Feather (Switch, PC)
The joy of flight is always a highlight in many a video game. Remember when you first got an airship in a Final Fantasy game? Or the wing cap in Mario 64? How about flying with feathers in Banjo-Kazooie? Speaking of feathers, here’s a game that’s nothing but flying as a bird, as you soar around an island in a stress-free environment. Feather is available to download on Switch and PC, but reviewed on the former here.
Controls are pretty easy to figure out, and they give you a tutorial at the beginning of the game and you can review it at any time in case you forget. Steer with the analog stick and roll left and right with the shoulder buttons. The L2 and R2 shoulder buttons let you speed up and slow down, and the X button lets you reverse direction. The Y button is for tweeting, and when you press it the bird will pull out its cell phone and start texting! Just kidding! The bird just tweets like a real bird does.
And that’s pretty much it. There are no goals or objectives, just messing around flying and seeing the island. The cartoony graphics are nice, but without any goals, there really isn’t much to do. Scattered about the island are rings that, when you fly through them, will change the music. But that’s pretty much it. They could’ve added some objectives to make it feel more like a game, and still be stress free, I think. How about flying through ring races, or hidden items around the island, or letting you feed baby birds? Maybe they could’ve added other birds with different flight abilities you could play as? Without all that kind of stuff, Feather doesn’t have much staying power otherwise.
Kid Factor:
Nothing violent or objectionable here. If you steer your bird into a wall or other danger, the screen will turn black and white and rewind a little bit and you can try again. Reading skill is helpful for the text, but not necessary just to play. I guess if you have very young gamers or inexperienced players, this game would be great for them to mess around with. But I imagine most will quickly get bored with the lack of goals and objectives. Feather is rated E for Everyone.
May 17th, 2019 at 2:24 pm
When the PSVR got released, there was a game where you’re an eagle flying over Paris. Like this game, there were no goals. But it was fun for a little while.