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Flappy Bird - Review Thread

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Its the latest sensation that's sweeping the nation - its flappy bird! The hard broiled, competitive, point-scoring, bird-flapping, rage-inducing AAA mobile game. Its gameplay is innovative and controversial; there has never been another game quite like it. Now, before you invest your precious time on the toilet playing it, you probably want to know what the verdict is from the critics.

IGN - 5.4/10

Flappy Bird isn't a good video game. It's arguably not even a fun one. But its no-frills approach and exacting, relentlessly repetitious gameplay make it an addictive short-term distraction for the skill and score-obsessed.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/08/flappy-bird-review

USgamer - 1/5

A certain addictive or compulsive quality isn't sufficient to make a genuinely good game, sadly; Flappy Bird is addictive and compulsive in the same way that popping bubble wrap is addictive and compulsive. It may be immediately satisfying to waste your time with it in the short term, but when you look back on how your day went, you'll find yourself wishing you'd used those hours for something more productive or stimulating.
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/flappy-bird-ios-review-18-million-players-cant-be-wrong-right

Digital Spy - 6/10

Whether you can or will survive for long is another matter entirely, but the constant possibility for success keeps players coming back after every failed attempt and sharing their failures with friends for an ever-expanding pool of players.
http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/levelup/a548694/mobile-reviews-dungeon-keeper-bloodstroke-flappy-bird.html

Gamezebo - 7/10

Flappy Bird is simultaneously everything that’s right and wrong about video games. You’ll play it, you’ll obsess over it, but you’ll never really like it.
http://www.gamezebo.com/games/flappy-bird/review

Slide to Play - 5/10

Flappy Bird is a decent free time waster, but it's not worth obsessing over.
http://www.slidetoplay.com/review/flappy-bird-review/
 

Jacobi

Banned
It was fun for a couple of times. People love to compare their scores tho and that's why it's so successful
 

Blinck

Member
I don't understand the love for this game. Is it not Helicopter?

Me neither. It's a trash clone of the other 5000000 trash clones that are part of the mobile market in which 95% of products are trash.

It was fun for a couple of times. People love to compare their scores tho and that's why it's so successful

Don't all other infinite runners do this? It's not like this game does ANYTHING new. Or am i missing something?
 

wrowa

Member
I thought I was the only one who doesnt understand the appeal of this. It's one of those games that aren't hard because of challenging design, but because of bad controls.
 

hesido

Member
Me neither. It's a trash clone of the other 5000000 trash clones that are part of the mobile market in which 95% of products are trash.



Don't all other infinite runners do this? It's not like this game does ANYTHING new. Or am i missing something?

And success stories like this will attract even more trash, causing logarithmic increase in trashy trash. It will make life even harder for devs who seriously put their heart, soul, blood and tears in to mobile games, to make their game stand out. But it doesn't matter, the key to success could be as simple as flooding the market with trash and waiting for the jackpot to happen.

(My high score is 42 and I'm ashamed I've played as much. )
 

kazebyaka

Banned
It's just a re-skin of a old flash helicopter game. And people pay for that? No wonder there's stuff like Dungeon Keeper on mobile devices.
 

statham

Member
Verdict: Flappy Bird is de-evolution, a step back into the past of gaming. While the controls are perfect and the gameplay pure, there’s something unnatural about its progression. After a day of gaming, I lost total interest. Flappy Bird is a vapid thrill, a quick ride into the oblivion of gaming where only fire and brimstone awaits. For that one day, you’ll be lost in the magic of Flappy Bird, but the day after it’ll just sit there lost among hundreds of apps on your phone. I can’t knock a game for being addictive, but I can disapprove of its vapid nature.

Score: 7
http://gearburn.com/2014/02/flappy-bird-review-dark-souls-distilled/
 

Forkball

Member
This game is actually several months old. There have been suspicions that the developer using bots to make it hit the top charts so suddenly.

I'm really shocked this has become a phenom and the guy is making bank off of it with ripped off artwork. This looks like one of those terrible faux games you would find at a Thai night market, except this game is making thousands of dollars a day.
 
I really don't get why people are saying it's so difficult. I can usually kill the bird on the first or second pipe. How is it taking you all so long to defeat it?
 

Cheddahz

Banned
Honestly, the ads and the bad controls is what makes this game bad for me, but I'm also not a big fan of mobile games....
 
It's a fun score attack game. It would be no where near as awesome if I wasn't going against all of my roommates for the highest score.
 
It's just a re-skin of a old flash helicopter game. And people pay for that? No wonder there's stuff like Dungeon Keeper on mobile devices.

And yet in the five minutes you play it, you get five minutes of gameplay. It would take you a month to get five minutes of gameplay out of Dungeon Keeper.
 

dtg

Neo Member
It's fun for what it is. People just get salty because it's popular and doesn't do anything new or different. Just because it's a clone of something doesn't make it a bad game. Helicopter was fun too, and there is an entire generation of people who never played silly flash games on Newgrounds, Armor Games, or Kongregate back in the day.
 

Roubjon

Member
There are way better games with the exact same principle.

Like Jetpack Joyride.

Too complicated.

The magic of Flappy Bird is that you either Flap or you Flop. There's nothing in between. Gotta keep flappin' and if you flop-up, you're all flapped out.
 

Chesskid1

Banned
i read it blew up when the most popular youtuber (pewdiepie) made a video about it.

i bet people will be throwing money at him now, if they aren't already.
 
It just shows that most mobile games are just either luck to succeed or right place right time. Some people play it, others play it because the first ones did and want to beat their score. It's not a good game. It's not a fun game. It just exists and was lucky enough to take off because... reasons?
 

Timeless

Member
Super Hexagon is a difficult game with fun gameplay playable in short periods of time.

Tiny Wings is a bird-based endless runner with great graphics, sound, and gameplay.

Flappy Bird is terrible.
 

zigg

Member
I'll probably be done with Flappy Bird soon, but I have a feeling I'll continue to be entertained by salty tears over it and its success for some time to come.
 

Zia

Member
I like Floppy Bird because whenever I'm not preoccupied with something for fifteen seconds I can boot it up instead of sitting and thinking about bills, or the tedious relationships I have with everyone I know. : )
 
A gameplay first/only game with "no frills" that harkens back to "old school" conventions like high score getting low score from the mainstream press because it lacks cinematics and content to tour? I'm amazed.

obviously being facetious here, I'm sure the game is shallow and boring in the long term
 
I love Jetpack Joyride but, amazingly, this game might be better for pure score attack.
Definitely. Jetpack Joyride is complete garbage, progression is 90% grinding/paying for upgrades and 10% skill. It isn't rewarding at all because the skill ceiling is so low (purposefully). Just go look at "great" runs, they are more about using items than actually playing the game skillfully. Truly the worst kind of mobile game.

Flappy Bird is stupid and incredibly simplistic but at least it's purely skill based, in the vein of the [far superior] Super Hexagon. It might be shallow but at least it isn't built around grinding and pay to win mechanics, the evil of all evils for mobile game design.
 

Crayons

Banned
How does it even deserve 5/10? It took like an hour to develop. The sprites were stolen from Super Mario World. The concept was stolen from helicopter.
 
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