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Rovio’s, the company’s first non-Angry Birds game in nearly three years, is out now for iOS and Android. Some gamers aren’t happy about it.The crux of the issue is that Amazing Alex isn’t an original game. In May the company to fun physics puzzler Casey’s Contraptions from its indie creators Snappy Touch & Mystery Coconut. This wasn’t done in secret or in any underhanded way – the acquisition was announced publically and a quote issued to the press. After the purchase Casey’s Contraptions was removed from the App Store. Just a few short months later Casey gave way to Alex, a title that retains the same basic gameplay premise and style, but features an additional layer of polish and presentation.
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Alex does contain some original stages, but the bulk of the puzzles are a 1:1 duplication of content originally featured in Casey’s Contraptions. So what’s the issue? Rovio bought an already-excellent game (IGN awarded Casey’s Contraptions an last year), improved on it further and released it back to the App Store.
Rovio Entertainment has just released Amazing Alex, an amazing new physics-based puzzle game. The game centers around whiz kid Alex and his world of creations, inviting fans to step into Alex's world of creative chain reactions: solving puzzles, designing their own levels, and sharing their creativity with the world!
The Finnish studio presumably has plans for free post-release content, to boot. Part of the problem seems to be people don’t know they can re-download anything they have previously purchased from the App Store.
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Just because Casey’s Contraptions is no longer available for purchase doesn’t mean it’s gone. If you bought it previously, you can still grab it by opening the App Store on your device, hitting the “purchased” tab, clicking the “not on this iPad” button, and finally running a search for the missing game. Hit the download button and voila! You now have Casey’s Contraptions back. A more legitimate concern is that this switch from Casey to Alex means that fans of the original will need to rebuy the game to enjoy Rovio’s continued support. Amazing Alex is almost guaranteed to receive plenty of post-release content.
![Toontoon Toontoon](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125859491/454556736.jpg)
Fans of Casey’s Contraptions that want to experience these new stages have no choice but to buy the new game and play through all the previous stages before they can do so. This is less of a nefarious move on Rovio’s part and more of an unfortunate side-effect of relaunching the game. It also needs to be pointed out that Casey’s Contraptions hadn’t received a new content pack in over a year, so Rovio can’t be accused of turning off the content faucet for existing owners.
The biggest problem with the entire relaunch seems to be one of communication. Although Rovio was up-front about Amazing Alex’s origins and the story was widely reported in the enthusiast press it’s now obvious the company didn’t do enough to communicate to fans the relationship between the two games. A featured iTunes review highlights this confusion, calling the game a “blatant theft of Casey’s Contraption” and closes with “I feel cheated of $.99 by what was a blatant ‘rebranding’ of something that I already paid for.” Reviews like this could have been avoided if Amazing Alex’s App Store description included a line letting people know that Casey’s Contraptions is now Amazing Alex, and is better than ever. Although it’s easy to see why some gamers are confused and upset, the truth is that this is an example of Rovio doing it right. If the company wanted to make their own Rube Goldberg-style physics puzzler, it certainly could have. The genre has plenty of and the App Store is no stranger to studios. But instead Rovio did the right thing and paid the original developers for their concept and continued working with them to flesh it out further.
Controversial history aside, does Amazing Alex live up to its high expectations as Rovio’s next big thing? Titanic honor and glory 2019. IGN will have a full review soon but our first impression is very positive. The game looks and sounds significantly better than Casey’s Contraptions, and more importantly the finicky physics have been smoothed out and made much more player-friendly. A comprehensive suite of level sharing tools are the icing on the cake.
For now the outcry from a minority of irate fans doesn't appear to be having a negative impact on sales. Just one day after launch the game has rocketed to the #1 spot on the App Store. Amazing Alex is here to stay.
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