Jesus with a machine gun shooter Moral Decay finally released after Apple says 'Lose the sandals'
Now he looks like Chuck Norris
Why did Apple reject a retro-styled side-scrolling shooter, complete with chiptunes and blocky graphics?
In fact, Apple didn't reject Moral Decay just once.
According to developer Tim Omernick, it rejected the game several times, over a number of months before finally allowing it to go live.
The reason? Oh, yeah. As we noted when first writing about the game in September 2010, it places you into the holy sandals of one Chris T.
My sweet LordYeah, you're a gun totting messiah who's back to save the world from Yakuza goons, wild animals, aliens, and the Dark Lord himself, down the barrel of a machine gun.
"Apple specifically told me 'Don't make him look like Jesus - lose the robes, lose the sandals'," Omernick tells us.
Here's a progress of how the character of Chris T. changed over time. Now he's more Chuck Norris than Jewish redeemer.
Mystery of faithAs for the game itself, it's fast moving Contra-style shooter, with Omernick saying " I wanted to make the Stephen Colbert of video games".
"The motivation is supposed to be ambiguous. Am I a Christian and trying to make Jesus look like a total bad ass fighter trying to bring justice to sinners? Or is it satire about religion, pacifism, and hypocrisy?"
Moral Decay is out now, as a universal app, priced $1.99, €1.59 or £1.19.
However please note that there are some bugs in the game that have been addressed in an already submitted update. These include a crash bug, a bug where it was impossible to duck while facing left, collision/hit detection error while Chris T. is ducking, plus the provision of more health so there game should be easier.
And here's what the original gameplay video looked like.