Honestly XBLIG, what took You so long? I expected this a week ago. You’re getting sloppy on me. Rhetorical questions aimed at inanimate Indie Services notwithstanding, there’s not another game in very recent history that has struck a chord (good and bad) quite like Flappy Bird. From massive success ($50,000 a day just in ad revenue is nothing to sneeze at) to constant Twitter harassment and its eventual yanking from the app store, or from a MMO to $1500 iPhones that have the game installed, it’s been a tumultuous and ridiculously-overpriced ride.
But, as they might say, The early (flappy) bird gets the worm, and developer NeuronVexx is the first XBLIGer to jump on the Flap-alike bandwagon with Little Flappers ($1.00). In case you’ve somehow managed to avoid the entire dust-up about Flappy Bird by doing something far more constructive and worthwhile for the human race (something I wish I could say about myself), the idea is simple enough— Guide a bird, by tapping to flap its wings, through a never-ending obstacle course.
Gone are Mario‘s iconic green tubes and their wholesale theft; the little bastard now gets hung up on spinning blades of death (call it Flappy Bird meets Cute Things Dying Violently) should you fail to maintain a rhythmic balance. In are three separate modes. ‘Classic’, with stationary blades, or ‘Advanced’ and ‘Insane’, which feature moving variations of the same hazard, and some coin collection to increase your score. Also in is multiplayer runs for up to four players (or AI birds) locally.
Duhn duhn duhn… another one bites the dust.
Though something like Little Flappers begs the question— With so many derivatives and freebies already available, why would anyone want to pay to play what arguably is a rage-inducing. also-derivative, complete waste of time? Because you love to rage, perhaps? Or maybe you prefer better odds (this bird is infinitely-easier to control), or the chance to show off your feathered prowess on global leaderboards (all three modes have their own scoreboard). Save for some lag when those leaderboards update (a fix is forthcoming), the game copies the polarizing format well.
So, if you can look past all the controversy and appreciate (without forgiving or absolving) the social phenomenon that Flappy Bird was / still is, then Little Flappers is a (almost) direct descendant of that idea. Quick cash-in? Yes. As stupidly-addicting? Yes again. If you’re only in it for the mild curiosity, though, you could just play Flappy Doge, and kill two birds… er… a bird and a dog… er… a bird and a meme… er… a dog bird… er… a doge bird, with one stone.
theXBLIG 
I just saw there are two more Flaapppppy type games on the Indie channel…boy did that get overblown. I will have to say though the most interesting one was the one that did it as a fish called…. Flupp the Fish…..instead of flapping up you flup down. LOL
Funny you should mention that, as I’m considering, considering, doing a big fancy special review of all the recent Flappys. Well, at least the last four, starting with Team Shuriken’s version. I’ll mix them all into one post, and hopefully that’ll be the extent of my involvement with the Flappy Bird clones.
Failing Bird: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Failing-Bird/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550e24
Failing Bird seems a little more Flappy Bird-like, in terms of style and control. It’s got some thinly-veiled Bullet Bills and fireball-shooting flowers too. Four player local co-op and online leaderboards are present, and once you reach a certain point in the demo, your bird smacks right into a ‘pay wall’. I thought that was kind of humorous. I’d rank it a little higher than Flapping Avatars.
This wasn’t one of the ones I was expecting, though, so looks like there’ll be four Flappy-likes, at least.
Flapping Avatars: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Flapping-Avatars/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550e22
There’s got to be an avatar game that does everything. WOW on this one.
Flapping Avatars mini-review:
I went through the trial last night. It has the same ‘one more time’ gameplay to it, which is fun for those that appreciate this game type, but there’s a lack of difficulty options / settings, and no local co-op or online leaderboards (that I was aware of). This is also the second (of three known) Flappy Bird clones, so think of that what you will. Bottom line: Little Flappers is still the best option (for now) if you’re looking for a flappy fix.
Toy Plane comes to mind as a much better version.
It gives more goals.
But points here for the art. Tis nice.
That’s very true. Planes instead of birds, but similar concept. Well, then this is the first bird-based obstacle course, Flappy-like. Maybe. Until someone else proves me wrong. đŸ™‚
At first when I tried the game I thought it might be by the same guys that made “Cute Things Dying Violently” but that was ApathyWorks. This is actually NeuronVexx as you pointed out but you didn’t notate that they are good at producing clones as they were the ones that brought you “Dinora” the “Terraria” clone that was done very well.
As for the game itself……MEH!! If I want to smash buttons at least make me smash 2 like they did in “One Finger Death Punch”. Although the graphics are full of fun with blood flying everywhere. I’ll pass as if I want to get frustrated playing a game just to beat my friends on the leaderboard I’ll play me some pinball.
OFDP is one of those rare, almost once-in-a-lifetime type games, the perfect storm of game design. Very hard for someone to duplicate that kind of success without ripping off of the original work. đŸ™‚
The ‘Flappy’ phenomenon is not for everybody. It rips off art from Mario, which is big slap in the face of creativity and building your own game. On the reverse side, I liked the challenge of it, and the simplicity, although NeuronVexx and ‘Little Flappers’ earn points for making this version a lot easier to win at.
Honestly, it gets a recommendation from me for that reason, as well as the online leaderboards (really the only point of playing a game like this), and for being the FIRST of its kind on XBLIG (kind of how I gave ‘White Noise’ a pass for ripping off ‘Slender’). After today, though, I’ve learned that there are at least two more ‘Flap-alikes’ in production for the indie channel. Given that there’s already so many clones of it out there on PC to play, it’s gonna get pretty ridiculous.