Is Apple and Google cracking down on Flappy apps? The loss of Flappy Bird to the world has created a void that mobile game developers are only too happy to fill, and a flood of games have come pouring in with "flappy" in their title. Following the deleted hit a whole number of clones came streaming in- Flappy Cat: Pirate, Flappy Puppy, Flap Copter Flap, Slappy Shark - Crazy Obstacle Dodge, Floppy Penguin Birdie, Fly Birdie - Flappy Bird Flyer, Fluffy vs. Flappy Birds, Flashy Fish, and many more. Now though, it appears that both Apple and Google have had enough and are rejecting clones outright, denying them access to the stores and pools of money awaiting them.
That might be because these games are deceptive in all kinds of ways. While the original Flappy Birds was free but ad-supported these clones are generally riddled with microtransactions and designed to require all of your hard-earned money to keep that bird flapping. Developers beware- Apple's approvals team is currently sending messages stating "your app name attempts to leverage a popular app" to wannabe copycats, and Android is sending out a similar message that stresses its rules on "irrelevant, misleading, or excessive keywords in apps descriptions, titles, or metadata". The games that made it in before this apparent ban are being left alone for now, though.
Flappy Birds as you must know by now was pulled from both the App Store and Google Play at creator Dong Nguyen's behest, after he became terrified that the game was too addicting. He didn't seem to mind losing the $50k a day in ad revenue he was reportedly making thanks to it.
Of course, if you need your fix there's still time to sign up for the Flappy Jam. That's the game jam that's encouraged game designers to build their own take on the game, and as of this writing there have been 356 games submitted so far, all of them in support of Nguyen and the beast he has created. Most of them are playable right on the site.
If you're still wishing there was a way you could play the real thing after all this hulabaloo, you can actually download a version for the Nintendo 3DS. It's not an official port but since Nguyen wants nothing to do with his creation it might be the last place you can get the real deal. More on this flappy fiasco as we hear it.