When Capcom released 'Splosion Man clone MaXplosion earlier this year, 'Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel took it like the magnanimous underdog that it is.

“While I think the similarities are pretty nauseating, we're too small to take on a company like Capcom,” CEO Michael Wilford said. “That, and we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we'll let them slide."

It's unlikely that Nintendo will take a similar view when it catches wind of Monino Save Story (Google translates the title as 'Moni Nuo Save Story', but the App Store description identifies the main character as Monino). A more blatant clone of Mario it's hard to imagine.

Just look at the screenshots above. From the mustachioed, red-hatted man in overalls on the App Store icon to the angry-looking mushrooms, brick worlds, and portrait of Bowser (sorry, 'Bowler') in the background, this Monino Save Story is a breathtaking rampage of copyright infringement.

Clones on the App Store and, more prevalently, Google's Android Market are nothing new, and despite section 8-8.5 of Apple's App Store review guidelines* they're normally tolerated.

But significant offenders have been known to vanish. For instance, platformer Ricky, which came out in 2009 and featured Mario-esque mushrooms and a sprite that looked more or less the same as Kirby, is no longer available.

If you want to play Monino Save Story, best download it soon

*Use of protected 3rd party material (trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, otherwise proprietary content) requires a documented rights check which must be provided upon request

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