Nintendo has said that they have no intention of designing games for mobile platforms for iOS. Just because Nintendo won't make iPhone games doesn't mean there aren't similar types of games on the App Store, though. One game in particular, Super Jump World, seems to do an incredible job of mimicking Super Mario Bros.
Oh wait, it's the same game!
Yes, Super Jump World lifts entire sections of the NES classic and subs in a leprechaun for Mario, beetles for Goombas and clovers for mushrooms: it's the St Patty's Day edition of Mario we always wanted! (Well the one in my head has more beer in it, but ok.) It is not an exact duplicate, but it uses far too much of the game to be considered derivative or even a clone.
Making knockoffs of popular games for the iPhone is not exactly new territory, but it takes a special kind of... let's say "daring", to steal so much from a game and claim their version was "inspired" by it.
If you're interested, I'd go get right now but it's only a matter of time before someone at Nintendo figures out what's going on and shuts this thing down.
[Via SiliconEra]
Doug January 6th, 2012 at 12:35 PM
And it looks like it's gone. When I searched for it yesterday in the App Store, I found it. Today, no such app. Also, following the link from AppShopper.com results in "The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store"
Callum March 20th, 2012 at 02:14 PM
If you're still looking for it, it's not called, "Lep's world".
Charles January 7th, 2012 at 03:08 AM
It was getting too much attention and too many Mario copycat comments so the app developer took it down himself until Apple releases payments. It's a combination of Mario and the Lucky Charms cereal mascot. He said he would change the ripped off background from Mario and some game mechanics. It was doing very well with combined 6 figures a day app sale and admob ads from free version a day with over 1 million free versions downloads a day. It's definitely a new way for app developers to release an app now without marketing. 1) Copy a well known game which have a very high demand and no app2) once millions have downloaded it, take it down and 1-2 weeks later, the updated version is released would show differences and the copyrighted copy can't sue and they get free advertising and distribution and push notification on millions of devices for future games. freeappaday cost $15000 to feature list and it's impossible to compete against big media companies with big budgets like Blizzard, Zynda, EA, etc. The developer took a (borderline illegal) risk and it paid off and is now a millionaire.