Fall Out Bird, the Fall Out Boy-themed version of Flappy Bird launched on Android Wednesday, much to the delight of Fall Out Boy and Flappy Bird fans everywhere.
Flappy Bird was removed from Apple's App Store and Google Play earlier this week when its creator announced he could no longer cope with the attention his game's sudden popularity brought on. Two days later, Fall Out Boy announced that it would release their own version of the hit game.
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"Every once in a awhile I feel like a game comes along, and it's a cultural touchstone," Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy's bassist, said in an interview with Mashable. "This game is made out of love for the original."
In keeping with the spirit of the original game, which creator Dong Nguyen said took just a few days to build, Fall Out Bird was put together very quickly. "It basically took us 24 hours to make," Wentz said.
The gameplay is similar to Flappy Bird, but everything from the soundtrack (Fall Out Boy's latest single "Young Volcanoes") to the backdrop (the Chicago skyline, the band's hometown) is Fall Out Boy through and through.
The game stars Wentz and his three bandmates, Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman (who Wentz swears is the "most aerodynamic" of the four avatars). Instead of the green pipes of the original Flappy Bird, players must guide the band through guitar necks.
Although Wentz acknowledged that the band likely wouldn't have made the game if Nguyen hadn't removed the original, he said he empathizes with Nguyen's difficulty in coping with his sudden fame. "I feel for that guy," Wentz said. "The first couple times that you feel that current and it's moving in a direction that you’re not sure you want, it's really hard to not feel the urge to hit the off button."
Fall Out Bird isn't the band's first gaming venture. The band launched Fall Out Boy Trail, a web-based riff off the 1980s classic Oregon Trail, in 2009.
Wentz said Fall Out Bird is simply the band's latest attempt to connect with fans in a fun way. "There's different ways to interact with pop culture, and it's just one that's funny and it's our lark," he said. "I think that having a game that people are talking about like that is great for the conversation."
A spokesperson for the band said the Android version of Fall Out Bird was played more than a million times in the first few hours of its launch. An iOS version is "awaiting review," and will be available soon.