Two iOS Titles Rip Off Zelda

The Legend of Zelda has inspired dozens upon hundreds of games over the years. From direct inspirations (such as The Binding of Isaac) to parodies (like a personal favorite of mine, The Legend of Zelda: The Lampshade of No Real Significance), the series has had a profound effect on video games over the years.

Occasionally though, the series has seen its fair share of, shall we say, ripoffs. These are games that attempt nothing in the way of originality or even tribute; they simply take what makes a game great and slap their own names on it. Recently, Nintendo Gamer compiled twelve examples of games that rip off Nintendo titles, and we have pulled two such Zelda-related games for you to see. Get your rotten tomatoes ready and make the jump to see them.

The first of the two wannabes, both of which are iOS games for the iPod and iPhone, is a little number known as “Ultimate iZelda Climb.” If you are wondering how its gameplay is, don’t worry; Nintendo Gamer reports that if you have played the iOS game Doodle Jump, you’ve played this. Just imagine your little character is Link instead of the usual one, and you have yourself a game. Have a look:

And I am sure that he got this approved by Nintendo first.

According to Nintendo Gamer, this is actually the usual recipe for this developer. Scott Alvy, AKA Audio Attack, tends to release games that are simply Doodle Jump with some licensed character he has no right using thrown in there, such as “Ultimate World of Warcraft Jump” and “Modern Warfare 3 Jump.”

Nonetheless, you still have to give Scott some credit; he did go through the work of shoehorning said characters into the game, which I am sure has to take at least an hour of hard work… more than can be said for today’s other Zelda ripoff.

“Zanda: The Linked Swords” is an award-winning game of 2011 developed by Top Best Adult Entertainment for the App Store that features five whole worlds to explore, great action-adventure gameplay, and plenty of villagers to speak to, all for the price of $1.99. Sounds great, right? Except Nintendo Gamer tells us none of that is true… except the price, of course.

In reality, Zanda was a template of sorts; a demo made using a free game engine called GameSalad to give developers an idea of what the engine could do. As it were, the obvious Zelda references were intentional tributes; a fun way to show people what they could potentially create.

Then, along came Top Best Adult Entertainment. Without making any changes whatsoever to the demo, they threw their name and a two-dollar price tag on it and stuck it on the App Store, adding a phony description to help sell it. Now, if that isn’t a spineless, shameless ripoff I don’t know what is.

That, of course, is my opinion though. Some may see this developer as simply being resourceful and efficient, making profit without too much effort. Others, like me, see it as a terrible ripoff of not one but two developers’ hard work. Which side do you stand on? What do you think of these two games? Do they deserve to be called games, or should they be banished to some dark corner of the Gerudo Desert? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Nintendo Gamer