Frustratingly Fun Hit Game Flappy Bird Gets Updated With New Birds, New UI And More
February 8, 2014
The hugely popular and frustratingly fun bird flight game Flappy Bird has just received an update on iOS.
This is the first update to come to the game since it perched, seemingly out of nowhere, on the top spot of the App Store's Top Free Apps charts last month. Actually, this is only the second update to the game since its release in May last year.
The game's previous update, which arrived in September, brought nothing more than a new icon for iOS 7 and some bug fixes. Its new update also brings some bug fixes, but it delivers some new stuff as well.
First off, there are the new birds. In addition to the yellow bird you've come to know and love (or hate), there are now the blue bird and the red bird. Note, though, that you can't choose to play with the bird of your preferred color. Rather, Flappy Bird switches between the different birds at random.
Also, the game randomly switches between the original day theme and the new night theme, which is apparently part of the "New UI" mentioned in the update's release notes. It also includes more polished gradients on those dratted pipes.
Moreover, the new version of Flappy Bird has a redesigned start, leaderboard, and rate buttons. Tapping the start button after a game now also directly starts a new game, instead of going to the main screen. But the score-sharing button appears to have been removed, which is odd, since it was supposedly the power of social media that led to the game's chart-topping success.
In any case, the latest update to Flappy Bird also features an improved frame rate, which allows for less jerky flapping. Also resulting in smoother gameplay is the absence of ads during a game, as they now appear only on the main and "game over" screens. Also now absent during a game is the pause button, which doesn't get to be used often anyway.
The new version of Flappy Bird is available now in the App Store for free. The game is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 6.0 or later.
See also: Could The Famous Bird Be Badland-Bound, Or Is This Just A Bit Of Flappy Fun?, Flappy Bird Game Developer Is Celebrating A First In Apple’s App Store, and Ironpants Flies Into The App Store To Take On Surprise Top Free Game Flappy Bird.
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