@aaronsullivan

"Also, I see people mentioning the code being stolen? Where was this reported? That would be an insane accomplishment. Breaching Nintendo HQ and getting access to development archives and steeling the code while ignoring the assets. Completely re engineering the code to work on an incompatible platform. Intentionally messing up the controls, the behavior of the enemies and the animations so it plays like an amateur project. Now, I'm impressed with this developer! Genius! Err..."

Unless you're talking about something someone else wrote on some other website (which I doubt), I was the only one to mention anything related to the code of these two videogames (Mole kart and 3D Cartoon Land).

"They've seen the code, they know how it works, there's no doubt that they know how to manipulate it, but instead of making a new, good game, they just make blatant ripoffs like this." - Me

I wasn't being very clear in that comment, and I apologize for that.

The code I was referring to is that of Mole Kart and partly that of 3D Cartoon Land.

(tbh, I was thinking almost entirely about Mole Kart since I had just finished watching the video of its gameplay. 3D Cartoon Land's gameplay is pretty poor. {FOUL LANGUAGE AHEAD})

In Mole Kart, they figured out how to copy a few of the elements in MKW pretty well, and they also did a fairly good job of copying a few levels from MKW.

They've seen what code is needed for those elements, features, and level designs probably through their attempt to copy what they saw, and they admittedly did an impressive job of doing so (when taking into account the fact that they obviously have a pretty small fraction of the funds or experience that Nintendo EAD has).

Through their own hard work, they've seen what kind of code is required to make certain functions work in a similar way to MKW's features.

Instead of taking that code and working with it until it became something polished, original, unique, and enjoyable (or more enjoyable, based on your standards), they took the easy route by leaving it as-is and by taking as many themes as they could get away with from Nintendo.

It's depressing, 'cause they can make something nice, but choose instead to sit on the border of plaigarism.

Also, looking at code for a AAA game doesn't require someone to break into Nintendo's headquarters with a team of ninjas equipped with Men in Black memory eraser thingies.

Any (non-wannabe) modder can tell you how to play around with a Mario game's insides, and you'd be able to do the same with a few clicks of a button that just happen to land on a fancy search engine and uT*****.

Although, I recommend the former way of getting the code, it's way more fun. Trust me.

Edit: By the way, nice choice for an avatar. He's my favorite character from any Miyazaki movie since he's Mr. *****-*-*****-****-His-Arm!