Update: Flappy Bird Creator Is Removing The Game From Stores

[TheRaider]

It isn't ripped off, doubt his taking it down and it is a pretty fun game.

His other 2 games are doing pretty well too.

 

[Hagi]

Don't really see this as ripping off Mario, it's just a green pipe with a similar art-style.

By that logic every single shooter is ripping off other shooters because they all have the exact same weapon types rendered in realistic art-styles.
Every single fantasy RPG is ripping off every other fantasy game that came before it, they've all got similarly rendered swords.

etc.

If "things looking similar at a glance" was valid for abuse and lawsuits then the entire freaking anime industry is in some serious trouble right now because I sure as hell can't distinguish between one spineless high-school protagonist and the next.

 

[Stu35]

I downloaded the game and the first thing that came to my mind wasn't even that the pipes look like Mario pipes (I didn't even notice till now) but the fact that it's the exact same game as the Helicopter Click game that came out WAY back in 2004 on Addictinggames.com, anyone remember that game?

Yeah I remember that.

Difference being that the helicopter game had better controls.


I had a quick download of this 'flappy bird' game to see what the fuss is about, I can see why it's so addictive - it does it the same way others of this ilk do:

It's repetitive.
It has a score system that you're always trying to improve on.
It's repetitive.
It doesn't take long to reset and go again when you die.
It's repetitive.


However, I found it quite frustrating very quickly because the controls are deliberately designed to make it difficult.

As for the pipes looking the same as the mario pipes, I did wonder why he's done it that way, a simple re-skin would've solved all that.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Erm, does anyone else remember that Helico-

NIIIIINJAS!

Yeah, Flappy Bird is one of those horrible games that never should have been popular. It's a game that never changes, never gets harder or easier, never alters but instead just fucks you over with a shitty control scheme and awful movement. It does kind of look like Mario, yeah, but I really don't care about that.

What I care about is the fact that back when I was still playing games on Addicting Games I played a game with better control and reaction time, yet the same gameplay as this. I was playing a game known as helicopter, which involved flying a helicopter out of a cave. And it was really fun and precise. AKA, better than the shitpile that is Flappy Bird.

When did that helicopter game even come out?

 

[Yopaz]

I really wish people on the internet would learn that you can criticize something without being huge fucking assholes and sending the creator vile hatred 24/7.

Yes yes it aesthetically looks like a Mario game. Still doesn't mean he deserves to be hated so damn much.

I have to say I agree with this. I agree with the criticism, it's a mash-up of rip-offs (looks and gameplay) and I get the feeling that he's earning money on using someone else's talent. If you can say something along the lines of that without finishing with a death threat or an insult then that's fine. Sadly that isn't the case and it rarely is. Often the death threats come without the attached criticism.

 

[AjHedgehog]

Well it obviously looks like the mario pipes but it's not ripped.
You will not find that specific pipe in any of the mario games, he created that asset himself and the game has nothing else to do with mario apart from, maybe, the color scheme or the design of that "bird" kind of looking mario-ish but that is wonky as hell since it's low-res art and you only have so many pixels to work with.

Spoiler: If this is the closest you can get, you don't really have a case

I find it hard to believe that nintendo can literally sue him because they own the rights of that specific green pipe and all of its variations, that they own the very concept of "green pipe" and "sprite that kinda looks like it could go into a mario game".
You can't copyright a style.

I too once had faith in this, but sadly I have recently seen a company copyright the word "Candy" and "Saga" and not just for games but for everything they could get their grubby paws on including Baby Monitors :S So I would argue that they probably could copyright a green pipe and they definitely could use their extensible power to shut the game down if they wanted to. I'm not saying they are, and it may genuinely be down to the horrific but very loud scum of the internet that get their rocks off over causing other people misery cause they think they "Don't deserve their success".

In short it's a sad state of affairs that a game, despite it's flaws, entertained hundreds of thousands of people is now being removed.

 

[mindfaQ]

Trivial game, utterly uninteresting, guess it fits the mobile gaming masses. Not sure why people would care enough about it to annoy its creator.

 

[In Search of Username]

The game is shit. Utter, utter trash.

But I feel sympathy for the guy himself, he's clearly just making crappy little games for fun, not expecting any of them to ever take off and then suddenly one does (for some bizarre reason) and the whole internet is shitting on him for this game he probably never intended to be anything more than a bit of fun.

As for the claims that it's stealing from other games, I honestly don't think that's a reasonable complaint to make while we as gamers continue to buy mechanically identical shooters year in, year out. And besides, if he stole, it was from fucking Nintendo. What does it matter? They're not going to suffer for it, and he's still probably doing more original things with their properties than they have been doing for the last twenty years.

So yeah, awful game, but not really enough to warrant the kind of shit this guy's been taking.

 

[Caiphus]

My facebook news feed is littered with Flappy Bird updates, so yeah. Worthy or not, this game is addictive. And easily used as a measure of mobile gaming e-peen.

If Nintendo was going after let's players on youtube, there's at least a decent chance that they've gone after Mr Nguyen. Don't really know what to say. It's just some pipes from a game that's decades old. But copyright law is a fickle beast. But hell, if Nintendo has even a sniff of a case, the creator probably doesn't have the money to fight it, even with his $50,000 per day.

 

[Aerosteam]

I would not give up 50k a day just because of what people are saying on the Internet.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

Let's be honest here, not only has he taken the Mario graphics (which should be easily changed) the gameplay really is hardly original. There are plenty of internet/flash games in which you fly an object between obstacles that are available for free, for example the helicopter game in which one has to fly a helicopter between stalactites and stalagmites. I'm not saying he deserves all this flak, I mean gameplay features have been borrowed and swapped throughout games forever, but I certainly wouldn't say he deserves all that cash for something which is essentially a reskin of some of these flash games, and that reskin takes graphics from elsewhere.

 

[Schtimpy]

Way back, I used to play a game simply called "Worm", I think it was called Worm, I don't know. It had a black background, green mountains and a little purple line that would move down, unless you clicked and then it would move up. Then the same game came out, with a helicopter instead of a purple line, and I couldn't play it because the controls were less responsive.

Kinda funny how the evolution of that game became worse over time. The next version will probably be 3D and control like it was on a graphing calculator.

 

[Britpoint]

His game looks a bit like Mario! We can't let this stand. Everybody, let us take up our pitchforks and light our torches and show this evil mastermind that such a thing cannot be tolerated in this world.

Come on guys. So what if he's utilising the Mario aesthetic? Are we as a collective going to say that Nintendo has the exclusive right to green pipes and funny bird sprites? If he was conning people into buying his game by implying a false affiliation with everybody's favourite Italian plumber, then fine - criticise away. But the game is FREE. It hasn't cost any one of the millions of people who have downloaded this a single penny. How is that dishonest in any way whatsoever? And as for whether he 'deserved' the cash made from all that ad revenue - swallow your jealousy. He made a things beloved by millions, if that's not 'worthy' of getting a bit of a windfall I don't know what is.

Here's a guy who made a fun, addictive little game and gave it away for free. Yeah, what a bastard, right?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Does he get to keep his money if the game is pulled? Or do people who have the game get to keep it when it gets removed from the store? I know many friends who play the game so I'm wondering how they're going to feel. Fortunately I don't care about mobile games much so I'm spared from being disappointed. ^.^

 

[Vivi22]

The art style is the only thing similar, so it's kind of hard to see it as trying to "emulate" Mario.

Granted, he could have just as easily changed the visual style even just slightly, but even so, I'd hardly call it criminal, just laziness.

Well, lifting art assets from another series is basically the definition of copyright infringement, so it kind of is criminal actually. And lazy.

 

[ryukage_sama]

I think Nintendo should go after the guy for their cut, maybe $49997/day. It would be their biggest moneymaker.

Using assets to make free games for the internet is one thing (like re-making the original Super Mario Bros. using other playable characters from NES games), but copying art assets to use on screen for 99% of play time and charging for it is another. His money is ill-gotten, and I suspect he is cashing out before Nintendo makes the first legal salvo.

I haven't played the game, but I've never liked the "survive by jumping/running/dodging/etc. as terrain and scenery pass you by" genre of games.

 

[Britpoint]

but copying art assets to use on screen for 99% of play time and charging for it is another. His money is ill-gotten, and I suspect he is cashing out before Nintendo makes the first legal salvo.

It's a free game, and the assets are similar to but not copies of. Nintendo doesn't 'own' "green pipes and weird bird sprites".

 

[loa]

Let's be honest here, not only has he taken the Mario graphics

No he has not, get your facts straight before making such claims.
Or can you show any sprite that is pixel per pixel the same way in a mario game?
Well I actually looked and I couldn't find any.

the gameplay really is hardly original.

Which is not a crime, end of story.

I certainly wouldn't say he deserves all that cash for something which is essentially a reskin of some of these flash games

And I don't think call of duty or madden deserve all that cash they keep making and those are not free games, mind you.
It doesn't matter how much effort you think he should have put into the game to get that kind of money.
The only thing that matters is that he somehow got that kind of audience (and didn't do it employing sleazy tactics like games such as dungeon keeper mobile) and that's all there is to it.

Whenever money gets involved, people become weird arbiters over how much that money is "deserved".
If you're an artist doing commissions, you get that shit all the time because people have this weird sense that art really isn't worth much since you're only spending X amount of time on a piece, ignoring the years of practice you had to go through to get where you are.

It's like saying X is not a "real job".
You're just being a huge prick doing it so don't.

 

[Pm0n3y]

I would not give up 50k a day just because of what people are saying on the Internet.

This. To be honest, I'd probably spend my time personally reading the "criticism" by pointing and laughing in their faces while telling them to "stay mad skrub lel git gud #rekt XD I'll be over here rolling in my fat stacks of dosh" (but, only to the insults. I actually like constructive criticism, as it keeps me modest, humble, and actually leads to improvement).

...Now, I know it wouldn't help in the slightest (and would most likely make the situation worse while making me look like an unprofessional), but I'd rather have a outlet to vent at, rather than have some hurtful words stop me from doing what I'm doing, especially from someone that isn't even in spitting distance.

 

[anthony87]

Huh...apparently Mario isn't the only game that Flappy Bird looks similar to.