Birdflop Impressions – Like Flappy Bird, But Actually Fun

I was one of those people who only played serious games. I was a serious gamer. You wouldn’t catch me playing Fortnite – oh no, I’d much rather sit with my camomile tea and dissect the themes of What Remains of Edith Finch. That was until last year, when I played Untitled Goose Game by House House (GameObserver recently reviewed their latest hit Big Walk) and discovered that silly games are just as magical. So, when I turned on the demo of Birdflop, the new silly-bird-themed game on the block, I wanted to jump into pure tomfoolery.

screenshot from game Birdflop where bird is falling through sky — I ruined my score just for this screen grab.

If you looked at the picture above and thought, is that a deck chair and a doughnut pool floatie in the middle of the sky? Strap in, it only gets weirder from here. Right out of the gate, Birdflop’s premise does not disappoint. The basic story line for this demo is that you’re a bird that has fallen out of its nest, and needs to get back to it. A 3D platformer that oozes charm in only its opening portion, Birdflop functions with two simple mechanics. Click to jump, hold to glide. You have a stamina circle a lá Zelda to maintain, and you roll when you land, so you have to time your moves carefully.

Your bird character starts off by jumping from island to island, and then slowly starts ascending the sky travelling from tree to shark, shark to giant sunglasses, giant sunglasses to portaloo, etcetera etcetera. If anyone remembers that final level of Hello Neighbour (and why would you, I think we’ve all collectively decided to forget it) it relays the same feeling of surrealism.

screenshot from Birdflop demo, bird sitting in save nest point — Nests scattered throughout the demo acted as save points.

The game mechanics also brought me back to the days of Flappy Bird, but didn’t evoke the same feeling of rage as that ancient mobile game did. I took my time to master Birdflop, learning the timings to jump, and when to use glide to my advantage – and it felt satisfying. So when I inevitably fell back down to the sea because I’d messed up a jump, I didn’t rage quit, I quickly loaded in my last save to lock back into focus. If the demo has nailed this key game design, then I can only see the game going up from here. Even on my laptop trackpad, I found the controls easy to pick up, and I could move my bird character whilst changing angles of the camera with ease.

screenshot of portaloo from demo of Birdflop — Whoever on the team decided to add the portaloo sound design in gets my flowers.

Birdflop‘s atmosphere oozes whimsy. You can find easter eggs throughout the map which unlock different hats for your soaring bird to wear (including a medieval helmet – slay). The marimba style music is energetic and catchy, and the melodies change as you get to each level in the sky which is a nice touch. My favourite part of the demo was landing at a save point next to a portaloo, and hearing the sound design of whistling and farts coming from inside it. How can you not like this game after that?

leaderboard from demo of Birdflop — You can change the level of difficulty from standard to nightmare, where there are no save points throughout.

After playing its demo, I think this Birdflop can succeed the most in becoming a friendship group game. Although it is single player (at least for now), the leaderboard at the end (counting the amount of flaps/clicks made) makes it perfect fodder for group competitions. I thoroughly enjoyed playing Untitled Goose Game with my friend simply for the giggles and good memories it produced, and I can see Birdflop falling into this same category. I can envision one of my pals messaging me at work saying “I just got 600 – beat that”, and knowing I’d have to boot up the game on my lunch break. I’m really excited to see where Birdflop goes from here, and I will definitely tune in for the final results. Finally, we can all get over our collective suffering from Flappy Bird, 13 years later!