The new game from Dong Nguyen, the guy who made and subsequently killed the global phenomenon called Flappy Bird, is here. It’s called Swing Copters and it’s pretty much the Flappy Bird concept moved to the vertical. Oh, and it’s harder. A lot harder. Insanely harder.

It took me 10 minutes to pass the first gate, and I am not even exaggerating. And when I did pass, for a (still current) high-score of 1, it was out of blind luck.

If you ever played Flappy Bird, you’ll feel right at home playing Swing Copters. You have to maneuver a dubious little critter equipped with a helicopter hat through an endless row of gates by tapping on the screen to change the flight direction. 8-bit Mario-style graphics, retro sound effects, dead simple gameplay.

Sounds super easy, but it’s not. You need nerves of steel and excellent eye-hand coordination to pass even the first gate. Anything beyond that, and at least in this author’s eye, you’re a demigod.

Yes, I am sure that with practice and dedication you can smash my personal best of 1, like, this guy proves it (with the iOS version – perhaps the physics are different?)

But at least for me, Dong Nguyen turned up the difficulty dial a few notches too many. I get it – a challenging game is more likely to go viral, and hardcore users will love to brag about their high-scores. But Swing Copters will definitely turn off less committed users.

Check out Swing Copters in the Play Store, it’s free with ads. And let us know your high-score!