For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out BirdHeroes from RYUJI KUWAKI. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.
I had previously played SubaraCity and was eager to try out this new game. Unfortunately, it doesn't start off great as it immediately puts you into the game without any instructions on how to play it. i only had a vague sense of what happens because i had seen the screenshots and video in the app store. This is something that continues throughout my experience with BirdHeroes and it became a big frustration.
There are some tutorial sections, but they often came after the section where the mechanic was introduced. There are other tutorial levels, but it's not immediately obvious they're levels you can select and not just trees that are part of the background. When you start them, the English is sometimes vague and even unhelpful at times. It's a sign that this newly released game needs more work and maybe got released too early.
I had issues with the tutorials, issues with the translation, and issues with the game mechanics. i had guessed a lot and was mostly correct with what happens. but actually doing it proved to be the issue more often than not. With nearly every bird i tried to ride, when it came to sections off the bird i was mostly unable to get back on it. All the birds move, some more unpredictable than others. But the game says there's a 5 second window on these sections when the game is essentially paused. so there's a rush to collect as much fruit and get back on your bird. But your bird may have other ideas and is moving around, flying behind the stage, or just darting unpredictably. i honestly have no idea how it works. sometimes i feel like the bird moved to grab me, other times i fell right beside it. sometimes the bird was quick to get me back, other times it felt too long for it to grab me. i didn't like these sections when ever they came up. even after this video, i still don't think they've been fully explained either.
So with these puzzle platforming sections slowing me down, i came to a point where i couldn't beat any of the levels. these are start of the game levels and i could not get better than 2 out of 3 stars. Unfortunately, the game does nothing to offer hints or tutorials on what to do or how to get better. there is a Upgrade Building i got to, but i have no idea how it works. i couldn't access it. i don't know if that's because i've not done something, if i've not got something, or if it simply wasn't accessible.
With such a large part of the gameplay becoming very quickly frustrating, it was almost inevitable that the game would have intrusive adverts. Thankfully, these adverts are short. but they appear seemingly randomly after some levels with no warning.
Perhaps i came into this game with expectations too high. It does look good. the music is good, too. the screenshots and trailer looked like fun. but actually playing it simply became frustrating. I do think there is potential with this idea, but with the game in such a bad state right now i simply can't recommend it. It needs far too much work for me to even suggest downloading and waiting because it's just not worth playing right now.
(Version 1.0.05 Played)