FloppyFlappyFlippyBird: Fugedaboudit! That bird has flown. The new addictive catnip for gamers is a puzzle called 2048. Created by 19-year-old Italian wünderkind, Gabriele Cirulli. The game is playable through the Web, your smartphone and tablet and was inspired by exposure to the game 1024, which itself was only released in January of 2014.
Cirulli’s game has gone instantaneously viral. Facebook and Twitter users are, simply put, going absolutely ape-shit, raving crazy about the puzzle game. Doubtless, Cirulli will probably not be feeling too pleased, but the surest way of knowing if something is a big, fat, smashing boffo hit is when Google Play and the big shots at the Apple App Store are both drowning in second-class ersatz clone versions of the game. So, shopper beware, the top free game in the Apple App Store is 2048, but is NOT the Cirulli version. 2048 is very fun and very addictive, and it seems to have filled the void left by Flappy Bird, a game that had risen to the top of the Apple App Store and Google Play before its developer suddenly yanked it from the digital stores last month.
Since Flappy Bird was removed, numerous clone versions of that game have been released in both digital stores, but their popularity seems to have finally begun to die down and be replaced by clones of 2048. “Pourquoi?” you say. Why? Why? Why? I honestly don’t know. You’d think folks would do something other and better than appropriating other people’s ideas. But don’t let it get you down. Accept no substitute!
The game, I can already tell you from a couple of hours of exposure, requires that users pair tiles containing similar numbers together to create tiles with larger figures. The ultimate goal then becomes to add up enough tiles to come up with a victorious total of 2,048. But, wait! To be a winning player you must get to 2048 without gumming up the tiling on the playing field causing gridlock. Once there’s gridlock, dudes and dudesses, you’re basically locked out and done.
Be warned: I warned you all about FloppyFlappyFlippyBird and most of you did not listen. All well and good until I get moaning and groaning on the social networks besmirching my personal ethos from folks concerning my “sucking you in!” Believe me, the Bagg Man sucks no one in! If you own no sense of free will or suffer from OCD, I’d suggest you stick to playing cribbage with your mom! Don’t commence playing 2048 until you’re all right with the possibility that it might take over your day.
Cerulli himself seems like a very interesting, mature guy for his age. With Italy’s economy on the rocks and the Calcio—once the greatest soccer league in the world—in ruins, there’s very little good news from the land of the boot. “I’ve been passionate about Technology since I was a child and it’s now my primary occupation,” he says on his Website. “The design and user experience of the tools I use plays a very important role for me, and this aspect of my personality is reflected in my work, too. Almost-maniacal attention to detail is one of my flaws and strengths. I taught myself a great portion of the things I know, such as the English language and Design and Development for the Web, and I keep learning new things every day. I love to design and build products that look good and express their philosophy through their visual aspect.
