"Joust" is a game that uses the PlayStation Move controller, and players have to move in time to the music while maintaining a steady hand or risk being knocked out of the game. While Joust is Move-only, an iPhone app similar to the source material has arrived. It's called "Papa Quash."
The game is developed by Ustwo, who released the game yesterday, May 22, on the App Store for free with four extra playable characters available for a dollar. The game differs from Joust by giving players three lives - rather than a straight knock out - though the game doesn't feature invincibility options, changing tempos or a BlueTooth syncing option.
"We devved it and obviously we made him [Johann Sebastian] aware that it's very similar to JS Joust, and he contacted them personally and they gave him the go ahead and said good luck with it," Steve Bittan, marketing director at of Ustwo, the developers, said to Edge Magazine. The app was originally made for Big Brother contestant Sam Pepper, and Bittan claimed in the interview Pepper came up with the concept.
"To be honest we're pretty upset about what's gone down. Sam Pepper's got his fanbase of kids, he's a Big Brother contestant, he wanted to get it on his YouTube channel and we did him a favour and put it out. If we launch our own apps we obviously make a big fanfare about it.
"This is a quick, short-term project, in and out of the door very quick. Obviously the concept is quite similar. We don't want to be dragged into it too much - it's not anything to do with our app division.
"We don't copy - everyone is influenced by certain things. It's like saying Sega is copying Mario or something. Whale Trail [also from Ustwo] people said [it] was similar to Tiny Wings, but we went back to the drawing board with that. If people think we're happy to clone people they're very much mistaken," Bitten added.
Die Gute Fabrik, the developers, tweeted after the interview went live regarding the game, saying "we have never and would never approve, give permissions, or encourage anyone to clone any of our games."
