The developers at Vicious Cycle Software and 1st Playable Productions were paid for their work. If you genuinely love the franchise, supporting official merchandise (or waiting for a remaster/reboot) is the right move. Furthermore, by downloading a crack, you are often funding (via ad-revenue on torrent sites) the very cybercriminals who prey on children.
On paper, this sounds like a disaster. Gwen and Kevin were the emotional anchors of the previous two series. But Rook was the perfect foil for a maturing Ben. Rook was by-the-book, literal-minded, and stiff. Ben, now 16 and arguably the most ben 10 omniverse cracked