Smartphone clones of popular console titles are nothing new, but Android game Era's Adventure took shameless pillaging to an entirely new level; its lead character — by the developer's own admission — was Yoshi.
Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's lawyers have been in touch and Era's Adventure developer Botond Kopacz has revealed to Kotaku that he's complying with the suggestions made:
Yes, and they did with rightly since the original Era was Yoshi's character. The new Era is also similar to Yoshi but we are cooperating with Nintendo about the changes required by them but till that time the only thing that we could do is to re-color it, remove the carapace and some other parts and make some changes in "Eras" head shape.
Here's what Era's Adventure used to look like:
And here's what it looks like now:
It's amazing that the developers ever thought they could get away with using Yoshi's character model in a game. Does the new Era look enough like a unique creation for your liking, or — like us — do you still detect the faint yet unmistakable whiff of green dinosaur?
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 68
Oh man, era looks like one of the billions of fanfic yoshis now. Lol!
...it still looks like a blue Yoshi with a backwards ball cap... gangsta Yoshi, yo!
Ness + Yoshi = Era?
Urgh... Gasp!
Still looks like a Yoshi, considering how many official variations there are. I don't understand why some indie devs can't create original content instead of feeling the need to leech off of the popularity of major IPs.
Looks like Boshi from SMRPG
It still looks like a blue yoshi.
Yep, that's still Yoshi alright.
Regardless of what the character model looks like, the game itself looks awful.
Pff. I wouldn't get this even if my life depended on it!
Looks to similar still
They even stole the opening title SFX from the first live-action Transformers film for the video intro! >.<
Hm... Doesn't look like yoshi at all, this gets my seal of approval. U_U
(sarcasm, read with LOTS of sarcasm)
I hope Nintendo's legal team didn't approve this and more changes are incoming. They need to make a new model altogether....I doubt the Yoshi clone is in any way related to the gameplay and they are trying to make it as similar as possible without being sued into the ground.
Sue the bejeesus out of them Nintendo. Next stop Ouya....fix that loophole about emulators....make them require a license to be legal or something.
That Yoshi looks to be really really high XD.... horrible game by the way.
@JSuede Yeah, I too hope they don't let a lazy dev get away with it.
As for the Ouya, I don't want to see them fail, but I'm hearing stories about how people want to buy it just for emulation. Nintendo, do not allow them to illegally distribute games.
Blue, green whatever.
It looks terrible.
i do like ho the fire shoots from his eyes, thats a nice touch, though im sure unitentional
they probobly did it for the press
@HeatBombastic Yeah, I don't want any company to fail, but that should be inexcusable. Piggybacking off of another companies successes using the same games, is not only illegal but morally reprehensible. Simply because they aren't providing the roms, just the emulators and the means to find them, it is construed as "legal." Make Ouya pay Nintendo's license fees or something at the very least. If nothing else, Nintendo could buy an Ouya, ferret out the location of the roms, and sue THOSE people into the ground.
Apparently Miiverse gets things done. To Miiverse? To Miiverse!!!
Still looks too similar, I say sue them.
Blue gangsta Yoshi?
Just another example of why I won't purchase these kind of mobile/cell phone games.
Justice has been served... kinda.
looks like the Yoshi in Paper Mario Thousand Year Door
Why did they ever think they could get away with that? I am surprised they got away with what they did!!
Very nice of nintendo they not sued them but offered to help change the character gotta respect that even if it's written as forced it could be much worse for the developers than this
Awful? I thought the game looks pretty decent, especially with the low standards I have for games on my Android.
Yoshi's come in many colours. Like the popular Boshi, in SMRPG, for instance. These lazy developers should just change the model completely. Wow. This may have been acceptable when adding a pixel could change a character's appearance, but nowadays, with these HDD phones and stuff? Adding a hat is not changing it. MY recommendations: Make the shoes white hi-tops, give the snout a lengthening/sharpening... make it look more like a dragon... and don't use the EXACT same body structure as Yoshi. They may eventually have a decently bad game.
Era for Smash Bros.!!!
Instead of using a dinosaur, why not use a fish with pants that can shoot fire with a fish bowl on his head, that right there would be a good game character. Well at least they didn't get sued, so maybe we'll see Era around as something different....................or not.
Hmmm... are we a tad too impatient for Yarn Yoshi and Yoshi's Island 3DS?
I bet they took eras to come up with this design!
ohohohohohohahahahahahaha
Still looks like Yoshi to me, still with those minute changes they made to Era its enough to keep it from copyright infringement.
Here use this. Just put my name in the credits.
Even with the changes it's hard not to see it's not yoshi. Still way better than their first effort which was just blatant copyright infringement.
The model doesn't even fit in with the game world, and the animation is terrible.
It looks like utter garbage...
Some people are seriously pathetic. I've seen some Mario clones as well, and I just think to myself...how come you people don't have a single original thought in your head?? You have to steal other people's creations and put them in your awful apps just to make a buck. It's just sad, it really is. It's like that War-Z debacle. Some clown sees a popular mod that's actually good, and rips it off...creating a game that is basically non-functional...shoving it out before the Day-Z standalone is released...just to cash in on someone else's spark of genius.
These people need to get a life. RANT over.
Game still looks bad either way
It doesn't look like Yoshi at all. It's blue, and it has a red cap.
Is that the jumping sound effect used in Sonic Colors?
oh god the game is terrible. They should just take it down entirely
They know that Yoshis can come in different colors, right...?
Aside from that, their prototype looks pretty good! They should fix up the controls, add some sort of hook to make the gameplay a little more focused, and... what's that? Oh, that's the game? They call this a game and they are going to sell it for money? Ewww...
now he's got a Mario hat
@doctor_doak I think it's a better life to develop apps and make a few quick bucks, then complaining about people trying to make a few quick bucks by developing apps.
I need to try this. I wanna see if it's good without pre-judgements.
the only difference in the Yoshi that was almost identical are the creepy diamond eyes...
if they would have designed their own mascot from the begining they could probably have a decent android game.
Looks rubbish!
@BlackSpy "We can't create our own stuff, so let's copy other stuff" I'm sure the game costs $99.99
@KaiserGX If this was Miiverse, I would click like.
That still looks too much like Yoshi. There are clones, and then just plain shameful clones on the App Store.
@Big-Daddy
Let's weight the options here: Die or get a crappy game. You'd get the game.
I hope Ninty say it's still too similar and they have to make more changes.
Also, Ninty could do a great public service with a cease & desist, as the game looks truly bad anyway.
But what a lot of free advertising the blogs have given them! Totally worth it
Seems legit.
ORIGINAL CHARACTER! DO NOT STEAL!
I don't get it, how hard is it for them to just draw a dragon like creature and make it original. Seems all they could do is make an altered Yoshi. Even Gon from Tekken 3, Spyro the Dragon, and Flammie from Secret of Mana all look more original than this.
It's still Yoshi just blue!!!!
@simonchawkins Exactly, I'd be embarrassed.
Gangsta Yosh lol yea your not fooling anyone there still yoshi..
people are stupid. it's still a yoshi
It was a green Yoshi and now it is a blue Yoshi. That´s a lot of change ,nobody can´t tell it is a Yohis now!! (sarcasm)
They changed it from yoshi to crappy yoshi OC ::que sarcastic clap::
@Big-Daddy
i couldn't agree more!
@rayword45
Anthony, they are blatantly ripping off Nintendo's creation, and putting it in an utterly Vanilla app. That is a Yoshi. Did you watch the video? The guy said that it's selling well on the app store.
I've seen this sort of thing before on app stores, and I think it's sad that people choose to steal other developer's creations and put them in their half-assed apps just so they can make a buck. Obviously you don't feel that way, which I think is strange..but y'know, whatever. Different strokes for different folks.
So they took their yoshi and changed him blue which doesn't matter because blue yoshis are canon in Mario games so all they really did was a hat.
slow clapping Oh good, my slow clap processor hasn't rusted out yet.
"We are cooperating with Nintendo about the changes required"
Why did this song pop in my head all of a sudden, I haven't heard this since the 80s o_O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR34PJOl3K8
Yeah, sure, just change him to blue and put a backwards cap on him. It'll TOTALLY pass for something completely other than a blue Yoshi.
Yeah, sure, just change him to blue and put a backwards cap on him. It'll TOTALLY pass for something completely other than a blue Yoshi.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...