Flappy Bird
Flappy Bird is a simple yet extremely addictive and difficult game, from developer Dong Nguyen, which involves tapping a fluffy bird in a Mario-esque environment, taking it safely past numerous pipes.
Many players have devised ways to smoothen the problem of not getting high scores, by bringing in cheats and hacks for the game.
Even we find the pursuit to find high scores in Flappy Bird as a valid one. So here are some tricks and tips which will increase players' chances of making a better score in the game without hacks:
1. Relax - Since the game is rather difficult, and the player is likely to even fail to pass through two pipes in the initial stages, they need to relax after a quick end to the game.
2. Be calm - Players need to be calm and composed while playing this game, since thinking too hard will harm their performance.
3. Breaks - Help yourself with breaks so that there is no strain for your eyes. After around eight straight deaths, put the phone/tablet down and take a break.
4. Do not tap needlessly - Players just need to tap the screen lightly and not mash it. The trick is in being quick and making light, correct taps.
5. Flow - The game boils down to how long you can concentrate. Keep the flow going.
6. Rhythm - Players need to maintain a rhythm for the game. Make use of music and sync yourself with it while playing.
7. Remove the screen cover and any casings - This will help in better sensitivity of the screen. However, do not remove it, if you are not comfortable holding the phone without it.
8. Play on a big screen device - The game gets more complicated on small screen devices, as the fingers will cover the screen; so a bigger, tablet-like screen helps in greater clarity.
9. Win Medals - Note that players will get bronze if they score 10 points, silver for 20 points and gold for 30.
10. Give up and Start Fresh - In case you cannot win even after numerous attempts on the same day, stop and start fresh the next day.
Hack to make a high score on Android devices
Players need to hack their Android device before they begin with the following procedures. It is also necessary that they download ES File Explorer from theGoogle Play Store. Now reinstall a new copy of Flappy Bird game. Once you do this, run the game again to earn a high score of atleast one. Now close the game and follow the following procedure, according to Droid Report.
In order to perform this hack suggested by YouTube user ohGelato, there is no requirement of any jailbreak. However, players must make sure that the game is running on the device (via Latin Times).
Many players have devised ways to smoothen the problem of not getting high scores, by bringing in cheats and hacks for the game.
Even we find the pursuit to find high scores in Flappy Bird as a valid one. So here are some tricks and tips which will increase players' chances of making a better score in the game without hacks:
1. Relax - Since the game is rather difficult, and the player is likely to even fail to pass through two pipes in the initial stages, they need to relax after a quick end to the game.
3. Breaks - Help yourself with breaks so that there is no strain for your eyes. After around eight straight deaths, put the phone/tablet down and take a break.
4. Do not tap needlessly - Players just need to tap the screen lightly and not mash it. The trick is in being quick and making light, correct taps.
5. Flow - The game boils down to how long you can concentrate. Keep the flow going.
6. Rhythm - Players need to maintain a rhythm for the game. Make use of music and sync yourself with it while playing.
7. Remove the screen cover and any casings - This will help in better sensitivity of the screen. However, do not remove it, if you are not comfortable holding the phone without it.
8. Play on a big screen device - The game gets more complicated on small screen devices, as the fingers will cover the screen; so a bigger, tablet-like screen helps in greater clarity.
9. Win Medals - Note that players will get bronze if they score 10 points, silver for 20 points and gold for 30.
10. Give up and Start Fresh - In case you cannot win even after numerous attempts on the same day, stop and start fresh the next day.
Hack to make a high score on Android devices
Players need to hack their Android device before they begin with the following procedures. It is also necessary that they download ES File Explorer from theGoogle Play Store. Now reinstall a new copy of Flappy Bird game. Once you do this, run the game again to earn a high score of atleast one. Now close the game and follow the following procedure, according to Droid Report.
- Open ES File Explorer and navigate to the Tools menu.
- Enable "Root Explorer."
- Navigate to /device, then /data.
- Within the /data folder, navigate to a subfolder also named /data.
- Locate the Flappy Bird file and open it.
- Open shared_prefs and FlappyBird.xml.
- When prompted, select ES Note Editor. Navigate to "edit."
- Enter whatever score you want.
In order to perform this hack suggested by YouTube user ohGelato, there is no requirement of any jailbreak. However, players must make sure that the game is running on the device (via Latin Times).
- Download one of these modified atlas.txt files. [Use this if you want pipes appear but you can go through them http://cl.ly/TdsF. Use this if you want a little line instead of the whole pipe -http://cl.ly/TdJy]
- Download iExplorer (When the registration screen comes up, click "Continue with Demo"), next, connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer.
- Now open iExplorer, and search through your apps for "flap.app" once you find it open "flap.app."
- In "flap.app" search through your files for one named "atlas.txt." Next click on "atlas.txt" and in the right hand screen you'll see a bunch of text/code.
- Change the view to thumbnail mode, then drag the new atlas.txt file you downloaded right into the iExplorer screen with all the other thumbnails.
- You will be prompted to replace the file. Replace it.
A Flappy future for games
Where one meme arrives others are sure to follow. There’s a lot of concern in the games industry about the effect of app stores on gaming. It’s proved fairly impossible to command a traditionally high price any more to enable the kind of high quality development that gamers are used to; and in-app purchases are notorious among parents and deeply unpopular among customers. We can’t imagine the hatred spawned by microtransactions leading to a good long-term business plan. But meme-based gaming is hardly the resolution we were looking for. While we enjoy memes we’re not comfortable with the App Store being swamped in them.
Apple vets and rejects many apps, but it is actually far more freewheeling than other games publishers. You’re not going to see Flappy Bird on the Xbox Store or sporting an Official Nintendo Seal any time soon. Mind you, you might not see the Official Nintendo Seal anywhere in the near future given the way the Wii U is selling. While Apple’s open approach to developers has allowed a million apps and endless variation, we don’t want the App Store to become the gaming equivalent of Meme Generator. We doubt Apple would let it come to that, but the question still remains: what is the games industry turning into?
At the end of the day Flappy Bird is still a one-star game.
OUR VERDICT
Flappy Bird is a terrible game, but it’s harmless fun. It’s got a high profile because of a so-bad-it’s-good quality, social media humour and is free. And it's nice to see a free game rather than one that pretends to be free then shakes you down for in-app purchases. Flappy Bird is ruthlessly hard to play though, and each game is mercifully short. It’s nice when the video games industry occasionally throws these curveballs, and we're sure some executives are cranking through numbers to see if this is the start of a new trend of "Tappy Flappy" games. We wouldn't bank on it though. We think the meme here is more important than the game. For now it's a meaningless diversion but in the long run we’d rather Apple’s App Store didn’t start to resemble a gaming equivalent of Meme Generator.
Is Flappy Bird any good?
Let’s just say this: no Flappy Bird is not a good game. We’re sorry if you’re actually a fan rather than in on the joke. There are upsides to Flappy Bird. Not many but we should outline them: it is surprisingly addictive; instant death games are quick to play and a typical game for us lasts around 10 seconds. So it’s ideal for those brief moments on the tube, or between classes or meetings. It is free to download and it isn’t trying to constantly shake you down via in-app purchases. It does have banner ads but they’re not especially intrusive. In this respect Flappy Bird is vastly more likeable than all of EA’s recent offerings, especially Dungeon Keeper which is currently being held up as the poster boy of everything that is wrong with the video games industry. (See: Developers given until 1 April to comply with new in-app purchase rules: How to stop kids buying iPad, iPhone apps & extras)
There are numerous downsides to Flappy Bird. I guess the main one would be that it’s technically and graphically poor. Actually calling it “poor” is being kind, it’s impoverished to the level of the North Korean tech scene. The visuals are low-resolution and of low quality, the Flappy Bird itself is a yellow ball with giant red lips and a single cyclops eye. The Flappy Bird has three frames of animation to complete the retro-gaming effect. The Start and Score buttons look like Flash-era web graphics. The ground is a rolling two-tone green barbershop pole; thepipes are from Super Mario Bros., the background is a static city made of, what looks like, clip art. It’s hard to imagine a designer choosing a worse font for the Flappy Bird logo: officially it is known as 04B_19 and is like Comic Sans without the self referential irony. The game is repetitive, bland and mediocre.
Make no mistake Flappy Bird is a terrible, terrible piece of software. If it weren’t so popular this wouldn't be an issue. Flappy Bird could be a fine example of a developer still honing their craft and still better than anything most critics could develop in Objective-C. But it’s not: Flappy Bird is sitting at number one in the charts. Flappy Bird is more popular than games with huge intellectual property behind them, like Despicable Me: Minion Rush or games by long-standing expert publishers like Sonic Dash. Flappy Bird has almost 10,000 reviews and is rated by the App Store at 4 stars. Dungeon Keeper, in contrast, has 108 reviews and is rated at 3 Stars. The public has very much spoken and it likes this game. Flappy Bird is not alone either: the rest of the Free App chart is now overpowered with clones like Ironpants and Flappy Plane. A similar game calledCopter Classic from 2012 has re-entered the Top 10.
Flappy Bird review
Flappy Bird is a free game by independent game designer Dong Nguyen that is currently topping t
he charts. Although several months old, Flappy Bird has suddenly shot to fame after a wave of social media exposure. But is Flappy Bird any good? Our Flappy Bird review checks under its feathers.
he charts. Although several months old, Flappy Bird has suddenly shot to fame after a wave of social media exposure. But is Flappy Bird any good? Our Flappy Bird review checks under its feathers.How to play Flappy Bird
The gameplay premise of Flappy Bird is simple. You have a bird on the screen and tapping it makes the aforesaid Flappy Bird flap its wings and arc up and down. The background is a constant scroll and you have to flap the Flappy Bird through gaps made by large green pipes. If the Flappy Bird touches a pipe, or the ground, your game is over. You score a single point for each gap you pass through.
Flappy Bird is nothing if not frustrating. You’ll start by hitting the first pipe. After several Flappy Bird games you might be up to three or four points. Give it a few hours and you might top 20. You start to wonder if there really is method to the madness: “maybe I need to tap more regularly by counting”, “perhaps I should aim for the bottom of the first pipe”, “what if try double tapping?” This is the route to madness. There is no method here. It’s mostly luck and how good your reaction timing is.
The distance between pipes is narrow, and your control over the Flappy Bird is clumsy and imprecise. Our Flappy Bird record stands at 19 pipes; we imagine many people give up after hitting the first few pipes. On the other hand Game Centre is packed full of people with 9,999 pipes, which we assume is the limit of the game’s counter. Either that or they have a hack. Maybe they’ve found a hack for life that enables them to dodge gainful employment but become a 10th Dan Ninja Flappy Bird game player. Maybe it’s a zen thing. There are unanswered questions.
Can you hear that folks? Is it the beating wings of eternity? The steady rhythm of all existence? No. It's a one-eyed pixel fish with wings flapping its way through an endless slalom of Super Mario pipes. But this isn't a Miyamoto fever-dream, it's Flappy Bird, and it has come to consume your very soul. Or, you know, make you tap your mobile device of choice a bunch for two minutes before deleting it. It certainly scratches the itch for exacting, skill-based achievement thoroughly, but its staggering lack of ambition or creativity put a pretty low ceiling on how high it can soar.
It will take longer for you to read this explanation of howFlappy Bird works than it would for you to download it (for free) on your iOS or Android device and see absolutely everything it does first hand.
Your bird flies slowly and steadily to the right, through an obstacle course of rather familiar-looking pipes. Every set you pass gets you a “ding” and a point. Just tap to flap. But for as simple as it sounds, it usually only takes milliseconds to get your first infuriating taste of defeat. See, our little pixelated hero isn't a very good flier. He doesn't so much glide as he awkwardly bops like a cast-iron fishing lure being tugged against the current. He's also afflicted with a most rare and unfortunately fatal allergy to green pipes - dropping dead from even the most fleeting contact with them. If this doesn't sound very fun, it's because it isn't… not in the traditional sense of the word anyway.
The inevitability of failure for the slightest mistakes creates a tension that's difficult to put words to. For a while, I felt accomplished when I hit double digits, struggling from pipe one to keep my bird from crashing. It felt like playing a Mario game for the first time as a child and leaning from side to side, as if I could will my way through. Not long after that though, the rhythm clicked, and getting into the 20s and 30s was easy. But around 40 I'd notice I hadn't blinked, which got me thinking about blinking and then WHACK. When I crossed triple digits, staying mentally dialed in became the real challenge, and during my high-score run of 138 there were times where I realized I had actually forgotten to breathe. I suddenly found myself trying to inhale as carefully as I could so as not to disrupt the rhythm of my finger. That's quite a psychological trick for a game to pull off, but it comes at an expense.
THE VERDICT
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. It's a bird that sings only one note, and though it sings it well, it does so while flying needlessly low to the ground.
