Flappy Bird – Review
There are games that push the boundaries of your device, there are games like GTA that used to be on a console which you can even play on your phone. So can anyone explain how a game that is simpler then Pong is currently trending and topping the charts for Android and Iphone? Flappy Bird is an 8 bit platformer, which has everyone including me under its spell. With the simplest controls known to man, this might be the most addictive game I have ever played.
Flappy Bird isn’t a new idea. You play as an 8 bit bird, that needs to fly between mario style warp tubes. You control the bird by tapping the screen, tap it too much and you’ll go sorwing into the sky. Stop tapping and you’ll crash back to earth. I had read about how it is similar to an old flash title, the Helicopter Game. Where you would hold the mouse to avoid obstacles and rack up a high score by dodging obstacles in a narrow corridor.
Flappy Bird takes this concept and increases the difficulty exponentially. The physics around the game means your bird is difficult to control, and the collisions come quick and fast. This means that just getting one point better then your current score is enough to call your mum.
I cannot class this as a game. A game has an end, achievements and a goal. It never ends, this collection of pixels is probably the most addictive thing I have ever played. Your on the train, whip out the phone play 15 rounds of Flappy Bird.
Flappy Bird is to mobile games, what Twitter was to conversation. Twitter simplified people talking and reduced it to 140 characters. It does the same to gaming on your phone, it has drawn a line in the sand and gone “Come on then! Make a simpler game!”.
Checkout that list over 2,000,000 players on G+ playing Flappy Bird! Flappy Bird is free, its addictive, it could be the game of 2014.
Download Flappy Bird below:
Stephen Yuen
Definitely a though-provoking review, though, would you then class ‘endless runner’ games in the same category as Flappy Bird? One might argue a ‘game’ is just something that elicits a sense of joy or amusement (which I think happens a lot more rarely playing Flappy Bird 😛 )
Ste Boyd
I never thought Flappy Bird what be so thought provoking. O.o
Stephen Yuen
Only to the point where you got mad and threw your phone out the window…
henharm
whats up with the top score being so high? If one tube went by per second, and one point were awarded per tube, then jack would have had to play for 2.9*10^11 years straight to get that score!