, what with the release of the feature-rich iPhone OS 3.0 and the debut of the iPhone 3G S hardware.

Perhaps hoping that Apple would be too busy with managing this week’s events to notice, some clever scoundrels have attempted to slip a handful of shameless game clones into the App Store’s library.

No one was fooled.

First up is Blocks Drop, the product of a genius scientist from the year 2011 who invented a time machine and traveled to the distant past. The plan: 1) invent the falling block puzzler, 2) earn billions of dollars, 3) get a girlfriend. He only missed the mark by a couple of decades or so.

Developer Steven Mitchev finally figured out the key element lacking in tacky games like Arkanoid: class. Classy Bricks ditches the profanity and “your mom” jokes that laced Taito’s brick-breaking classic and adds tasteful Photoshop backgrounds, for a more refined experience.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arkanoid, clone, joust, tetris

Unceremoniously yanked from the US and UK App Stores a few weeks ago,  award-winning puzzler Edge has yet to resurface. Wondering just what had happened to the FingerGaming favorite, we decided to contact developer Mobigame.

“We have legal issues with a man named Tim Langdell,” says Mobigame’s David Papazian. “If you already asked why Soul Edge (the Namco game) was called Soul Blade and later Soulcalibur in the US, you have your answer.”

Langdell, CEO of EDGE Games, GDC 2009 speaker and Lead Game Faculty at National University, contacted Mobigame and Apple in April asking that the game be pulled. Langdell claims his company owns the worldwide “trademark” EDGE. Despite this, the game remains up in other territories.

“We have the trademark EDGE in Europe (where the game is still available),” Papazian tells FingerGaming. “And we are trying to register it in the US.”

Currently in negotiations with Langdell, Papazian couldn’t comment on specifics, but assured us him and his partner at Mobigame are in talks with Langdell. The pair will continue to deliver updates on the game’s status via the developer’s Twitter and Facebook.

“We are doing our best to [...] put Edge on the store again without any risk,” Papazian promises.

Tags: Action, edge, interview, mobigame, Puzzle

Mobigame’s International Mobile Gaming Award-winning Edge is no longer available for purchase from the iTunes App Store in the U.S. and the UK. The reasons behind the removal are unknown at this time, though Mobigame promises that any future updates will be made available at its Twitter.

This news came as a bit of a surprise to me last night when I was recommending iPhone games to a friend, only to find out that Edge wasn’t showing up in an App Store search. Further searching revealed that web links to both the Lite and full versions turned up an error message explaining that “The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the US store.”

It’s certainly unusual for such a high-profile (and excellent!) title to suddenly go missing from the App Store for no readily apparent reason and with no explanation. Reports indicate that the title is still available for download in France, though other regions are out of luck for the time being. Here’s hoping that whatever resulted in Edge’s regional removal is resolved soon.

Tags: Action, edge, mobigame, Puzzle, Removed Game

From the “about damn time” department (cc’ed to the offices of “this better not be an April Fool’s joke”) comes this bit of news exclusively obtained by geek.com. Mobile 1UP, the makers of iPhone Game & Watch clones such as GW Octopus, GW Helmet, GW Fire, and GW Chef, have received a cease and desist order from Nintendo of America. The developer has been ordered to discontinue the sale of its Game & Watch clones, all of which are set to be removed from the App Store shortly.

This news is hardly surprising. If anything, it’s more surprising that it’s taken so long for Nintendo to notice. In response, Mobile 1UP has created and released a pair of new games — GW Lab and GW Monkey — that feature simplistic Game & Watch-styled gameplay with redrawn graphics. The results can be seen in the screenshot above, taken from GW Monkey. Mobile 1UP plans to release more titles in the near future.

There’s been no word on whether Nintendo plans to take similar action with developer i4nApps for its Game & Watch-like apps such as The Hockey. They’re likely to remain safe for the time being, however, as their games aren’t clones of titles originally released by Nintendo themselves.

Tags: game & watch, i4napps, mobile 1up, nintendo, Removed Game

Following up on the recent controversy that surrounded the rejected, retooled, and (eventually) re-released Prohibition 2, another game has tripped over Apple’s standards for App Store content. Recently submitted to Apple for review, MyShoe would have enabled iPhone owners to throw an accelerometer-controlled shoe at an on-screen caricature of former U.S. president George W. Bush, parodying the infamous press conference incident between Bush and an Iraqi journalist late last year.

Apple rejected the title from distribution, however, citing a breach of its terms of service. According to Mashable, the official statement given to MyShoe’s unnamed developer claims: “We cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains content that ridicules public figures.”

The cited section of Apple’s TOS reads: “Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”

It’s interesting to note Apple’s interpretation of the TOS’ original (and somewhat vague) wording, which makes no mention of parody content relating to public figures. MyShoe’s developer is upset by the rejection, claiming that the issue is one of freedom of speech. Whether or not this is the case, App Store developers now have another guideline to keep in mind when submitting content to Apple.

Tags: myshoe, rejected, unreleased

Offworld brings unfortunate news about one of the iPhone’s most promising upcoming titles. Yoot Saito’s previously announced iPhone virtual pet application Gabo has apparently been denied an App Store release by Apple for unspecified reasons. Unspecified, that is, other than Saito saying that the company “expressed displeasure” in his title.

Granted, there are more than a few things that Apple could have found objectionable in Gabo — the main character’s genetalia-looking umbilical cord is bound to raise some eyebrows, and one of the screenshots on the official website very clearly shows Gabo, uh, pooping — but the news is disappointing nonetheless.

As Saito’s team is now concentrating on developing a Seaman title for the Nintendo DS (or so says a rough Google translation), Gabo has since been put on the development backburner. Luckily, iPhone users may not have to go much longer without having a pooping caveman of their very own — Saito hopes to return to the title in the future and modify its content to suit Apple’s standards.

Tags: gabo, rejected, virtual pet, yoot saito

Trouble’s afoot! Hardy Macia of Catamount Software brings word that his latest iPhone application, Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars, has been rejected by Apple and will not be featured in the iTunes App Store.

Prohibition 2, a remake of the classic DOS and TI-series calculator simulation title Drugwars, challenges players to live 30 days in the life of a New York City drug dealer. Players must deal with loan sharks and the local police as they take advantage of drug supply and demand in nearby cities.

Unfortunately, though Prohibition 2 was fully prepped for release, Apple has rejected the title from distribution, likely due to content issues. Macia notes that there is little in his game that can’t be found elsewhere in Apple’s online storefront, citing App Store movies like The Godfather and Cocaine Cowboys as featuring similar content.

“I personally find applications like iFart much more repulsive, yet Apple has approve it,” Macia says. “DopeWars is about current political events. We had alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, and we have drug prohibition today. It is no more objectionable than many of the songs and movies Apple is selling on iTunes.”

Within hours of issuing a press release announcing Prohibition 2’s rejection, Macia updated Catamount Software’s front page announcing his second game, “Prohibition 3: Candy Wars,” a grim title in which players struggle against the great candy prohibition of the year 2040. I don’t know if he’s joking or not, but I’d totally play a game about dodging the candy police in a dystopian New York City.

Tags: catamount software, prohibition 2, rejected, strategy

The Tetris Company weren’t done when they went after and subsequently had Tris removed, as they went after Shaker (Free). Shaker was originally being sold in the App Store for $9.99 but is now free for the next 4 to 5 hours as it’ll be removed from the App Store soon, according to The iPhone Blog.

Many game developers that had legal threats sent to them usually had something in their name that caused the harassment to occur, but Shaker has nothing in its name to draw attention. Clearly The Tetris Company is trying to protect an idea for a game, rather than just the name.

Before the game starts choose how you want to control the game: Classic - by tapping buttons that appear on the screen below the play field, Stirred - by using simple finger gestures, and Shaken - by shaking your iPhone. As blocks fall down the playing field you can manipulate them, by moving sideways and/or rotating, with the goal of completing a row of objects without gaps. When such row is completed, it disappears, and any objects above the deleted row will fall. As the game progresses, the blocks fall faster, and the game ends when the stack reaches the top of the playing field, so no new blocks are able to enter. At the end of the game, if your score reaches the top-10 list one of 101 martini recipes stored in the program is randomly unlocked.

Tags: free, Price Change, Removed Game, shaker, tetris

Yesterday Bootant, developers of BreakClassic ($0.99 - Free Demo) and BreakTouch 3D, posted at the TouchArcade forums that Atari told them to remove their game from the App Store. Another developer, Spiffyware, also posted on their blog that Atari had told them to remove their game, Super Pong 2 ($2.99 - Free Demo), from the App Store as well. Super Pong 2 will be removed from the App Store this Friday.

It looks like Atari is going after all the Breakout and Arkanoid clones available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Usually, when this happens, the publisher eventually release their own games, without worrying about competition. The Tetris Company did this for Tetris (by having Tris removed), inXile Entertainment did this for Line Rider iRide (by having Flying Rider removed), and First Star Software did this for their upcoming Boulder Dash Rocks! game (by having Rockfall removed.)

All of the removed games were done by small, independent developers that don’t have the financial strength to stand up for themselves. Don’t be surprised to see an official Breakout, Pong, or Arkanoid game for the iPhone and iPod Touch from Atari in the near future.

Tags: atari, breakclassic, breaktouch 3d, Removed Game, retro, super pong 2