Cat Bird‪!‬ 9+

Now, this may seem hyperbole when you even consider this review's comparison with the average one on this game, but I'm honestly surprised that basically no one has even taken note that this very strikingly resembles content you would've expected in the tail end of the 2000's - I mean, this has aesthetics that look like they came from this game in 2007 or some year like that!

Now, as great as this game is, this title fails to merit a 5 star review, simply because there are unfortunately some areas where the game remains unpolished, as if Cat Bird would be taking an aerodynamic risk with these rough wings of his if not even buffed-up yet. For one, the collision detection is below-par even when compared to other professional game titles out there like this one on the App Store: Tight-space navigation can be stingy at times, and often is, and numerous deaths of mine in the game out of the very many overall were blamed on touchy collision when dealing with closely-placed together spikes, and this in fact actually ties in with the next flaw, Fryer grease-slippery controls: Now, they're not annoying to deal with in any way, and certainly not prohibitively frustrating, but it has led to questionably unfair deaths, and have caused *some* problems with navigating the levels in general otherwise.

I must admit, the game does have good animations and music, but there are some flaws I would like to point out. I noticed a couple of things that really made the game less enjoyable. I understand that as a dev who makes free games, that you need to put in ads to get some revenue. However, for the people that don’t buy the ad free version, they should still be able to speed run using the time trial mode. But quite often you are stopped by ads and have to wait ten seconds. The time keeps going in the background and it causes a ton of time loss. Secondly, the controls are good, but often wouldn’t work. This is not a problem with the device seeing as I have played the game on separate devices and still have the same issue. It doesn’t happen super often but sometimes it will cause me to die because it didn’t jump. Now I am aware that sometimes this is human error, but sometimes the buttons will completely shut down. Specially the jump button. I will go to jump and it won’t, and no matter how many times I press it, it does nothing. Lastly, I would like to make it known that after some ads, the sound will completely shut off and I have to restart the game. I really do feel like the devs have a good idea, and I think the game could be big for mobile speed running, and I believe that if these things are fixed, the game will be perfect.

(Spoilers ahead)
To start, this game is severely underrated. The pixel game style looks really good, the music is catchy, the levels are fun and challenging, and while there currently isn’t a thick plot, there are a few cute cutscenes. The boss fights I think are also really good, with each boss having a different design and fighting style. The game is mainly centered around a “catbird” journeying across planets, fighting creatures, solving puzzles, and trying to get home. There are lots of achievements to collect, so you won’t get bored quickly. When I first played Catbird, I can only describe the feeling as being captivated, the levels are difficult but also engaging and fun, so rage quitting is very rare and you have almost infinite retrys so you don’t have to worry much about losing a lot of progress if you die. This game really needs to be more popular, so do yourself a favor and play this; the controls are great, the game itself is made well, and it will keep you entertained for hours. I would love to see more worlds/skins sometime in the future!
Suggestion/complaint: on some levels when you are searching for the crown, you have to go inside the wall and through a tunnel to get it, but it is very hard to see where the tunnel is, so could you make it so that it has a somewhat more obvious marker? Thx :3