''Kill the Plumber'' is a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

developed by Filipino independent game developer Keybol. The game is a parody of ''

Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...

'' Players control the inhabitants of a kingdom invaded by a plumber and must stop him before he can reach a princess. It was released in 2016 for Windows and Android, but Apple rejected it for violating Nintendo's copyright. After the graphics were changed, Apple accepted it.

Gameplay

The game is a parody of ''

'' in which players, as Mario enemy parodies, attempt to stop a hostile plumber (a parody of

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...

). He has invaded their kingdom to stalk a princess (a parody of

Princess Peach is a fictional character in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original '' Super Mario Bros.'' installment. She is the princess regnant and ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she resides ...

Development

The initial design pitch was to control various enemies from platform games, becoming stronger as the game progressed. The game was initially developed as a

browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on ...

. After it proved popular on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, Keybol ported it to mobile platforms. Development for both platforms took a month. However, Apple rejected it from their App Store for potentially violating Nintendo's copyright. While negotiating with Apple, Keybol ported the game to Windows, which took another six weeks of development time.

Release

''Kill the Plumber'' was released on Steam on January 1, 2016. As ''Kill the Plumber World'', it was released on iOS and Android on February 2, 2016. This version of the game features different artwork and is less reminiscent of Nintendo's games.

Reception

Though he criticized the controls and music, Victor Barreiro Jr. of '' Rappler'' wrote that the Windows version of ''Kill the Plumber'' has a variety of challenging puzzles. Reviewing the iPad version, Harry Slater of '' Pocket Gamer'' rated it 6/10 and wrote that it does not live up to the game's intriguing promise of a deconstruction of platform games. At 148apps.com, Campbell Bird rated the iOS version 2.5/5 stars and wrote, "Even though ''Kill the Plumber'' has a clever premise, I'm afraid it has little going for it beyond that."

References

{{Unofficial Mario media 2016 video games Android (operating system) games IOS games Keybol Games games Parody video games Platform games Single-player video games Unauthorized video games Unofficial works based on Mario Video games developed in the Philippines Windows games