Flower Flyer (lost Wild Kratts flash game; 2012)

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Status: Lost

Flower Flyer, interchangeably spelled Flower Flier, also known as Hummingbird Hover, was an online game on the PBS Kids website based on the animated series Wild Kratts. It was created in 2012 and later taken off the website in 2019 as part of PBS Kids' purging of flash content on their site following the announcement of Adobe's discontinuation of Flash.

Background

In 2012, a Canadian development company known as Pixelpusher was tasked to give the PBS Kids original show, "Wild Kratts" a new online presence with new implementations to the website based on the series in light of its second season airing. The intention was to educate children about math, whilst also sticking to the traditional Wild Kratts formula. Hence, they had created "Creature Roundup," a collection of five different-math based games in which kids could use their math-skills to find and rescue five baby animals from the villain Zach Varmitech, and gain new Creature Powers. This ultimately lead to the creation of "Flower Flyer," one of the games compiled into this new Math Suite. On December 20th, 2012, the game was officially released into the public domain.

Overview

"Flower Flyer" was one of the games that was added to the site during the release of Season 2 of "Wild Kratts." Based on the episode, "To Touch a Hummingbird," the game's objective is for the player is to use fractions to apply the right amount of nectar into Martin Kratt's Hummingbird Power Suit and navigate past obstacles in order to help Martin fly from flower to flower, all in the name of getting him home to the Tortuga Headquarters.

There would be five levels to play. Each level would have a nectar tank in which they would have to fill in accordance to the fraction shown next to it. Hitting the plus and minus buttons will add and subtract nectar until the player gets the desired results. Adding too much or too little nectar will cause Martin's flight pattern to either pass or stop short towards the flower before he plummets, forcing the player to start over. During the flights, the player has to use the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to stay on the path to get points. They must avoid obstacles such as the predatory eye-lash viper, and the spider-web, or else they are cost a hefty number of points. Should they fail to get a certain level of points, they will have to start over, however, if they succeed that checkpoint, they will advance to the next level.

The first level would have the nectar fuel tank measured in thirds. The second level would have it measured in fourths. The third level would have it measured in fifths. The fourth level would measure the nectar tank in sixths. Finally, the fifth and final level would measure the nectar tank in eights. Should the player complete the third level, they will earn the Hummingbird Disc for their Creature Power Suit, which they would be able to apply to their customized "Wild Kratts" original character on the "Your Room" page. If they are directed to the game through "Creature Roundup," completing the third level will free the baby hummingbird from Zach's sinister clutches. If the player completes all 5 levels, they will unlock the Hummingbird Powersuit Photo, of which the user can take a picture of their face in the Creature Power Suit.

To save this process, the player will need to make and log into a PBS Kids account. If they haven't done so before playing the game, a sign will pop up giving them the option to do so, otherwise, there will immediately be an image of Aviva holding up the Hummingbird Power Disc after Level 3 is complete.

Takedown

On July 26, 2017 Adobe renounced Flash and announced its End-Of-Life as a result of the several security issues in the program's code. This resulted in a massive purge of flash content that had made up 80% of the PBS Kids website. During 2018 and 2019, many games were taken down, notably including Flower Flyer. This had been in due time for the official End-of-Life for Flash that had occurred on December 31st, 2020.

Lost Game

Around the time of the announcement of Adobe Flash's death, a preservation project known as the Flashpoint Archive (formerly known as Bluemaxima's Flashponit) had been able to restore and curate many flash-creations on the Internet in ways that would outlive the program itself. Many flash games, including that of the old Wild Kratts flash games had been recovered, primarily due to the efforts of the Wayback Machine in archive.org.

Flower Flyer however, is the only main flash game based off of "Wild Kratts" that was not saved to the Flashpoint Archive. This was due to the assets and files for the game not being saved in order for it to be curated. Additionally, the wrong URL for the game was saved into the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine; Any archive links to the game will feature the loader screen, but not the actual game itself; Not even the front-page

As a result, this game is lost media, as it has been for years since the late 2010's. Unless the assets and files for the game are recovered to be curated to Flashpoint Archive, either from online repos, or from the game's developers at Pixelpusher, it wil remain lost media for years to come.