On Denysoft's official website, Flapp & Zegeta comes with a disclaimer reproduced here verbatim: "Warning: this may be one of the most challenging games of all times it may require a high level of intelligence and reflexes to get through." Rest assured, Flapp & Zegeta is challenging. In fact, it probably does meet its lofty claim of "one of the most challenging games of all times." But what was most challenging about this blatant Flappy Bird clone was not failing incessantly due to an apparent lack of "intelligence and reflexes," but instead experiencing the unrelenting boredom of playing this uninspired and utterly worthless waste of time.
If you've played the inexplicable mobile sensation Flappy Bird, or perhaps SPIKEY WALLS, the Wii U eShop's first reinterpretation of it, you'll know exactly what to expect here. Players control Flapp, the titular clip art bird, on his quest to rescue clip art human Zegeta from aliens — or something like that. You do this by pressing any button on the GamePad (except, for some reason, ZL and ZR) to "flap" Flapp and control your altitude over and under the myriad obstacles that fly in from the right side of the screen. There are some coins to collect, but their purpose outside of adding to your count is a mystery you'll probably never want to solve. Speaking of mysteries you'll almost certainly never solve, there's a bar that steadily fills up as you dodge obstacles — presumably netting you Zegeta once it's full — but the game's lame structure and frustratingly high difficulty will ensure the bar stays empty and that the big-nosed victim of alien kidnapping will stay in his cage forever.
One of the elements Flapp & Zegeta might have used to differentiate itself from its predecessor is its presentation. Needless to say, it doesn't make much of an effort in that area either: to say this game looks and sounds as if it was thrown together in under half an hour is not hyperbole. Ugly-as-sin graphics and forgettable bleepy music are just the icing on the cake.
Conclusion
Flapp & Zegeta is a cynical attempt to cash in on the success of Flappy Bird, and it doesn't even attempt to disguise its intentions. The presentation is beyond lazy, the graphics are atrocious, and the game would have had to make a concentrated effort to be less fun than it already is. If paying $4.99 — at launch — for the recycled remains of a fad sounds like your cup of tea, then you're probably a masochist — the only audience we can safely assume this was made for in the first place.
Comments 66
I will never ever, ever understand the appeal of Flappy Bird...never. Shudders thank the goodness that you guys didn't have to pay for this. The review (which being so short) I read through...I am so sorry. Not a game I would ever buy (even for a penny!), but thank you guys for sparing others who might...
I was reading the first sentence and expected to hear about cheap difficulty with platforms disappearing and such. I assumed it was a sidescroller, didn't know it was another FB clone. There are too many popping up lately.
What a waste of developer kit...
By reading and comparing the 2 reviews, I can't figure out why this gets a 1/10 and Spikey Walls gets a 4/10.
Nintendo shouldn't allow all working games on the eShop, some quality control should be in place. It's bad for everyone except the developers of this kind of crap.
So this one did not steal the pipes, this one stole the coins!
Oh, and thanks to RCMADIAX for paving the way, all Wii U owners are indebted to you!
@jariw Probably the price point. I can't believe they have the audacity to charge 5 dollars for this. Even RCMADIAX's was 99 cents.
Quality control please!
I am proud to say that I have never, ever played Flappy Bird or any of its clones.
@jariw Different reviewers.
Why...JUST WHY does Nintendo ALLOW these games on the eShop?
Why...JUST WHY does Nintendo ALLOW these games on the eShop?
This is the downside of making things easier....I hope nintendo doesnt front page this garbage on the eShop.
One is 99 cents which is ok, but this for 5 bucks, man, isn't this a bit greedy.
The good news is that this makes me hopeful I can jump into Wii U development and make something 5x better with more effort and time involved, even with NWF.
IGN "DAY ONE BUY! 11/10"
Usually i support quantity when talking about digital games (more choice makes happier gamer) but in cases like this i tend to shut up. If game is broken or cheap cashgrab (like this seems to be) then it does not deserve its place in market.
@drewb0203 A question that bugged me a lot. Apparently a game just has to work without presenting a threat to the WiiU's security, and that the developer needs a devkit. Unless your game contains the words binding and Isaac, every game gets released on the WiiU eShop.
And when looking at how few new titles are coming out per week right now, I find it hard to believe Nintendo can't even perform a very brief quality check - 5 minutes would be all that is required to determine this as utter garbage.
@hypermouse Nope, good games make gamer happy, not a bunch of poopoodoodielumplebuggied / short ones
GOTY!
Surely the Flappy Bird cloning fad has gotten old by now…
I'm cool with Spikey Walls because it's an App Store game at an App Store price. And it pretty much perfectly mimics Flappy Bird, as far as I'm concerned. This is just trash, however. $5 for a crappy game that speeds up incredibly fast...not interested, never will be. Even The Letter was only $2, and at least that had 3-D models instead of crappy 2-D "art"!
another kid hammering his first code into a wii u devkit.
reject.
0.4/10
Sad
@DiscoGentleman I didn't review SPIKEY WALLS, so I can't attest to why it received the score it did.
In all fairness, at least Spikey Walls copies Flappy Bird 'well'. This is just plain garbage.
No offence to the developer but it's at times like this that I think it was better when Nintendo was more selective about what games it let on it's system.
@DiscoGentlemen: NintendoLife' scoring system simply glitched out on that Spikey Walls review. On that we can all agree. Just as some games are criminally underrated, some others are criminally overrated. Happens!
Honestly, we know it doesn't matter which one is better because any game deserves more attention than these two. In the case of Spikey Walls and Flapp&Zegeta to me Zegeta is marginally more "exciting" (as in "for a minute"), it has a tiny bit more stuff going on, but it's also 5 times the cost. They ultimately both end up at the bottom of the Wii U shovelware barrel.
Day 1 purchase. I've created 16 extra eshop accounts just to buy this game. You can't have enough of this greatness
What the hell is this?
Go buy Ping 1.5+ instead. Same price, actually good game.
I can't believe Nintendo was ever proud of announcing they are allowing even the utmost dreck on the eshop.
A 1/10 is genorous. This game deserves a 0/10
The kicker is that negative reviews on purposely-made, less than stellar games probably helps them more than it hurts them. We live in an age where folks are willing to pay hard earned money to see just how bad/how much of a clone these games are.
INNOVATION: It's not for everyone.
It looks like a bad Spectrum 128k game,48k even.This has gone too far,what a joke!
How did this ever get through to Wii U? Something like this would be a chore to find sideloaded on an Ouya, let alone official Nintendo hardware.
What a great review! I wish there was more bashibg though, this game deserves it. ;p
I just don't get why Nintendo let's shuttle like this reach their console. Everyone can see from a mile away that it just is not worth it.
Just another Flappy Bird clone, move along!
This game may have got 1/10 from NintendoLife, but it has an average of 10/10 for the user score on metacritic...
http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii-u/flapp-zegeta
0 m8 i r8 this gamez 10/8 m8
Ign
@orangetack Fixed it. There was only one review in the first place anyway.
Ouch.
@DiscoGentleman Don't worry about it at all!
I let my wife play this and she turned into a pillar of salt. idk if that was an advertised feature? The review didn't mention it.
@sinalefa I have all of RCMADIAX's games and they all function correctly. Heck, I have enjoyed the even. Spikey Wall's was not my favorite but the price is very low and the developer has never claimed to do anything but inexpensive quick play games. I have personally sunk 22 hours on Poker Dice Solitaire Future. Play it during commercials while I watch tv shows.
I have a better question: why is everyone so concerned about the review scores? If you know the game is already bad, why does it concern you what other people think?
Game of the Year 2014
@DarkCoolEdge "Nintendo shouldn't allow any game on the eShop."
Because that would work out well.
Hey, at least we got a good read out of it!
@Jahir seriously, I could be using it to actually make a game for the eShop!
@orangetack I bet that guy is the creator; his only other review is on another Zegeta game
This is laughable.
It is weird. In México this game costs 15 pesos. It is like $1.2 dollars aprox, not 5dlls.
@TruenoGT I must inform you that the Seal of Quality has NEVER meant that a game is good. The Seal only indicated that the game itself works (at least for the most part). Since people have different opinions, there is no reasonable way to judge these games based on their content. Hence why we have review sites such as NintendoLife to inform the populace about the quality of said gamse
@Zodiak13
I bought the first three too, but when he admitted that he released Spikey Walls as a lazy ripoff of a dull game in hopes of making as much money as possible, that's when I stopped supporting him.
5 dollars for a Flappy Bird Clone? Good luck making money off of non-informed purchasers.
I know Nintendo has a software shortage going on, and that they're not allowing both self publishing and self pricing, but Wii U owners do not deserve this.
@sinalefa I know, I think I was on that thread at the time. I prefer the honesty instead of blowing smoke. Got to make a living and I know that RCMADIAX is trying to create a game he has actually been putting a bunch of time into, or at the very least more time.
@Pod Deserve? Nothing is forcing anyone to buy this game, having it on the e-shop does not somehow make any other game around it worse, like it could infect other games with its crappiness. Obviously if you can get on the eshop, you have the ability to go to gamerankings.com or metacritic and find reviews to make an informed purchase.
@WinterWarm I obviously didn't mean that. When you are in a hurry and writing in a language that is not your own these things can happen. I already corrected it.
"Fapp & Vegeta"
I might be the only one here who's played Zegeta on the app store on iOS
...........Streets of Rage 2 was the next thing I downloaded on my iPod, and I almost forgot I had Zegeta, LOL!!!!!
@Zodiak13
You're right that people are free to let themselves inform. But quite quickly the eShop is being flooded with games obviously made in less time than what is reasonable. These are the types of games Nintendo was trying to avoid on Wii Ware. And while that service did still have some stinkers and DSi Ware did too, it never slipped into the chaotic realm of for instance the Android Market/Google Play.
Hopefully the still-in-place restictions on what you can do with in-game purchases and ads will prevent it from ever getting that bad.
I like turtles
If only it was $0.49, it may of scored a point or two higher but $5, that's more crazy than the game concept itself. As long as no one raise awareness by creating a forum topic about bashing the game and creator like another similar game, it can unnoticeably rest in peace.
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