Birdcage: A Stylish Anime-Inspired Sword Action Shooting Game
For a myriad of reasons, I can’t really write any particular profane curse words here, but an approximation of my feelings on Birdcage, an anime as hell, “sword action shooting game,” it would be something like, “this game is so ******* sick, like what the ****, how the **** can one game be so ******* stylish.” I’m sure you can fill in the blanks of what words I wish I could use there, but if you’ll allow me, I’d also like to take the time to actually talk about why Birdcage rules so much.
Birdcage is an upcoming title from Polygon Bird Games, which consists of just two people: Giannis Milonogiannis, a comic book artist who’s worked with big dogs like DC and Marvel, and Barry Topping, the composer behind Paradise Killer. Milonogiannis is behind all the art from the game, which is just a perfect concoction of moods and influences, coming through tightly in its recently released demo (big flashing lights warning).
Inspired by ’90s arcade games, Birdcage’s opening cutscenes feel just as sparse yet tantalising as the best of them. You are the pilot of a ship called the Halycon, with one goal in mind: destroy a new kind of weapon that will “end Earth’s reign and birth a new universe, the World-Egg.” This is delivered to you in single screen scenes with art that evokes the best JRPG classics – think a sketchier, more pixel arty Breath of Fire 4 cover kind of vibe.
It’s the kind of game you can imagine getting an OVA straight-to-VHS adaptation that’s worth $300 now and has not been released in high quality, so your only way to watch it is through a crappy rip uploaded to the Internet Archive. The story in the demo is minimal, and there’s only six stages apparently, but the restraint exercised makes me curious for more, the best kind of narrative.
With your ship, you have a few combat options. You can shoot out a spread of bullets that do less damage but hit more enemies, or you can concentrate them to do more damage, the tradeoff being that you move slower (which turns into a boon in more bullet-laden levels). Said ship also has a sword, a point that rules an incredible amount, that can destroy certain bullet types, can be swung around to damage certain ships, or shot out at an enemy. It’s all mostly simple, yet tough as hell. You’ve only got three bits of health, and limited lives, so dodging every bullet is a lot more stressful than you’d think.
On top of all that, there’s an arcade mode which is just story mode without the story, and score attack where enemies infinitely spawn within a set time limit as you try to rack up some points. Real classic arcade stuff.
You can try out the demo for yourself on Steam right now, or alternatively, you can wait until November 18th for the full release.
