Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy

Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy
Date	December 12, 2009
Developer	Codeglue
Publisher	Publisher X
Platform	Apple iPhone Apple iPod Touch
Genre	Virtual pet

Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy is an iOS entertainment app developed by Codeglue and published on December 12, 2009 by Publisher X. It was released on iTunes but was removed, likely for negative reviews of the app. It was only available on the United States app store.

This application was rated 9+ for "Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence". It was compatible with iPhone OS 2.0 or later.

iTunes description

HAPPY TREE FRIENDS: SLAP HAPPY is a unique game application that puts your very own cute, cuddly and unsuspecting Happy Tree Friend in the palm of your hand. Inspired by the animated shorts from the cult sensation, Happy Tree Friends; HAPPY TREE FRIENDS: SLAP HAPPY allows you to tease and play with your furry friend, but be sure to keep your little pal safe and out of harm's way because you never know when crazy things are bound to happen!

The application takes full advantage of the Apple iPhone and iPod touch to extend the different circumstances that Happy Tree Friends characters can experience and that fans have come to love and expect from the series.

Instructions

How to care for Cuddles:

Congratulations, you've got a new best friend forever! Cuddles loves attention. Give him a little poke or shake things up a bit for some wall to wall fun. For even more side-splitting laughs you can tap into his collection of toys. If you get a little too slap happy and need to add some life back into the party, a little shock therapy might just be the outlet you need. And remember kids, CPR is a life saver too!

Gameplay

The gameplay revolves around the touch screen of the iOS device. The game starts with Cuddles in a room. The player can interact with Cuddles using either touchscreen gestures or by shaking the device. Cuddles will take damage from certain interactions. After taking 20 hits, Cuddles will be in a damaged state indicated by him looking wounded and being covered in bandages and stitches. Past 40 hits, Cuddles will die and need to be revived to resume interaction.

While Cuddles is idle, one of the following animations will randomly play if he is not interacted with:

• Cuddles blinks.
• Cuddles hops in place while facing left, and then right, before returning to his idle pose.
• Cuddles sings.
• Cuddles smiles.
• Cuddles takes out a large watch as he taps his foot impatiently.
• Cuddles waves at the viewer.
• Cuddles yawns.
• If Cuddles is in a damaged state, he can only cry.

The following lists the interactions:

• Body poke: Tap on Cuddles' body, making him flinch.
• Flying: Swipe across Cuddles from below or shake the device to send him flying, causing him to take damage for every impact point on either the sides of the room, the floor, or the ceiling.
• Poke: Tap on either side of Cuddles' body to make him lose balance briefly.
• Slap: Swipe across Cuddles' face to slap him. This inflicts damage on him.

Opening the menu on the upper right part of the screen, which is marked by a skull and bones icon, will show five toys that can be used on Cuddles:

• Shock: Zaps Cuddles. This will revive him from any death. It will not do anything if Cuddles is alive.
• Revive: Allows the player to give Cuddles CPR in order to revive him. To revive him, the player has to swipe down towards Cuddles five times. This is only usable if Cuddles died after a slap or from being sent flying.
• Spike walls: Activates a spike wall trap, which clamps on Cuddles.
• Drain pipe: Drops a drain pipe, which falls into Cuddles' mouth and kills him.
• Chainsaw: Drops a chainsaw, cutting Cuddles in half.

The player can also tap the upper left tab, which is marked by a key icon, to open the options menu which contains the following:

• Background: Allows the player to change the room background. The app provides three background variations.
• Care: Shows in-game instructions.
• Sounds: Mute/Unmute sounds.
• Music: Mute/Unmute music.
• Tell a friend!: Share about Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy to other people via e-mail.
• Play: Return to the game.

Tell a friend!

The player can spread the word about Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy to other people via the "Tell a friend!" link in the options menu which would generate a pre-made e-mail with the subject title "Get Slap Happy!" and the message body as follows:

Hi there.

I just had to tell you about my new best friend, Cuddles.

He sticks with me no matter what I do.

I can poke him, slap him and when I really shake things up, he bounces right back.

He is so cute I just love him to death, over and over again!

Want to make Cuddles your BFF too?

Now there is a Happy Tree Friends app for that!

Get Slap Happy today!

Characters

Image	Name	Description
	Cuddles	The only Happy Tree Friend the player can interact with in Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy. By performing certain gestures on the device, Cuddles will react accordingly. He will end up wounded and even die from enough abuse, though the player can revive him back to his initial state.

Fates

Deaths

• Cuddles can die if he is hit more than 40 times.
• Cuddles can be crushed between spike walls.
• Cuddles' throat can end up lodged by a drain pipe.
• Cuddles can be cut in half with a chainsaw.

Injuries

• Cuddles can end up smacked against either side of the screen, the floor, or the ceiling if he is sent flying.
• Cuddles can gain visible wounds from taking damage 20 times.

Development

The Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy app was first teased on Happy Tree Friends Social via Kenn Navarro's blog titled "Let your finger do the slapping!", which was first published on July 6, 2009. In that blog post, Kenn first explained about the many things he could do at Mondo related to Happy Tree Friends, including side projects such as t-shirt designs or other merchandise. Kenn admitted to be a fan of games and thus decided to reveal one such project related to it, which is this app. A teaser trailer simply titled Happy Tree Friends - Slap Happy was included, featuring Cuddles in a room within an iPhone screen and a human finger slapping him. It was slated to be released for August, with a tentative date of August 30, 2009, before it got delayed to before the holidays.

During post-release, Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy was promoted using live-action skits featuring an actor in a Cuddles suit going about in the real world to represent the app's gimmick of "taking Cuddles anywhere with you," which was expressed in the first of such video released on December 16, 2009, Happy Tree Friends - Slap Happy iPhone App (also known as The Cuddles Slide according to the "Let your finger do the slapping!" blog post, though mistakenly linked to Cuddles takes the bus! in URL), which shows Cuddles accompanying and playing with a young boy. The second video released on December 22, 2009, Happy Tree Friends - Get Slap Happy, expresses the app's gimmick in the form of Cuddles getting slapped (or otherwise abused) by random people. The third video released on January 2, 2010, Happy Tree Friends - Cuddles takes the bus!, combines both aspects of the previous two videos as it shows Cuddles accompanying a kid to take a bus, but due to his size, he is unable to get inside and thus gets slapped by the kid.

Pre-release and unused content

Placeholder image from Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy.

Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy contains a placeholder sprite (pictured) presumably as a fallback image in case the app is unable to load the needed graphical asset.

Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy also supports localization in German, Spanish, and French. An Italian localization file (locale_it.dat) exists, but all its text entries are filled with "<missing>".

The app contains the cuddles.xml file that defines how sounds and animations are loaded. However, some are found to be commented out and thus never loaded in the game proper:

• The Annoyed voice set, which would have five "annoyed" voice variations. However, the app only contains one such sound (annoyed 1.caf) which is instead used under Phew.
• The Tap effect set, which has no corresponding sound files present in the app package despite being defined to use three variations of the "tap" sound.
• The ZapKill effect set, which has no corresponding sound file (zap 2 kill.caf) present in the app package.
• The cuddles_crying file for animations. This is not to be confused with cuddles_crying_damaged sprites which actually exist in the app package. Presumably, Cuddles would be able to cry during idle while in his normal state, instead of only in his damaged state as in the final release.
• The cuddles_idle_sneeze1 file for animations. As its name suggests, Cuddles would be able to sneeze during idle. Even though the corresponding audio (sneeze 1.caf) exists, there are no sprites for this.
• The cuddles_lyingdown_damaged_flip file for animations. Presumably, there would be a flipped version of the dead Cuddles.
• All voice instances if Cuddles is in his dead state during the hittingWall, hittingCeiling, and hittingFloor animations. All of these animations involve the interaction where Cuddles is sent flying, where it is possible his body is still being bounced around the room after taking too many hits.

Reception

On iTunes, as of October 8, 2010, Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy gained a rating of around 3.5 stars out of 5, from a total of 767 ratings. Customer reviews criticized the app for having too little content or interaction for an app based on the show, combined with the wait time since its announcement back in July.

Gallery

• 

  App icon.

• 

  iTunes artwork.

• 

  Splash screen.

• 

  The player is slapping Cuddles.

• 

  The promotional banner for Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy, used on the "Let your finger do the slapping!" news blog.

Trivia

• Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy is the first official Happy Tree Friends iOS app.
• Despite what the description on iTunes claims, only Cuddles is the only character in the game.