Happy Friday, everyone. Today I am going to talk about a game that I’m really surprised didn’t make it to North America: Bird Week.
Developed by Lenar and published by Toshiba, Bird Week was released for the Famicom in June 1986. Yes, you read that correctly: Toshiba made this game. An electronics company known for making music equipment and televisions decided to try their hand at the video game industry. And it was developed by Lenar (their first video game, by the way), who is most notorious for making Deadly Towers for the NES. But this must be better, right? Well, opinions on Bird Week tend to be mixed. There really is no middle ground; either I see a positive review or a negative review of the game wherever I go. So, which is more accurate?
The game boots up to an English title screen. A bit odd, considering the box art is in Japanese. You have a choice between Game Start and Study Game. What’s Study Game? Well, it’s just a trial version of the game with only one level. So, I’m guessing “Study Game” means getting yourself familiar with it.
The game begins, and you play as a mother bird trying to catch food for her babies. First, the basics: the graphics are quite good for the Famicom, especially considering it’s a game from 1986; there’s quite a bit of detail in the birds and the environments, and the animation is pretty fluid, too. As for the music… well, while it is a bit of an ear worm, it is a little too loud and hard on the ears. It doesn’t loop continuously, but its deafening tone can make you want to put the game on mute fairly quickly.
Now, onto the gameplay. You must catch butterflies to feed your baby birds within a certain time limit. That’s really it. These butterflies are always moving, and since they have no pattern you pretty much have to chase them. Simple, right? Well, unfortunately, the controls in this game might create a problem. Mama bird is always moving and does not stop until she lands on the ground or in her tree. This means your hand has to be on the D-pad at all times. Left and right move her likewise, up moves her upward, and down makes her descend faster. Because your thumb must be at the wheel at all times, it can cause some aching after a while.
You automatically grab a butterfly just by touching it, but they are extremely hard to catch. As said before, they have no pattern, so you have to move everywhere around the butterfly just to have a chance of getting it. This not only makes you more prone to aching your hand, but it borders on being entirely luck-based, especially in the later levels.
You start out with two babies to feed. Each baby will beg for food occasionally, which of course indicates when you need to feed them. Unfortunately, since butterflies are pretty hard to catch, this only makes the game harder. When the babies start shaking faster, that indicates there’s only a short amount of time before they starve to death. Yeesh, how dark. It’s actually just a taste of the emotional depth to this game. If a bird dies, it’s game over and back to the start of the level. You only have three lives, and, to my knowledge, you can’t gain any extra lives. So, if you die, it’s back to the beginning you go.
The nest is your safe zone, meaning enemies (such as the obnoxious falcon) can’t hurt you. This game is pretty much like Capture the Flag. You know, that game you always played in middle school gym class. Each baby needs three butterflies, and if you can successfully get them some, they will grow up and fly away. It’s heavily hinted that one of the baby birds becomes the mother bird in subsequent levels. Huh.
In later levels, the game becomes more challenging. You must deal with squirrels that jump from tree to tree, jumping chipmunks, bees, flies, crows, and of course the obnoxious falcon. If you thought the game was challenging before, you “ain’t seen nothing yet”. Remember when I said you have to keep your hand at the wheel at all times? Well, now you must always keep your eyes on the screen. You got to get butterflies that fly everywhere, while also dealing with bugs and crows that fly everywhere, small animals that desperately want to kill you, and a falcon that, for some reason, hates mother birds who are trying to help their children grow up. Remember, if you get hit once, you’re dead. You’re almost defenseless; the only weapon available is a mushroom that appears on the ground. Mama bird can pick it up and drop it on her enemies. But it only stuns them for about five seconds before they get right back up, and you can only hurt one enemy at a time. You could end up having to weave your way through other enemies just to get the mushroom again, and by the time you get it, the enemy you stunned is once again on his feet. So, forget the mushroom, just focus on getting food for your children.
Every three levels, you will have a chance to play a bonus level. This allows you to catch fish that are jumping out of the ocean for some extra points. But they’re just as difficult as catching butterflies. Fortunately, you don’t get penalized for missing any.
There! That’s Bird Week. Is it worth playing? Well, it is a high score game, but SPOILER ALERT: there is an ending. The game has about 37 levels before the ending, and it features mama bird flying across the field with… 15 babies. Okay, that’s a cute ending, but I’m not going to analyze that.
So what’s my recommendation going to be? Well, can you tolerate the ear-piercing music? Do you mind keeping your hand at the wheel at all times? Do you enjoy really difficult games? Well, since it’s a five-dollar game at most, I’ll leave that up to you.
Rating: 7/10
Featured Image art by Kaio Scott