Did Capcom Totally Copy Someone Else’s Work?

Capcom has a little game out on the App Store called MaXplosion, where you run around a science lab blowing yourself up. If you think that sounds familiar, well, that’s because it is.

It’s almost identical not just in premise, but in execution and even visual themes to ‘Splosion Man, a cult Xbox Live Arcade game developed by Twisted Pixel.

Here’s what ‘Splosion Man looks like:

And here’s what MaXplosion looks like:

Similar, no?

“MaXplosion gameplay video makes me sad,” Twisted Pixel’s Mike Henry says. “If you’re going to outright steal a game, you should at least understand what makes it fun… borrowing is great. Hell, we do it all the time. But that game is a complete theft.”

Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford goes one further, revealing that before publishing the game on Xbox Live Arcade, his company had pitched ‘Splosion Man to, yes, Capcom. Who turned the concept down.

“Just sucks because we’re too small to do anything about it”, Wilford says, “and I bet Capcom’s counting on that.”

It’s funny, for a business so often derided for its lack of innovation and creativity, it’s rare to see a developer actually cry “plagiarism”. Oh, unless it’s on the iPhone. Then it happens all the time.

‘Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel on Capcom’s iPhone game MaXplosion: ‘Complete theft’ [PocketGamer]