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Flappy Bird set the bar (or rather pipes, placed randomly) for mobile game simplicity.
When indie developer Dong Nguyen launched it in 2014, it was almost an instant hit.
Most people failed within the first few pipes.
Experts, though, could thread through dozens.
I still remember watching my youngest’s laser-like focus as they navigated Flappy through dozens of pipes.
The most I ever did was 13, I think.
But at least those games are solvable.
Flappy Bird really wasn’t.
He removed the game from the app store and has scarcely been seen or heard from again.
Over the years there’ve been numerous attempts to bring Flappy Bird back.
It may even resemble Angry Birds but without cleverness or finesse.
Flappy Bird was not successful because people craved something more or perhaps visually better.
They played and played because Flappy Birds triggered some simian part of their brains intent on problem-solving.
And Flappy Birds' quest was an almost unsolvable problem.
Nguyen programmed it in such a way that there was no fuzziness to the flight control.
Instead, it required a sort of tapping precision not seen in another game before or since.
One might argue that many hate-played it in a desperate attempt to beat the Flappy Bird system.
The new Flappy Bird will invariably be easier.
People will win and compare total flight times through the maze.
The skill level will be far reduced, but at least you’ll have entertaining levels.
If we can’t revive them, we go all Dr. Frankenstein and rebuild them.
It’s why we’re rewatchingBeetlejuiceafter nearly 35 years.
