Noodlecake trolls Android pirates with unbeatable Shooting Stars boss
Crime doesn't pay
Piracy on Android is a big problem for devs selling premium games. Only 11 percent of players paid for the excellent Wayward Souls, for example - the rest snatched it off a torrent site.
As a way to combat this with its latest game, Shooting Stars, publisher Noodlecake preempted the pirates and uploaded a modified version of the game to various Torrent sites and direct download forums.
In this version, you can play through the game up until the third boss: an obscenely difficult new villain for this special version called Daft Premium.
If you beat his wave, you'll face a literally impossible final boss. And when you inevitably die, you'll get a message asking you to consider buying the game.
"We don't think this is an answer to piracy," says Noodlecake. A cracked APK of the store version of Shooting Stars has already popped up online to counter the fake one, after all.
"But hey, if one or two players decide to throw us a couple bucks in the process, then we call that a win".