Top 10 best iPhone gaming 'homages' (2010)

With the App Store's low barrier to entry and Apple's absolutely warped idea of censorship, it's pretty easy to sneak something pretty much anything onto iPhone. As long as it doesn't have boobies or political figures, that is.

Just remember: naked ladies = bad, shameless 'homage' = fine.

You don't even need to hide behind a cheeky 'inspired by' or 'based upon' - just copy to your heart's content and hope no one notices.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and here are ten of the most blatantly, unashamedly flattering titles on the App Store.

Flattered: Audiosurf (PC - 2008)
Flatterer: Audi A1 Beat Drive (iTunes)

Why didn't they just call it Audi-osurf?

This isn't the first game to feature a realistic vehicle floating about in some impossible void, but it's a darn sight better than Xbox Live Arcade's Toyota Yaris game, Yaris.

However, Yaris was an original idea, even if it was utterly atrocious.

Audi A1 Beat Driver has you gliding left and right to collect blocks in time to such chart-topping belters as La Roux and Metric, but it's just too reminiscent of the PC's excellent music-driver Audiosurf, to get a pass.

Flattered: Peggle (PC - 2007)
Flatterer: Pegs in Space (iTunes)

PopCap is definitely no angel (see further down), but at least it's not quite as shameless as Pegs in Space, which knocks-off Peggle'spachinko-esque peg bashing down to a tee. Even the colours of pegs - orange, blue, and purple - are exactly the same.

Don't be a cheapskate and settle for this rip-off's 59p price. Pay the little extra to get the real deal on your iPhone.

Flattered: Bookworm Adventures (PC - 2006)
Flatterer: Bee Spelled (iTunes)

We agree that the lack of Bookworm Adventures on the iPhone is a catastrophe of national proportions. But that doesn't excuse brazen rip-offs like Bee Spelled. Instead of a talking, wise-cracking, pun-making worm, you've got a talking, wise-cracking, pun-making bee.

If you've never played Bookworm Adventures, where have you been? It's a delicious mix of RPG and Scrabble that has you spelling out super long words to deal masses of damage to enemies. With a worm, though - not a bee.

Flattered: Doodle Jump (iPhone - 2009)
Flatterer: Doodle Jumper (Pictured, Removed from iTunes), Doodle Drop (iTunes)

Did you know that 'Doodle' is one of the most popular words on the App Store, and that if you made a game called Doodle Doodle you'd be made a millionaire?

Doodle Jumper just went too far. Everything else on this list is just fun and games: all's fair in love, war, and the App Store. But Jumper added two extra letters to the name and made it rubbish, so Apple binned it.

Doodle Drop's still online, though. Apparently it's 'Ultimate Addictive' and, according to the description, "I don't jump, I drop!" Very naughty.

Flattered: LittleBigPlanet (PS3 - 2008)
Flatterer: Super Fall (iTunes)

So this one doesn't exactly play like Sony's do-it-yourself platformer. In fact, it's more akin to Doodle Jump than anything, but the "sackboy" characters are so brazenly ripped off that they deserved to be mentioned.

It's the logo that gives it away. Anyone can knit some wool into a little man. But blue and white text? That's too big of a coincidence to stomach. Red card.

Flattered: Puzzle Bobble (Arcade - 1994)
Flatterer: Aqua Bubble 2, (Pictured, iTunes) Bubble Bash (iTunes)

Eventually, an influential game is cloned so often that it goes from being knocked-off to being an entire new genre. Doom clones became first-person shooters, GTA clones became sandbox games, and Bejeweled clones drive our review team nuts as people release new ones to the App Store every day.

But some games just never hit that wall, and any game where you launch bubbles into a sea of colourful spheres will forever be a brazen Puzzle Bobble clone. We'll give Bubble Bash a free pass, though, because it's arguably superior to the official Bust-a-Move game currently on the App Store.

Flattered: Puzz Loop (Arcade - 1998)
Flatterer: Luxor (Pictured, iTunes), Space Balls (iTunes), Bonsai Blast (iTunes)

So this feud goes back much further than the iPhone, but it's a messy case of plagiarism that continues to this very day. You know PopCap's Zuma, that ultra unique and creative puzzler you spent 500 hours on? It was a fraud.

Back in 1998, Mitchell Corporation brought Puzz Loop to the arcades, and its ball-firing fun predated PopCap's game by half a decade. Zuma hasn't shown its face on the iPhone yet, but plenty of its emulators have. Puzz Loop's on there too, sporting the term "ORIGINAL loop puzzle".

Flattered: Super Stardust HD (PS3 - 2007)
Flatterer: Crash Course (iTunes)

Some games are just going to get away with it. Super Stardust HD's spherical space shooter is Sony's baby and it isn't going to appear on the iPhone any time soon.

Until Sony and Apple form some kind of unholy matrimony and merge corporations, Crash Course and Stardust HD are never going to meet. Which is good, because that would be totally awkward.

Flattered: Rolando (iPhone - 2008)
Flatterer: Domino's Adventure (iTunes)

We know, we know. Rolando should be the one getting named and shamed for ripping off Sony's sickly, saccharine, bundle of joy on a UMD, Loco Roco. But that would be the obvious route.

As arguably the iPhone's first smash hit, Rolando has received its fair share of rip-offs and clones, none more shameless than Domino's Adventure. But until ngmoco gives up on selling turnips and finally gets on with Rolando 3, it might be the best we're gonna get.

Flattered: Every Game Ever
Flatterer: Gameloft

You thought we'd leave out Gameloft? Well, never doubt us again. Here's a clearly talented group of develpers who know the iPhone inside out and have released a huge number of impressive games for the device, but just can't come up with a unique idea for toffee.

Whether it's Zombie Infection, with its biologically-created walking corpses bearing more than a passing resemblance to Resident Evil 5, or Halo spitting image N.O.V.A., Gameloft's made a career from emulating the classics.