A Bird Story: Discussion and REVIEW--Lovely Companion

Having finished To the Moon, I thought I'd play the next game by the same developer, A Bird Story. This "game" really is more like an interactive movie. There are places where your actions are required, but the actions required are mostly just moving the main character around. The graphics are the same as in To the Moon, a simple pixilated cartoon. It's nicely charming, and does the job.

Warning. There is no way to save the game. It's short enough to play in one sitting, but be sure you have at least two hours to spare. If you quit, you can get back to a sort-of chapter, but you will probably have to repeat some of your actions, because you have to restart at the beginning of a chapter, and there is no indication during the gameplay of where the chapters begin.

It's a schmaltzy story, of course, but I enjoy those. A lonely boy rescues an injured bird in the forest. He apparently has parents, but they're never home. They merely leave notes for him, mainly to warn him to take an umbrella if it's going to be a rainy day. He sits in the back of his classroom and doesn't play with the other children.

The Classroom

A lovely forest

The boy walks home alone and goes into a small forest clearning where he finds an injured bird. The bird appears to have a broken wing. The boy takes it to a vet, who bandages the wing, but she wants to put it in a cage, so the boy runs away with the bird and takes it back to his home, where it stays on the balcony of his high rise. He takes it back to the forest and they play together, after the boy has won the bird's trust. They become fast friends. Eventually they even explore the world in some surrealistic fantasy segments:

A reference to To the Moon?

Flying high

Searching for nests

But it's a wild bird. Will it stay with the boy? Watch to find out! 

Really, this story is so sweet it might give you a toothache, but I like sweetness once in a while. It only takes a couple of hours to play. The music, all composed by the game developer, is quite lovely and really enhances the game. 

Recommended for the sweetness! It isn't phony saccharine. It's real sugar!