I had pretty popular podcast and a relatively popular free game on the app store, and I can agree that the gamers are a tougher audience than the general public. There are bad podcasts but you usually don't see reviews ripping them apart for trying. Likewise there are free games which obviously took more work than some of the one button apps I've seen on the app store, yet everyone who plays it feels the need to leave a snide remark. I personally wish the app store had the option of turning the comments off like YouTube. Maybe Apple wasn't ready for the cynicism of the gaming public. I know I wasn't.
Take it this way, you got gamers to pay enough attention to your game long enough that they would take the effort to leave a bad comment.
I worked as a game reviewer and I could actively avoid bad games, so there's obviously an element in the game you made that was drawing people's attention and keeping it. Find that element, redevelop and release anew.
From what I could tell a new-franchise in games had as good odds as a movie of hitting big - IE purely random. Simply try again.
I'm in the midst of doing more or less what you're suggesting. In addition to new content I'm going to try to strip out some of what people seem to have disliked. The idea that you're supposed to listen to feedback and make changes accordingly doesn't seem so easy when the feedback is hostile or totally unhelpful.
