Monday, February 3, 2014

Flap and Die: An ode to Flappy Bird, 10 million mindless downloads and counting

When it comes to smartphone games, Sisyphus is one popular bastard. The original Damned. Push the rock up the hill. Watch it roll back down. Repeat. Repeat again. Kick the rock. Break toe. Start back up the hill.

We are Sisyphus. And our rock is Flappy Bird.

This isn't a particularly good game. Graphics aped right from a 16-bit Super NES. Sound effects consist of one (1) Flappy Bird flapping and the ding of pipes a-passing. There is no goal. There is no boss. Just the promise of frustration. And endless pipes. Eight-hundred and ninety-four kilobytes of pure, ad-supported, time-wasting evil.