That’s because the creator of the game actually ended up taking it off of Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

Those who still have the game loaded on their mobile device can play it. The game features Flappy Bird, a small orange-ish bird that looks more like an awkward puffer fish with wings than a bird. The entire game is pixilated, sort of like the style of old-school Mario.

By tapping on the screen of your phone or iPod, the game begins, and every time you tap the screen, Flappy Bird takes a quick jump into the air. If you don’t touch the screen, gravity kicks in and Flappy Bird moves quickly toward the grassy ground.

As you try to keep Flappy Bird in the air, green pipes start coming toward you with an opening at random points, and your objective is to successfully get the bird through the hole without touching the pipe or hitting the ground, and immediately after that pipe comes another pipe right next to it,

And the game continues on like this ... forever.

Seems pretty simple, right?

So why is it that most people are hearing complaints about this game? Because it’s such a simple idea, and from first glance it seems completely easy. But after you begin playing it, you realize that this isn’t your average stroll in the park.

You’d think with a game this simple that the high scores would be in the thousands, but instead, you average at making it through maybe between 0 and 10 pipes per try. You quickly find out how hard this game really is. But the fact that it seems so simple messes with your head, and makes you think that maybe the game isn’t hard, but actually simple, like you thought — and you made a careless mistake. You’d be wrong.

Regardless, that “Play Again” button calls your name and you can’t help but press it. Before you know it, your phone battery is dead and it’s 3 a.m. on a Wednesday and you haven’t done any of your homework. Oops. But hey, at least you get to tell your friends proudly what your new very low/high score is. Technology is great, isn’t it?

So, why was it taken off of the App Store? According to Forbes.com, the creator of Flappy Bird was hearing all of the complaints and tweets and conversations about how hard and annoying Flappy Bird is, even though individuals continued playing it — and I’m sure the emails he was getting with loads of complaints didn’t help, either. As a result, he eventually tweeted that within the next few days, his game would be taken off of the App Store to stop all the complaints and bickering.

However, everyone who already downloaded the game from the App Store still has it on their phones, and some people have even gone as far as selling their phones with Flappy Bird on it on eBay and Craigslist. Last I checked, the highest selling Flappy Bird phone has been around $8,000. Did I mention that before all this that the app was free?

Of course, the game is still constantly played today. I myself am extremely happy with my high score of 72. But, of course, as all apps and other games do, this one will surely go as soon as it came.

But for now, we still continue to press that lingering “Play Again” button.

• Ben Gerhardstein is a senior at West Valley High School and a member of Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for high school students.