Flappy Special retrospective: Truffle troubles | Game Boy Works

Can you believe it? Another Game Boy puzzler. Another port of an old PC game. Another Japan-only release. Yes, Flappy Special is basically the quintessence of Game Boy games from 1990 - the sum totality of all that is GB. And yet, despite its redundancy... it's actually not too bad. A pleasantly doomed portable experience.
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[@DrSid42]

Strangely it's one of the first games I knew. I'm fresh Czech Republic, which was East block at that time. Still there were few Sharp computers around here. And Flappy got remade locally for Czech school computer PMD-85 (based on 8080 copy). Together with remake of Manic Miner from Sinclair, Flappy was one of the first 2 games I played on a computer.
So in Czech Republic, most 80s kids know this obscure Japanese game all too well :-)

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Nice to know.

[@akeminakajima449]

@@ChristopherSobieniak Hello fellow Retrontario fan

[@TaxOwlbear]

Flappy Special's stage music is stuck in my head from 20 years ago to this very day.

[@rowtow13]

Maybe you're supposed to assume that Flappy is flying around and that's why he can so easily defy gravity.

[@NORMALLYRETRO]

This actually looks pretty fun. So strange how the items move on a 2-D plane while the characters move in 3-D.

[@FloatingSunfish]

Judging by the cover art, Flappy looks more like a mole than a bird to me lol.

[@nickmalcom6360]

you'd be correct.

[@ahrichards5241]

Pretty sure he's supposed to be a mole.

[@nickmalcom6360]

"on any other platform this game would stand out".
somewhat true for the fc port there were only a fiew puzzlers on that system up to that point. of the other games of similar gameplay, all but one were from hudson soft: nuts and milk, load runner, and door door (the last one was from enix).

[@zubizuva]

The 3-D/2-D hybrid style immediately made me think of Solomon's Key.

[@Moshugaani]

"Destined to be washed away by the inevitable tide of superfluity"
How eloquent.. u_u

[@RetroBreak]

Just picked this game up at the play expo! Really enjoying it so far, makes me feel clever solving the levels! Haha... took a bit too long to figure out the first level! >.>

[@DragoonEnRegalia]

dB-SOFT made some other Japanese PC successes, like Woody Poco (which got a Famicom port), a horror maze game called Produce, and their Zelda-like Melroon. They're infamous for developing 177, an eroge that provoked a legal response in Japan because of its rape-based premise (they never made another game as transgressive). Flappy defined the company's early and waning years, that's for sure.

[@beipiaosaurus]

A company that made eroge creating a game named Woody Poco? >insert joke here

[@DragoonEnRegalia]

@@beipiaosaurus Yeah, it's just too easy, isn't it? They did themselves no favors by developing their separate eroge brand, even if it only had two games.

[@Reasonjpn]

Flappy was definitely in the western version of GC Animal Crossing. Weird from a rights perspective.

[@JeremyParish]

Chris Charlton I can't find anything on that. First I've heard of it. Can you provide more info?

[@emmastarr5242]

Great, Flappy Birds even existed in the past! x_x But really, great job as usual! I love watching these, I admit.

[@TenshiCat]

I now see that Aqua Energiser on Miniclip.com is a knock-off of two games at once - Boulderdash and Flappy!

[@GabMacedoo]

I’m pretty sure that Flappy is a mole, not a bird. Why that name though? No idea haha
One thing worth mentioning: Flappy Special soundtrack is AWESOME. I actually bought the cart just because I love the stage song so much.
Second game (after Bomb Jack) I bought just because I love this game’s Gameboy music so much.

[@jamesmoss3424]

Flappy special should have been released in the USA in the first place. 😀👍🎮

[@professorhazard]

Flappy's a bird? He looks like a little naked Ziggy humanoid.

[@digamejh]

Is that palm tree background a built-in Super GameBoy border or was it included with the game?

[@JeremyParish]

Jon Heiman It's a Super Game Boy 2-specific frame, I think. No game this old has a custom frame.

[@gabrieleriva651]

Jeremy Parish SGB2 borders are soooo much better than the original's.

[@Reasonjpn]

Other than I remember playing it, no. Maybe it was just in the European one?

[@abraveastronaut]

Clearly every level in this game is on a slope.

[@badwrongfun5541]

"It's Doc Gerbil's world.It's Doc Gerbil's world."

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Aw, ain't he special?

[@dcashley303]

Although I don't mind this game I found the gameplay to be a little awkward and overall not that fun

[@mor_64]

Flappy is poor quality game. NES and Game Boy versions are worse, because of clumsy controls, repetitive music and one hit point of each try.