The King’s Bird offers up a unique platforming experience through its gameplay and design, that leads to some pretty spectacular moments. The feeling of flying is captured masterfully here, and simple controls that are hard to master keep you coming back until you finish the story. The sound and art design, while done before give unique spins that make the world all the more rich in detail. While the story is nothing to write home about, only a handful of other small issues really caused me any annoyance or trouble while playing, and I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a good stress reliever or an excuse to unwind at the end of the day.
2D platformers face a unique, if not more difficult challenge in creating believable and alluring worlds when compared to the more contemporary first person shooters and action oriented games of today. The big problem being; how can a game compete, through its visuals, sounds, and storytelling, all the while doing so with one less dimension? When you first start up The King’s Bird it may seem like nothing more than an Ori clone, down to its similar visuals and music. However after jumping in, you soon come to realize this platformer offers up its own unique and gratifying experience, in a beautiful world just a appealing as any triple A blockbuster.
Something can be said about how, at its face value, The Kings Bird seems to copy the tried and true formula of past platformers, (minimalist art design, enchanting music, and a silhouetted main character) but patients pays off. While the story gives you just enough intrigue to keep you playing, it’s the style, gameplay and sound that make the game worth beating, and the experience a different and wholly enjoyable one. To start its important to note the differences in the style this game presents, even if they are subtle. The main character is very detailed (even for a silhouette) with a 3D model and fantastic effects. In fact all the effects in the game are done beautifly, from the obscured light shining through the background to the smoke coming off the lantern checkpoints, and there’s something to be said about the background art as well. While the minimalist art approach, with simple shapes and color schemes has been done before, that doesn’t mean its a bad thing here. That old saying ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, applies because I can’t tell you how many times I’d stop midway through my flying, flipping, and jumping to appreciate the crumbling temples, or mystical lagoons surrounding me, but what’s really great is how this art bleeds into the level design.
I was never really bored playing The King’s Bird in part thanks to the fantastic level design. As with any platformer, you find yourself navigating a maze of obstacles all the while picking up collectables as you inch closer to the finish line. The level design here shows a great attention to detail, as it gives you a relatively straightforward objective (get past the obstacles to the ending), but just enough freedom to go about traversing these obstacles in different ways, and the platforming is pretty fantastic. Obstacles were challenging, never enough to make you feel like a complete moron, and I certainly felt like a genius when I figured out where to go or what right button combination would give me just the right amount of momentum to clear a particularly treacherous gap. Thankfully the gameplay holds up as well. I think it’s safe to assume we all wanted to fly as children, and The King’s Bird captures that feeling of weightlessness and the sensation of gliding almost perfectly. As a platformer, the controls are relatively simple with only a handful of keys covering movement, jumping, interacting, and flying. Pick up and play is quick and easy to learn, but this doesn’t necessarily make the game a casual experience, as the controls are hard to master, and the level design has the potential to make this game a great speedrunner.
Finally the sounds in the game really helps set it apart as a unique and interesting world. While the music mimics the upbeat tunes of other platformers, its the voice that drives home the fantastical nature of the game. The game doesn’t have any dialogue between characters, opting for notes and sounds to replace actual speaking, but its when your main character sings that everything seems to fit just right. At times, only when you’re flying, you’ll hear the main character start to sing the melody of the background music which adds an elegance to the gameplay as you race forward, looking for the next opportunity fling yourself off a cliff, fly over an imposing abysses and touch down smoothly on the other side. Even small details are taken into account, like the sounds of rushing water or chirping crickets, and it all adds to the well rounded world you explore.
The game has a lot to offer, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect either. The story is bearbones with little more than the objective ‘escape’ being the main driving force, and if you’re looking for a long experience you won’t find it here. The game is roughly six hours, maybe seven if you strive for all the collectables and at a price tag of twenty dollars with little variety from level to level, it may be a turnoff for some people. There were a couple bugs in the game too, nothing game breaking, mainly just errors with collision detection when you try to hop over the edge of objects, leaving your character in a never ending climbing animation, but overall no real problems.
Overall, The King’s Bird offers up a unique platforming experience through its gameplay and design, that leads to some pretty spectacular moments. The feeling of flying is captured masterfully here, and simple controls that are hard to master keep you coming back until you finish the story. The sound and art design, while done before give unique spins that make the world all the more rich in detail. While the story is nothing to write home about, only a handful of other small issues really caused me any annoyance or trouble while playing, and I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a good stress reliever or an excuse to unwind at the end of the day.
- The additional video options, while limited, were a nice touch
- Wish you could bind keys, but not a huge issue.
