It's been over half a decade since the brief mobile sensation of Flappy Bird caught the attention of many. While it first released in May 2013, the creator of the endless running side-scroller, Dong Nguyen, chose to remove the game entirely from digital stores the following February. While Flappy Bird received significant attention at the time, it appears the rise of battle royale has inspired a new collaboration most people didn't see coming.
Today, the beta version of Flappy Royale, which combines the gameplay mechanics of Flappy Bird and the competitive design of battle royale, released on mobile devices and PC. The premise of Flappy Royale involves players competing against 99 other opponents to see who can make it the farthest through the traditional obstacle course of pipes. For those who didn't play the original game, players must tap the screen to ascend, and not touch it to descend. In each respective game session, everyone starts off by jumping out of a moving bus (a common battle royale feature), and all other players are visible on-screen. The beta can either be downloaded on Android and iOS devices, or via web browser at itch.io.
If one takes away the visuals of the other birds flying around and the concept of jumping out of a bus at the beginning, Flappy Royale is basically the same thing as Flappy Bird. The new game however, wasn't released by the original creator Dong Nguyen, but rather three different developers: Zach Gage, Em Lazer-Walker, and Otra Therox. Many may see this as another attempt at cloning the once-beloved endless runner, a long-existing issue that's been frequently addressed following the original game's permanent removal.
If history is to be of any indicator, then Flappy Royale may not be around for very long. Following the disappearance of Flappy Bird in early 2014, both Apple and Google prevented clones of the popular free-to-play game safe passage onto their respective digital stores. The idea that people were trying to take advantage of the phenomenon forced the hands of both giant tech companies, eventually causing creators to lose interest since neither Apple nor Google would budge whenever someone tried to create a game similar to Flappy Bird.
For anyone who's interested in Flappy Royale, it's probably best to download it now and give it a try. Since the game would have to rely on its online servers to offer a genuine "battle royale" experience, any action taken by Apple or Google against the Flappy Bird - inspired mobile app could make it unplayable altogether.
Flappy Royale is out now in beta for Mobile and PC.
Source: Kotaku