This Is An Endless Runner, Not a Fake Angry Birds –

From the title name and colorful bird character on the box art, most gamers would probably assume that Bird Mania 3D is some sort of Angry Birds clone. This is not the case. Instead, Bird Mania 3D is an endless runner that plays like the dozens of free mobile games on the market only with lower replay and entertainment value.

Using only the circlepad (or stylus or face buttons if you prefer), the goal of the game is to guide a migrating bird through an endless left-to right scrolling level while avoiding obstacles and collecting items that will increase the final score. For ease of comparison, it plays like Jetpack Joyride. But unlike the multiple mission objectives in Jetpack Joyride to constantly keep the player engaged, Bird Mania’s only driving force is beat your previous high score. There is an “achievement” system but unlocking most of these optional objectives are incredibility difficult. High scores are limited to local leaderboards too.

Outside of the brightly colored cartoony graphics, the game’s biggest draw is the day/night cycle. Because the playable bird overslept and is now chasing after his migrating friends, the day/night cycle represents his long journey over Africa. Even though the time cycle sounds like an interesting concept, it doesn’t alter gameplay in any way; it is only there for cosmetics and some achievements are tied to it. Worse, players won’t even be able to enjoy the colorful and welcoming art style since the game moves at such a fast pace especially when making a run longer than 45 seconds.

Besides just moving up and down to avoid trees and enemies, a button tap causes the playable bird to boost forward. If this boost attack kills an enemy then the score will temporarily multiply. This attack, however, is inconsistent at best. Boosting sometimes kills enemies and sometimes not. The boost only lasts for a moment but will result in death if an enemy is hit in the last half of the boost animation. It just doesn’t make sense and causes unnecessary frustration that will make players want to avoid attacking altogether.

The vibrant and charming art style also carries a dark end result. One hit will bring the bird to its death and is transitioned to a close up view of a tombstone. Even though the bird doesn’t die a violent or bloody death, it just seems so out of place to reward the player with a giant grave of a bird that failed to meet up with his friends and family especially considering the cartoony nature of the visuals will appeal more to young children. Also, one musical track will constantly loop throughout the entire experience. Not that it is bad it just gets old pretty quick. But at the same time, no one will play this game for more than 5 minutes at a time anyway.

With no real goal, power-ups, incentives or unlockables, Bird Mania 3D is a basically just a simple mobile game that was put on the 3DS eShop. Even though it is only a couple of bucks and the cute visual aesthetics are pleasing, there isn’t much here to keep your attention beyond a one-and-done.

2/5

Not As Good As: Tomena Sanner (WiiWare)

Also Try: Jetpack Joyride

Also Check Out: The Heavy Arms games

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

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