Controversial immigration-themed physics title Smuggle Truck sneaks onto Android

After hitting a major roadblock during the Apple App Store approval process, controversial physics-puzzler Smuggle Truck, plus its App Store-friendly reskin Snuggle Truck, has sneaked its way onto the Google Play Store.

Smuggle Truck puts you in control of a vehicle carrying illegal immigrants into the US. The aim of the game is to negotiate the terrain and get as many refugees across the border as possible without accidentally bouncing them out of the back of your pick-up truck.

Conceived as a satire on North American immigration policies, the game was rejected by Apple at the submission stage, presumably due to its contentious subject matter.

Rather than abandon the project completely, Owlchemy Labs opted to replace immigrants with fluffy animals, and to substitute a zoo for the US border. It also renamed the game Snuggle Truck. All of this appeased the notoriously draconian Apple approval team sufficiently, and the game subsequently went live on the App Store.

It seems that Google is more sympathetic to satire (or less stringently policed), for the original game - and its cuddly counterpart - drove onto the Google Play Store yesterday.

If you want to try out either incarnation of this title, you can find cutesy reskin Snuggle Truck for £2.51 [download] and the immigrant-filled original Smuggle Truck for £2.52 [download] on Google Play now.

Presumably, the extra penny covers that satirical edge.