Helicopter Taxi (found deleted iOS game; 2011)

The app icon for Helicopter Taxi

Status: Found

Toca Boca is a Swedish game development company that creates apps designed for children ages 3-11. Since 2011, they have had over 100 million downloads across all of their games.

Their first game released in 2011 was titled Helicopter Taxi (sometimes referred to as Toca Helicopter Taxi). It featured augmented reality elements, in which the player drives a "helicopter taxi" to pick up "passengers". Due to the augmented reality, the helicopter taxi would appear to be in the area in which the game was played in.

The game was released exclusively for iPhones in March 2011 and was met with mostly positive reception. Wired praised the game for the use of augmented reality. However, on October 13th, 2011, Toca Boca removed the app from the App Store due to "lack of quality". Due to its decreasing popularity, there were a few images and recordings of the game, resulting in it being considered lost. Until on August 26, 2024 LMW User elfhuo dumped the IPA from his mother's iPad and uploaded it to MediaFire as he noticed it was purchased back in 2012 on his mother's Apple ID. However the game will not work on newer iOS Versions due to it being a 32-bit IPA and Apple removing support for it.

Gallery

Trailer for Helicopter Taxi.

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  A promo image demonstrating The augmented reality the game has

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  The characters of Helicopter Taxi

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  Another promo demonstrating the augmented reality

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  A promotional image

Sources

• A 2011 Wired article about Helicopter Taxi. Retrieved 16 Jan '19
• Article explaining the removal of the app. Retrieved 16 Jan '19
• The Game's IPA. Retrieved 26 Aug '24