UnpleasantHorse
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4th and Battery's second game is Candy Train
All right, so maybe Unpleasant Horse wasn't quite the success that 4th and Battery would have liked to kick the new PopCap sub-studio off with, but that's kind of the point -- the idea of 4th and Battery is for the company to experiment a little more, rather than having every single game they release live up to the PopCap reputation. And that means faster releases as well. The company's second game is due out on the App Store this week, and it's called Candy Train. This is actually an older game -- it was originally released as a Flash title on PopCap's website and pulled soon after, to players' chagrin. But a few developers decided to revamp it for iOS, and it's coming to the App Store as a free download. The idea, as you can see above, is that you need to rotate small pieces of track to keep a train running, and it seems fun enough. 4th and Battery also has a third game on tap, which will also be free, and we're supposed to see it later on this summer. Exciting!
TUAW's Daily iOS App: Unpleasant Horse
Unpleasant Horse is the first iOS game put together by a division of the developer PopCap Games, the folks behind hits like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies. The app was originally rejected due to some violent content, but it's back on the App Store, rated appropriately and ready for a free download right now. The game was put together in a 24-hour game jam session, and as much as it pains me to say this about a game essentially put together by PopCap developers, this rushed development schedule shows in Unpleasant Horse. You play a horse jumping through the clouds with a few wrinkles in gameplay, like "pleasant horses" that you need to drag down as far as possible to earn points, or birds that give you an extra mid-air jump. It's all pretty straightforward -- you jump from cloud to cloud for as long as you can. I'd like to say the game feels like Tiny Wings, but it's not quite that elegant, despite some colorful art. There are no real extras either, with no other game modes and no Game Center integration. Still, PopCap started 4th & Battery because it wanted to experiment with some edgier ideas, and since the game is being given away as a universal version for free, I can't really complain too much. Here's hoping PopCap finds what it set out to find with 4th & Battery, and then gets back to making the well-crafted games that it's known for.
"Unpleasant Horse" shows Apple isn't afraid to reject big developers
Apple has taken a lot of flak about the seemingly arbitrary rejection of apps in the App Store. Often small developers who have had their apps rejected cry foul, stating that Apple would never reject apps from bigger publishers. Earlier this week, however, Apple showed that even big publishers aren't immune to Apple's ban hammer. PopCap, publisher of megahits like Plants vs. Zombies, submitted an app called Unpleasant Horse. The game's objective is to jump a Pegasus-like horse from cloud to cloud. If you miss a cloud, the horse falls to the earth and is chewed up in a meat grinder. The app was promptly rejected by Apple. In response to the rejection, PopCap tweeted "WTF? Apple rejected Unpleasant Horse cuz of 'mature content?' We thought horses dying in meat grinders was wholesome family entertainment!" But as the New York Times points out, the tweet was later removed and PopCap has stated that it will appeal the ruling and submit the app again with a higher age rating. It's unknown what rating the game was originally submitted with, but the rejection of Unpleasant Horse goes to show you that Apple's acceptance or rejection of an app, while sometimes seeming arbitrary, at least affects large and small developers alike.
