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Comment by stackcollision | Hacker News Reader

Is Flappy Bird just a clone of that rediculously fun helicopter tunnel game that everyone used to play on AddictingGames, the name of which escapes me right now? It's funny how many of these record-shattering Android and iOS games are just polished versions of ancient Flash games.

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No, there's thousand games on the App Store with the helicopter mechanic, look for Jetpack Joyride for a popular one. Flappy Bird mechanic has also been used, Badland is a popular example. Flappy Bird is unique because it's so simple but difficult.

Just tried that helicopter game, while it has similar concepts, the gameplay mechanics are different enough - in the helicopter game you hold the mouse button to stay aloft, versus repeatedly flapping. Also Flappy Bird has a nicer feel, the physics (ie. fall rate, because that's about all there is) feel more 'right', and of course the graphics and everything are just more fun.

So no, I'd say it's not a clone.

But the mechanics are indeed similar enough. It's obvious it was inspired by it. Look at Angry Birds and that other flash game i used to play in school. Castle, Catapult something?

in gaming though, everything is inspired by something. Nothing is truly original. See all RTS games, shooters, 4x games, etc... Anything that's not an outright clone is different enough to be it's own oeuvre, IMO.

It's a mix of that and the bird vehicle from Machine Gun Jetpack which used the same tap/flap mechanic. Thrown together with some mario sprites and not so great hit detection.

The flapping mechanic looks a lot like swimming in Super Mario Bros (1985), or the flying in Joust (1982), minus the ability to control your horizontal movement. So it seems pointless to compare it to more recent games. If the game involved only jumping, or climbing ladders, or shooting, would we try to figure out which other games had that mechanic?

I've seen criticism of the collision detection a couple of times, but can't spot it myself. As far as I can tell, on Android, it's perfect. Do you have slowed down video that proves the detection is off, or is this just a 'feeling'?

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