Because I’m Flappy, tap along…
- Gaming phenomenon Flappy Bird returns to mobile next year
- The Flappy Bird Foundation has acquired the rights to the popular endless, er, flapper?
- It will arrive later this year, likely on PC
Readers of Pocket Gamer, I am unreasonably excited. Mobile gaming phenomenon Flappy Bird is officially returning! After a decade’s absence and hundreds of somehow poor imitations, it will again grace iOS and Android in 2025. However, we will see it before then later this year, most likely in browser form.
The resurrection has come thanks to the aptly named Flappy Bird Foundation, who acquired the official trademark alongside the rights to the original game and character from Piou Piou vs. Cactus, which inspired the bird we all know and love.
Of course, it likely wouldn’t be enough to merely release Flappy Bird as it was and expect it to be as successful as before for multiple reasons. But chief among them is people’s need for their mobile games to do more than trade off a simple idea, particularly one they played ten years ago. Just an endless runner doesn’t cut it in 2024, sadly. So we can expect different game modes, characters, progression types and even multiplayer challenges if that’s something you’re into.
I’m incredibly interested to see where this goes. While I have a lot of nostalgic love for the original Flappy Bird – competing with my friends to see who could do the best is undoubtedly a fond memory – it was always a bit, well, rubbish. And yet, it still undeniably had something as evident from its ludicrous popularity.
I always wanted to keep trying to push for a new high score, even though it felt like everything about the game was working against me. Sometimes, these things inexplicably take off, I guess, capturing the entire world for a while until the creator takes it down to the mob’s disappointment. Can it happen a second time round? My head says no, but my heart wants another few joyous weeks where everyone’s obsessed with trying to keep a strangely adorable bird airbourne. Let’s just hope people still care.
Flappy Bird is set to return in some form during Q3 of this year. However, we’ll have to wait until 2025 for it to be released on iOS and Android, but it’s happening!
