-News on the hottest gaming trends

 About two weeks ago, a new excitement brewed across the nation. Flappy Bird, a game with a simple concept but challenging gameplay idea took over practically every iPod in America. One element everyone noticed in the game were the pipes which players had to dodge. One thing not everyone noticed were the green pipes closely resembles those from the Super Mario franchise, especially from titles back in the early nineties. Well, apparently various companies have caught on and now the creators have taken the game down for good.

Photo comparing a 8-bit Cheep Cheep from Mario and the bird from Flappy Bird

Photo by the writer of this blog

The real issue being discussed here is why? Aside from the green pipes, there are many other reasons. Another one nodding to the red plumber is the famous coin jingle that is played everytime Mario and friends collect a gold coin. the sound effect is played each time you pass through two warp pipes on the game, indicating you have received another point. The final most hidden secret is who the “Flappy Bird” actually is. This secret is the most well hidden, and very little have spotted it. Though they are not exactly alike, the Cheep Cheep from the Mario series and the bird are actually the same sprite, just different colors. Other than the background and gameplay, the whole game was basically a copy and paste of the classic Mario games. The sad part of this is Flappy Bird was a very detailed, intriguing and charming game, making a great nod to the 16-bit era and genuinely mixing casual and hardcore aspects of games. Since the game was free, the company who developed this obviously would fall out before any legal issues arose, since they made no money from it in the 9 months it was out. The game did get ads which were pulling in $50,000 a day, but couldn’t support it. Also, the game creator has said the game was becoming an addiction and wanted to pull it down. Hopefully in the near future another game like this washes up on the app store, but doesn’t steal anything from any other games or become too addicting.