Couldn't quite bring myself to finish it (this seems to happen to me with metroidvanias in general lol) but I definently enjoyed what I played. Like mostly everyone else has said about this game its a unique look into Maddy Thorsons past as a developer and you can really see a lot of DNA being shared between this and Celeste through movement and level design. It's interesting how "barebones" it is as a metroidvania, with very simple and limited powerups, but I think it leads you around well with just a simple "you can't jump high enough yet" or something of the sort.
Maddy really went for the heart when creating the soundtrack for this game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPhK3YJoAd4
I may have had more difficulty playing Maddy's later more famous work (Celeste) but despite this game having much floatier movement/less options for player expression, I prefer this game over Celeste.
The visual style of the game being almost entirely composed in MSPaint with jagged lines, very bright colors with very chunky simple shading makes me feel like I'm playing through a children's book.
I also truly enjoyed the little bits of story that are in the game, starting out as an egg, hatching from the egg after climbing through various pits of platform shenanigans is a triumphant moment.
There are other birds, mostly in a little village totally isolated from the wide world map, by forces of evil overwhelming, but there is one brave little bird on the beach shoreline. It's a very cute moment to contrast the sad melancholy vibes of the bird village, where they're trapped there.
I struggle to really write about this game as it's hard to convey exactly how it resonates with me as this was one of the earliest "Online indy" games I ever played.
It's important, may not quite be in my pantheon of favorite games, but it's a game worth respect, and worth giving a try.
You may get more out of this game than you'd expect to.
I may have had more difficulty playing Maddy's later more famous work (Celeste) but despite this game having much floatier movement/less options for player expression, I prefer this game over Celeste.
The visual style of the game being almost entirely composed in MSPaint with jagged lines, very bright colors with very chunky simple shading makes me feel like I'm playing through a children's book.
I also truly enjoyed the little bits of story that are in the game, starting out as an egg, hatching from the egg after climbing through various pits of platform shenanigans is a triumphant moment.
There are other birds, mostly in a little village totally isolated from the wide world map, by forces of evil overwhelming, but there is one brave little bird on the beach shoreline. It's a very cute moment to contrast the sad melancholy vibes of the bird village, where they're trapped there.
I struggle to really write about this game as it's hard to convey exactly how it resonates with me as this was one of the earliest "Online indy" games I ever played.
It's important, may not quite be in my pantheon of favorite games, but it's a game worth respect, and worth giving a try.
You may get more out of this game than you'd expect to.