Move over Angry Birds, there’s a new bird in town! Nearly a week ago, the indie game Flappy Bird was released on the Google Play Store, and yet in a matter of days it found itself at the top of the free charts with over 10 million downloads. Why the sudden smash hit, you ask? Well, Flappy Bird was original released in the App Store on May of last year, but in the past few weeks has had a late boom in popularity and climbed up to claim the top spot in free apps.
If you are just starting to hear of Flappy Bird and haven’t tried it, let me explain: the game is simple enough, you fly a pixelated bird through a series of green pipes by tapping the screen, and if you hit any of the pipes while flying, it’s game over. Make no mistake, despite its deceptively easy premise, this game is essentially a rage game. In other words, one that you can spend hours upon hours just trying to get past three (yes, it’s that hard).
As for it’s explosive popularity, my guess is that it has to do with the sheer competitiveness of it. By the time all your friends hear of it and play the game, you’ll all be striving to beat each other’s scores. Flappy Bird is just one of those games that evolves sheer frustration and absolute concentration simultaneously. After all, the feeling of winning after countless failures is always rewarding. However, as easy as it is to pick up it does require skill. Another reason for it’s popularity probably stems from the fact that you feel the need to condemn the game for its difficulty. Flappy 
Bird’s popularity infamy has turned the game into an internet meme, with countless tweets, images, Vines, you name it. Since it’s release in the app store, people had been eagerly awaiting the release on the Google Play Store, which lead to it’s rapid rise to the top.
In my opinion, it’s not exactly a good game. It’s simple, short and repetitive. But of course, that’s not what makes us come back to play it again. What makes us play it over and over again is our sense of determination to get a better score, since it’s simple and easy enough to get into. It takes some skill to get out of it though. Do I recommend you get it? Not personally, but if you are curious, don’t blame me if you end up playing for hours with building frustration. I warned you, it happens.
What will the future for Flappy Bird hold? Perhaps it will die out after a while, but no one ever knows.
