The reason Flappy Bird became crazy popular is the need to constantly replay the game to better your score. It helped that the game was frustratingly difficult, requiring total concentration if you want to do well. Swing Copters is similar, as we had learnt earlier this week, but the player moves vertically up. It’s very much like Ship Up, which ironically is a Flappy Bird clone with a twist. So it’s sad to see Nguyen make a comeback with such an hackneyed concept.
The difficult level in Swing Copters is amped up by several notches. Thanks to hammers swinging under each opening, getting a point is that much harder. That would have been a minor impediment to us racking up high scores, but the biggest problem is the copter itself, which sways wildly when the game starts forcing you to keep tapping on the correct side to control the copter. In fact it seems comically skewed against the player so you keep playing. Of course it could just be that the learning curve is slightly higher than Flappy Bird, but if you were hoping to recreate your Flappy success with Swing Copters, it’ll take you a lot longer.
That also means that players could be spending a lot more time playing Swing Copters than Flappy Bird. And considering that the latter was pulled out by Nguyen for being too addictive and interfering with people’s lives, Swing Copters could have an even shorter life.