Early last week, indie mobile developer Dong Nguyen made good on his promise to release a new game to the masses. And unlike Flappy Birds Family, this game was available on every digital storefront.

Dubbed Swing Copters, this new game borrows heavily from Flappy Bird's lead and features a cutesy helicopter guy trying to navigate a series of pathways. However, instead of constantly tapping the screen to keep/gain momentum like in Flappy Bird, a tap of the screen changes the lateral movement of the copter.

Needless to say, Swing Copters was plenty popular when it released, despite being yet another terribly designed game. In fact, one might argue that Swing Copters is nearly impossible to play, or at least much more difficult than Flappy Bird.

Even so, the game has found an audience and with that early success has come dozens of Swing Copters clones. So much so, that it was almost impossible to find the real Swing Copters amidst all of the fakes at one point.

This, of course, isn't anything new, as the same thing happened with Flappy Bird: developers rushed to make clones and overcrowded market. However, this time Google has responded swiftly, clearing as many Swing Copters clones from the app store as they can. There are still a few popping up regularly, but the overwhelming deluge of clones has been mostly dispatched.

Mobile clones are nothing new to the market, but the growth of Flappy Bird has seemingly influenced companies like Google and Apple to crack down on their existence. Sure, for every Threes there will always be a 2048, but at the very least we can stick to cloning worthwhile mobile games, unlike Swing Copters.

When Flappy Bird first arrived on the scene, it appeared that Dong Nguyen was some sort of genius - a rich genius at that. He had crafted a game that was so overwrought with copyright infringement but somehow so addictive that few could put it down. Swing Copters, on the other hand, feels like a shoddy attempt at recapturing Flappy Bird's magic.

For now, though, it appears Google has set a new precedent for their app store – one that won't tolerate mobile clones. Well, at least until the next Flappy Bird hits.

Have you had a chance to play Swing Copters? What do you think: is it a game worth cloning?

Swing Copters is available now on the Android and iOS app stores.

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Source: Phandroid

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