Apple Bans Blatant Doodle Jump Ripoff, But Approves Another, Doodle Drop

While Apple celebrates (and profits) from an estimated 700,000 iPads bought on day one, they still can’t seem to get their shit together when it comes to consistent App Store approval policies.

Doodle-Jumper-IconF On March 19 we reported that Apple approved the Doodle Jumper iPhone app. Notice the extra two letters “E” and “R”? Guess those two letters were enough of a difference between Doodle Jump and Doodle JumpER for Apple to feel good about approving a blatant ripoff. Oh and of course the Doodler character in Doodle JumpER is blue with  two legs … while the original Doodler is lime green and has four legs. Bravo Apple! Excellent attention to detail … way different apps and smart move approving JumpER.

Smart move? Uh … maybe not! Hindsight is 20/20 … within 24 hours of our report, justice prevailed with Apple removing Doodle JumpER from sale. WOOT!

If you’re not familiar with Doodle Jump [iTunes $0.99], you should be. It’s arguably the most successful iPhone game to date, published by the two-brother team, Igor and Marko Pusenjak, of Lima Sky. Doodle Jump has already surpassed $3 million in sales (a first for any Indie development house) and is one of the best App Store bargains ever. 

So you would think after the JumpER mistake, Apple would have learned not to approve blatant Doodle Jump ripoffs. After all, Apple is no dummy … case in point, nearly 1 million iPads sold on day one. LOL … no dummy? … yeah right —> Doodle Drop.

Doodle-Drop-Title

Doodle-Jump-Title

Very original, eh? “I don’t jump, I drop!” … yeah, of course you do, dickhead. The folks at Drop even lifted Doodle Jump’s tagline idea, “Insanely Addictive!”, with their grammatically challenged “Ultimate Addictive!” derivative… exclamation point included. 

Doodler character … all good … both lime green, have a snout and wear a green striped shirt. But of course, the trump card … Drop only has two legs.

Doodle-Jump-Drop

Graphics? Yes! A round of graph paper and booster springs for all – it’s the cool thing to do.

Doodle-Jump-1  922182_2

But what bothers us the most is the overnight success of Drop. Released on Friday, April 2nd … in less than 48 hours Drop broke into the Top 100 Overall Paid Apps. Achieving this ranking means Drop’s developer is making some decent money … profiting from Lima Sky’s success. Since Doodle Jump is constantly being updated, it would be a safe assumption that Lima Sky released a new game … one that drops down, instead of jumps up. Heck … the name, Doodler character and game graphics look just about the same … so unsuspecting buyers are likely to get suckered. 

Doodle-Drop-Rank

As we previously stated, Apple seemingly doesn’t care to protect copyright holders, thus it’s up to the individual owner to complain. However it would behoove Apple to avoid biting the hand that feeds them … especially when that hand delivered over $3 million in sales and $1 million directly into Apple’s mouth.

Comments

  • WTF is apple thinking?

  • It's really freaking sad … the Doodlers look pretty much exactly the same
    – that should be a clear “warning flag” to Apple … duh!

  • Pingback: uberVU - social comments()

  • I doubt actual people handle the approval process; it's probably computers and all that great stuff. There is no way that a person in their right mind admits this stuff into the App Store, and this is a problem that is repeating. Apple would have fired the “app approval” crew by now.

  • LOL … all kidding aside, the mistakes Apple makes over and over and over
    again is ttally unacceptable from one of the leading tech companies in the
    world … it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the two Doodler
    characters and have copyright issues SCREAM in your face.

  • Keedrin

    It's like Doodle Jump except you fall down, it has crude graphics, and it makes you want to slap yourself because you actually bought that game……….

  • It's what's called a FAIL download/purchase 😉

  • It's what's called a FAIL download/purchase 😉

  • love2text

    what is up with the big nose/mouth??

  • phalic symbol … sex sells 😉

  • All of this stuff is welcome on the ZUNE!

  • saintsalive

    Its description was almost an EXACT copy(they even called the character Doodle the Doodler!)! Then I checked this morning and they changed it to something like “watch doodle dog drop” … Doodle Dog…!?

  • Indeed … we're assuming this was the developer's response to the copyright
    ripoff issue … they changed the background graphics and Doodle character,
    thus avoiding an exact look-a-like to the original Doodler.

  • saintsalive

    Its description was almost an EXACT copy(they even called the character Doodle the Doodler!)! Then I checked this morning and they changed it to something like “watch doodle dog drop” … Doodle Dog…!?

  • Indeed … we're assuming this was the developer's response to the copyright
    ripoff issue … they changed the background graphics and Doodle character,
    thus avoiding an exact look-a-like to the original Doodler.

  • Appleban

    I think it's OK.
    1 the word “doodle” is not copyrighted, search the keyword “doodle” on appstore and you'll see it.
    2 the author of Doodle Drop now changed the looks of his game so there is no infrigement
    3 no one can create anything 100% from scratch, there must be some source where ideas come from. Facts: doodle jump is not the first jumping style game, movie Avantar copied ideas from a book called “Call me Joe”