Splatoon Blatantly Ripped Off in Chinese Mobile Game

It's not unusual for the occasional game developer to steal assets or artwork from other games, but few have ever done it as brazenly and blatantly as a Chinese mobile developer Nine Games, which made a game that looks a lot like Wii U shooter Splatoon.

This game, which according to Google Translate is called "Runaway Graffiti," clearly uses some artwork from Splatoon, and its website is plastered with images of the squid-like characters that you control in Nintendo's game. As reported by Twitter user ZhugeEX and later by Kotaku, Runaway Graffiti also features a pretty familiar mechanic: using ink cannons to spray the ground and other players. You can see some images (via the game's website) below:

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The game had a trailer up on YouTube, but Nintendo has taken it down due to copyright infringement. You'll have to go over to the website if you want to check out the very Splatoon-like gameplay of Runaway Graffiti.

China has had problems with counterfeit and copyright infringement for a while. Blizzard ended up suing one developer for a Hearthstone clone in 2014, and a Chinese company also Kickstarted a game console last year that looks pretty similar to the PS4.

You should check out the real Splatoon if you haven't already. In GameSpot's review, critic Peter Brown said, "Splatoon is the antithesis to the modern shooter, but it primarily deserves recognition for what it is, not what it isn't. It's a wonderful game with charm and inventive ideas that work and pave the way for new experiences in an otherwise stale category of games." You can read our full Splatoon review here.