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Apple banishes cloned App Store games

Plants vs. Zombie, Angry Ninja Birds, Temple Jump gone.

Serial copycat developer Anton Sinelnikov has had his range of cloned App Store games culled by Apple.

The brain behind familiar sounding titles such as Plants vs. Zombie, Numbers with Friends, Angry Ninja Birds and Temple Jump has had his App Store portfolio pruned.

Just 11 of Sinelnikov's apps remain on the App Store, down from a previous total of 68.

Apple has seemingly not spread its anti-copycat policy further afield, however.

Other recent examples to hit the headlines over claims of "cloning" include the bitter dispute-turned-lawsuit between Triple Town developer Spry Fox and its initial publisher Lolapps, which later pumped out the exceedingly-similar Yeti Town.

Mobile gaming giant Zynga also recently drew fire for launching its own version of Tiny Tower, named Dream Heights. Meanwhile, over a month on, Mario Kart copy Mole Kart is also still available.

Can the Clone War ever be won? Eurogamer's Rich Stanton weighed in with his views over the weekend.

Mole Kart.