Torchlight clone Armed Heroes Online comes to the Canadian App Store, gets called out by Runic Games

An RPG called Armed Heroes Online appeared quietly on the Canadian App Store a few weeks ago, since when it's generated a fair amount of publicity.

Unwelcome publicity, that is. Developer EGLS Technologies has been accused of stealing most – if not all – of the game's visual and audio assets from Runic Games’s 2009 action-RPG Torchlight.

Runic president Travis Baldree took to Twitter to allege the theft, writing, "…they wholesale stole most of the assets from Torchlight!"

In a call to Kotaku over the weekend, Baldree notes that the theft of audiovisual assets from Torchlight is so comprehensive that EGLS even included a voice sample provided by a Runic technical artist, who supplied the sound effects for an in-game "joke weapon" in Torchlight.

Armed Heroes Online is listed as a free game, but features in-app purchases of up to $99.00.

Baldree claims that Runic has contacted Apple to demand that the game be taken down from the Canadian App Store.

See below for a handy collage comparing the various in-game assets, which Baldree posted on Twitter.