Review: Bird Mania 3D

Sometimes a game can work one mechanic into the basis of an entire game. In the case of Bird Mania 3D that’s exactly what happened.

In Bird Mania 3D you’re set with the task of taking a bird named Mojo and making him fly until he meets up with the rest of the flock. Why isn’t he with them? On the main menu there’s a button that says story, it’s not the story mode but instead the actual story. It seems he overslept and now he’s on a mad dash to find them.

Sadly, he’ll never catch up with the rest of the flock because there’s no end to Bird Mania 3D, it’s one long stage that has you collecting stars and balloons while avoiding obstacles. The gameplay gets harder and harder until you smack into something and it’s game over. Bird Mania 3D is a scoring game rather than a story game. There is no finish line, there is no end to the story, there’s just a high score that you keep on trying to beat.

Being able to pull out Bird Mania 3D and play a few rounds makes your wasted time a better experience, in my opinion Bird Mania 3D is a “time enhancer”

While this simplicity would be unacceptable for a 40 dollar game Bird Mania 3D only clocks in at 1.99, that’s perfect pricing for a game you can start up and play in situations where you only have a few minutes. Games like these are commonly called “time wasters” but that’s not true, sitting in the department of motor vehicles or waiting in the doctor’s office, those are time wasters. Being able to pull out Bird Mania 3D and play a few rounds makes your wasted time a better experience, in my opinion Bird Mania 3D is a “time enhancer”.

Bird Mania 3D does everything you want a game of it’s kind to do. First and foremost everything is fast, starting and restarting games is fast with no long loading, something that is a must have for a game of this type. It’s got great controls with your bird being able to be moved by either the circle pad, D pad, or stylus and while the stylus is probably the most responsive I found myself using the pad only because during long flights I had trouble finding the center of the touch screen.

There are also achievements you can get in the game by reaching various milestones in gameplay like collecting stars, hitting enemies, and going certain distances. This helps it’s replay value even more by making you work on not only getting the highest score but also trying to unlock all of it’s achievements.

The graphics look good with vibrant colors and textures. Every obstacle in the bird’s way is clearly defined and the 3D gives a nice bit of depth to the entire scene as you see how far you can keep flying. There’s also a really nice day to night transition that gives an added touch of detail to the game.

The sound in the game does the job. Each reward you get has a certain chime and each time you fail you’ll be met with a very distinct smack noise as you watch Mojo plummet back to Earth.

There’s only one musical selection throughout the entire game and I wish there were a few more. While each gameplay session won’t be as long as any one particular track it would have been nice to have a few songs shuffle while you replay the game over and over again.

As it stands, the music starts and then never stops playing in a constant loop as you replay the game, while that prevents you listening to the same musical opening over and over it does make you very familiar with the music in a short time.

The only real gripe I have with the game is that there’s only one save slot, I would have liked to see a few different slots. There’s a leaderboard that has 50 spaces and it would be nice to have the ability to fill that with various people. After some time that’s just all going to have the primary user’s name filling the charts.

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Why it may be helpful for people with anxiety

• Easy pick up and play gameplay
• Three forms of controls so even if you have cold or numb hands or are shaky you can still control the game
• Fast loading means no waiting for gameplay

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Ways it may be unhelpful for people with anxiety

• None

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Why you should be playing this game

Bird Mania 3D is a great game that can be played in spurts, it’s not meant to be a game that you spend 4 hours straight trying to beat, instead it’s that game you always fire up when you come across it in the menu. Have to wait 5 minutes for someone to get ready? This is the perfect game to fire up.

Each time I go back and forth in my 3DS menu and see it I try a few times to better my last score and then I go onto something else. This is the kind of game that has longevity because while your main games will change over time this is one that you’ll keep coming back to.

For 2 bucks this is a game that’s worth having in your 3DS library.

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This review was based on the 3DS version that was provided by the publisher.