Flappy Bird

GameZebo ( ) (70%)

Flappy Bird is simultaneously everything that’s right and wrong about video games. You’ll play it, you’ll obsess over it, but you’ll never really like it. Still, as the first real hit for Vietnam based .GEARS (pronounced dotGEARS), it’s a hell of an icebreaker. They have a few other games out already as well (I’m personally partial to Smashing Kitty), and considering how long it took for anyone to notice Flappy Bird, I’d say it’s only a matter of time until .GEARS finds themselves back at the top of the charts.

Softonic (7 out of 10) (70%)

Flappy Bird can be so annoying that you'll want to throw your phone out of the window, and at the same time it hooks you into coming back as you think "surely I'll get the hang of it now". Once you've installed Flappy Bird you'll wish you hadn't!

Digital Spy ( ) (60%)

It is a bizarre and interesting phenomenon, in part because Flappy Bird isn't exactly a remarkable game.

IGN (5.4 out of 10) (54%)

As addictive as it is shallow, Flappy Bird is little more than a time-waster for the score obsessed.

PCMag.com ( ) (50%)

While Flappy Bird is not technically impossible to play, it's both very difficult and very shallow, so it may as well be.

Slide to Play (2 out of 4) (50%)

Flappy Bird is a decent free time waster, but it's not worth obsessing over.

Arcade Sushi (3.5 out of 10) (35%)

Even when critiquing Flappy Bird on a casual level, there's nothing to really warrant playing it than trying to raise your high score.

Macworld ( ) (20%)

Flappy Bird is a terrible game, but it’s harmless fun. It’s got a high profile because of a so-bad-it’s-good quality, social media humour and is free. And it's nice to see a free game rather than one that pretends to be free then shakes you down for in-app purchases. Flappy Bird is ruthlessly hard to play though, and each game is mercifully short.

USgamer (1 out of 5) (20%)

Do yourself a favor and don't even start down that pipe-laden road; there are far too many brilliant games out there going unplayed to ever justify wasting your time with Flappy Bird.

Time Magazine N/A

That's it, really, because that's all there is to it: Clear successive gaps at varying heights by fighting a punitive control scheme whereby you propel a leaden bird a few millimeters upward per tap. Let up and the bird nosedives like a cartoon bomb. Hit a pipe and it's game over.