A game about hunting game. A lot of it.
25 Birds allows you to kill more birds than would be declared sane in the real world, but in the world of iPad minigames seems just about acceptable. Although if you are a member of the RSPCA, it might be wise to leave now.
Other iOS games usually make birds the hero, particularly when they are used as catapult ammunition, but not 25 Birds. In an introductory sequence, we are shown that birds are now evil, deliberately causing airliners to crash by flying into their engines, and sneering at humans from above the clouds.
Thus, the relentless gunning down of all birds having been justified (I think) it’s up to you to shoot as many feathered foes from the sky as possible in a manner as cathartic as it is mindless.
Levels provide you with either a machine gun, semi automatic rifle or sniper rifle to fell fowl with, and typically ask you to reach 25 kills, or to slay as many birds as possible in a given time.
As you complete missions, the environments you hunt your winged prey in change to make things harder. There are some levels taking place in a rainstorm and a few at night, where you are only able to see through your night vision-enhanced sniper scope.
However maniacal you might find it all, the game’s controls are at least well suited to the birdicide. You use your left hand to scroll in the bottom left corner of the screen for aiming, and your right hand to fire. Reloading is as simple as lifting your left hand from the screen, and getting into a rhythm of aiming and shooting is so smooth that you’ll be an efficient avian hitman in no time.
Aside from the different level flavours, and an expert difficulty setting that makes the birds fly much more erratically, there isn’t much depth and despite the game being functional, you won’t be plunging 60 hours into it any time soon.
Also, it’s pretty obvious that animal lovers won’t be too infatuated with 25 Birds, and although the birds are supposed to be evil mowing down defenceless animals might look a little psychotic to someone peeping over your shoulder on a busy train.
The game’s attempt to justify the massacre seems to notice this, and a lot of the marketing attempts to compare the antagonists of 25 Birds to those of Hitchcock’s 1963 classic The Birds. But the birds in this don’t look nearly as evil as in that film. Maybe it would be better if they all had Hitler moustaches drawn on, or there was a stalk as a final boss wielding a dead baby. Ok, too far.
At the very least, 25 Birds is refreshing for at last recognising that birds, no matter how much we adore playing as them on mobile games, can be quite annoying sometimes. I’d certainly recommend it for blowing off steam if you’ve ever sat down in Trafalgar Square and just wished the pigeons would fuck off.
25 Birds is out now on iOS. Developer: Henrik Nielsen Website
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