10 Soulless Video Games That Are Just Slot-Machines

7. The Smurfs' Village

Years of fond Smurf memories were torn asunder for many when Capcom Mobile came up with the idea to paint a gaudy Smurfy layer over the already exhausted management-style freemium framework. Masquerading as an innocent town-builder management game, Smurfs' Village does a commendable job of hiding its cruel intentions from the children it was programmed to exploit. So cunning in fact, that it ended up as the poster child for the evils of in-app purchases, prompting Apple to step in and give Capcom a stern talking to. This banal, dubious excuse for a game shot to the top of the App Store charts as impressionable youths (and adults with more money than sense) burned great big vats of cash in exchange for that most delicious of in-game currencies, Smurfberries. Progress without these laughably overpriced berries is agonising but possible, but when even the most basic of tasks take days to complete, it's just too much to bear. Once again we have a free game that is anything but.