Flappy Bird knock-offs proliferated almost as soon as Flappy Bird became a (blessedly short-lived) phenomenon, and it seems that Apple and Google are both fighting back. The companies have started rejecting submissions with the word "flappy" in their names, reports TechCrunch, citing tweets from developers.

Games are being rejected from the Apple store with the company saying that they're attempting to "leverage a popular app." Google, more obtusely, is rejecting flappy applications from the Play Store as "spam."

At this time, neither company appears to have removed Flappy Bird clones that they've already authorized, so any developer that got in to the various marketplaces quickly enough now has an advantage over latecomers. As the bandwagon continues to roll on, these games remain popular and appear to be capitalizing on flappy branding: top of the iOS free games chart is Splash Fish—the Adventure of a Flappy Tiny Bird Fish, for example.

Frustrating as this may be for app developers, it may nonetheless be a wise move. Just as clone games tend to proliferate in the wake of a smash hit, so too does malware. Google has already removed a number of fake Flappy Bird clones that were, in fact, malicious. A blanket prohibition on flappy-naming is an effective way of nipping the entire problem in the bud.

Meanwhile, anyone who still has a hankering for inane tapping and inexplicable fashions is welcome to try Flappy Doge, bringing together Flappy Bird and the sadly inescapable Doge meme. Two horrible tastes that taste horrible together. Nobody should ever play this game.

My high score is 32.