The King's Bird

I'm coming back to this years later realizing my review got removed. Take that as you will. I have no idea how much this game has changed with patches, but I found this back in 2019 to be an infuriating experience. The difficulty spikes for jumps you didn't really get prepared for earlier, and for some odd reason, this game decides to end with a design that does not fit it at all. On top of it, my most memorable infuriating issue with this game back in 2019 was completing the game, only getting confused with a menu and then deleting my entire save file by mistake. If it's changed at all, and it looks fun to play through all the way, it might be a nice precision platformer to vibe to. However, precision platformer with controls like these don't really mix too well.

So I got to the Fallen Kingdom section (having beaten one of apparently 3 other kingdoms?) and after quitting the game and reloading I'd found that my save was seemingly wiped? I guess that's a sign as good as any that it's time to call it there. The score is excellent with the dynamic vocals timed to your flight and the artstyle is generally quite appealing to look at however the movement system, while possessing a high skill ceiling, does not often feel satisfying or responsive enough at the level that I was playing at. I'll admit that this might just be a skill issue on my end but while there is some catharsis in finally getting past a particular stage or obstacle, the fact that the reward is just more levels to bang your head against made the experience start to wear on me.

Solid platformer for the price, quite fun.

i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hated this game

one of the best platformers i've ever played

The King's Bird is a top tier momentum focused platformer. It's astounding this game is not more well known. It's truly a beautiful game with brilliant and creative platforming. The core mechanic is your ability to soar for a limited amount of time dependent on velocity. There's also a dash ability that is used for wall run maneuvers. The third movement option is a standard jump. So how does the movement feel? Simply put, it's some of the juiciest video game movement I've experienced. Masterclass. I had an absolute blast flying through these levels. There's a big focus on speed in The King's Bird and it's not long into the game that you're asked to do some wicked nasty parkour tricks like ceiling runs, aerial loop-de-loops, or flinging yourself out of a half pipe pure blue hedgehog style. As a lifelong platformer fan, I found the difficulty to be just perfect. Checkpoints are mercifully frequent, because if you're at all like me, you'll die a lot. I impaled my bird person on spikes hundreds of times and had a great time doing it. There are accessibility options if things get too brutal. I appreciate how the game encourages experimentation. There are basically no explicit tutor…