I've only played the Android version, but I never found the collision detection anything less than pixel-perfect. If I'd felt the collision detection was poor, I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have enjoyed playing it as much as I did.<p>The author seems to imply that the collision detection is poor, then backtrack and say that actually, only collision detection that cheats in favor of the player is good. In this kind of simple 2D game, I think that cheating collision detection would lead to frustration.<p>Criticism of Flappy Bird seems to divided into two camps:<p>The first dismisses it as a clone of any one of a dozen or so older helicopter-style games.<p>The second descends into ridiculous over-analyses of the ephemeral merits of the game.<p>I find both camps irritating.<p>It may be a clone, but it's a clone that's done extremely well. Execution is everything. None of the "Flappy Bird done in X" versions that made the rounds came close to me.<p>And it may be a well designed and executed game, but luck is clearly the largest single factor that propelled it to worldwide success. A well-designed, well-executed, easy-to-learn, hard-to-master fun game with viral potential is the prerequisite for mass-market growth, but it's not even close to a guarantee.