From Smartwatches To Arcades: Flappy Bird Comes Back Stronger Than Ever [Video]

Flappy Bird has managed to enthrall and frustrate a majority of the mobile gamers last year. The deceptively simple looking game may have had a short and convoluted life on app stores, but it certainly refuses to lie-down and be forgotten.

After being downloaded more than 50 million times and being the reason for the destruction of many a phones, not to mention escalating the prices of devices that came preloaded with the game, Flappy Bird can be confidently crowned as one of the greatest games to have been born last year. The worldwide phenomenon, which people simply could not put away, was pulled down by its creator Dong Nyugen after he started receiving death threats.

However, a long string of clones later, Flappy Bird has made resurgence in multiple avatars, one of which includes a life-sized arcade dedicatedly built to help the pixelated bird cross hurdles of pipes. The other hardware that now sports the frustrating yet amazingly addictive game is Android Wear, the line of wearable devices that sport Google’s Mobile Operating System tweaked for such devices.

While Flappy Bird for Android Wear is free to download and play, the arcade version is built primarily to heckle some pennies or dollars (if you are truly addicted) from you. Players load credits, which can be bought from the store that hosts the machine, into the arcade version and play.

Unlike the original version which didn’t have much variety, the revamped Flappy Bird for the arcade has some nifty eye-catching avatars which the bird goes through depending on the score you manage to rake-up. Additionally, there are quite a few tokens to be won along the way as well. The arcade measures 37 inches wide, 97 inches high, a size that closely replicates the arcade games of yesteryear.

Essentially, the arcade version is played on a 42 inch LCD monitor fitted in portrait mode. Though this may seem to make the gameplay easier, it certainly doesn’t. If that’s difficult, the Flappy Bird meant for Android Wear isn’t for you. Playing the game on devices that sport a spherical design like the Moto 360, is extremely difficult. The round display cuts off parts of the screen, making the obstacles even more difficult to see.

Anyone interested to play Flappy Bird arcade-style will have to wait for the price to be listed. However, those who wish to play the game on their Android Wear devices simply need to download a patched setup and side-load the game.

[Image Credit | Bay Tek Games, Video Screen Grab]