Flappy Special – Games About Moles Are Import[ant]

A cute block pushing action puzzle game with tiled graphics? Featuring an adorable mole? With personable enemies that want to eat you up? Sign me up, this is my biggest weakness. But there are is shortage of these kinds of games, and unless you stand out from the pack then you will rarely garner attention. Flappy Special has steep competition, but is it worth your time?

Flappy Special is a Game Boy port or adaptation of the Flappy on MSX, Famicom and other home computers of the Era. I don’t know if the Game Boy game is technically a port or even how many rooms constitute new material. I’ve looked at some material from the other games, I haven’t played them yet, and I’ve observed some overlap. I will say Flappy has 200 levels and Flappy Special has 160 (80 in Mode A, 80 in Mode B) so the former is more robust but the latter is portable. And as a Japanese import, if you own a Game Boy you don’t have to worry about region compatibility or Pin count or anything like that.

But the mechanics remain the same between them. Like Eggerland (Adventures of Lolo’s series) you push blocks (rocks) to trap enemies, collect projectiles to stun them, and ultimately reach a goal. However, there are a lot of differences to games like Lolo that give Flappy Special its own flavour.

Although Flappy can move freely around the screen, the rocks themselves have gravity. When they are pushed over empty space they will drop until they hit a surface. Falling rocks will crush any enemy that moves beneath it, and will crush Flappy to death if he finds itself beneath it. Because Rocks fall, you can’t push them back up. So building bridges, or moving columns, to get rocks where you need them to go becomes the crux of the puzzles. If you push a rock against a surface or enemy, it will crumble and either expose you to an enemy or ruin your solution if you’ve crumbled it prematurely.

There are only two enemy types, but they complicate matters enough. Unicorns are small horned snake enemies that move back and forth on a horizontal line. Ebira are crabs  that can move more freely and will charge Flappy when they have an opening. You can collect mushrooms to throw and stun these enemies, and once they’re stunned you can push them out of the way or into a position where you can drop a rock on them. They aren’t strictly adherent to a pattern, for instance a Unicorn may not move directly under Flappy if he’s waiting to drop a rock, but they will press against a rock if you’re pushing it on their plane. You may want to lay in wait for Ebira, but depending on the terrain you may need to move and expose Flappy in order to entice it out. This sometimes runs the timer down more than you would like, but it forces you to approach every level a little differently.

There is a glowing boulder in every level. This boulder cannot break, and you must get it to the flashing goal zone to win a level. You need to work out where to push the other rocks in the level so as to bridge gaps in such a way that the glowing rock can land on the goal. There are many little techniques that you will need to pick up throughout the game to beat it. Some of these may seem eclectic at first but everything works within the mechanics of the game and after a few levels everything will seem second nature. Pause the game when a level starts and try to visualize how you are going to move the glowing stone to the goal, avoiding corners and drops all the way there. It’s easier said than done once the action starts again, but it’s a start!

I mentioned that Flappy Special divides its levels between two Modes. Each one contains 80 levels, provides a convenient four digit password between every level, and allows you to replay any level you’ve previously completed in the Mode. Mode A focuses more heavily on the puzzle elements and some of them I found to be legitimate head scratchers. These are generally fairly involved and will put you through the paces in terms of learning the mechanics. Mode B on the other hand is much more action based. Many of these levels have more rocks than necessary – they’re there if you want to kill as many enemies as possible for points. Or perhaps the point of a level will be to move to a point as quickly as possible to stem the tide of monsters before they can overwhelm you. Towards the end of the Mode when enemies are body blocking you like pros and puzzle elements come back in earnest – well, those levels are right up there with the harder Mode A levels.

It’s not all good, however. I’m not sure if other versions of Flappy are more snappy but playing Flappy Special on Game Boy and Super Game Boy I found the game to be a little slower than I would prefer. Flappy moves quite slowly, the rocks push a bit slowly and say you’re pushing a stack of rocks – something you have to do constantly – adjusting your position to move each stone of the stack a half step at a time can take a lot longer than it should and trying to rush will often result in breaking one of the rocks or misplacing it. Perhaps that’s my own impatience as I’ve never timed out in this game. Rather I’ve always lost from my own mistakes or an enemy getting the drop on me. The other complaint is that the music gets very repetitive very quickly, even though there are two selectable tracks. But that’s me just being picky at that point.

A few quibbles aside, Flappy Special is a great import because it’s so intuitive. Passwords are simple, and the gameplay comes naturally. I wouldn’t put it above PAL version Adventures of Lolo as a Game Boy import or the outstanding Mole Mania as a Game Boy mole game. But it’s got a lot of rooms to play though and it’s super affordable to get a cartridge if you’re into playing on the original hardware.

Flappy Special is very approachable. There were a few stages I had to shut off and think about, and other times a session would push me through 30-40 stages at a time. Perhaps it has something to do with there only being a few elements in the game that it’s easy to visualize a solution in an instant. But that’s a trick. The levels I had the most trouble with I had a notion of “oh, I need to do this!” but that’s only what it looked like, it was too easy to get stuck in the moment. And that’s a mark of a good action puzzler. They need to subvert their own established routine sometimes. Using the same elements and mechanics in different ways changes how a player will approach subsequent puzzles. It keeps things interesting.

So while Flappy Special is not the most robust and plays a little slowly, it’s one I definitely recommend to folks who like these kind of games and especially anyone looking for a low risk import for the Game Boy. And hey, moles are really really cute.