Birdigo

Birdigo is the latest game to take a well-worn formula and attempt to mix it up with new elements and mechanics. The best examples come from the titular Balatro from last year, where it breathed new life into poker, and this year’s Squeekross: Home Sweet Home, which turned Picross into a cosy home-building experience. Now it’s the turn of Birdigo, bringing its twist on the basic word game. 

Developers John August (movie screenwriter) and Corey Martin have designed a clever, well-thought-out word game in which the player helps birds migrate to their next home. As this is a deck-building roguelike, not every run is the same; some will be more successful than others, with progression marked by unlocking up to another four routes across the world map. 

Each route has a different number of stops along the way. The first route kicks things off with 14, while the second route has 27 and so on. Each stop is where the word game comes in, with an ever-increasing points total – classed as distance in the game – that needs to be hit to be able to carry on the journey. That’s how basic the game initially seems, but with some incredibly high totals to reach, strategy and tactics in how you use the game’s other mechanics will really come into play. 

At the start of each round, you are presented with 7 cards all containing random letters. The aim is to create words from these letters and score points. Unlike in Scrabble, all letters have the same points – called flaps – but what will score you more is the type of card those letters are contained on. A basic card is worth 1 point, a speckled card is worth 2, gold is worth 5 and platinum is worth 10. There’s an extremely rare diamond card worth 20 points too. When these are mixed into a word, the totals can start racking up quickly, but this on its own is not enough for the later stops. 

Each length of word creates power – which is basically a multiplier – which can build up as the run progresses. In the latter parts, these can be x5 or x6 of your points total. So if you’ve scored 16 but have a multiplier of x5, then points really start to mount up. But yet this will also not be enough to reach the lofty highs of some totals, which can reach thousands, but thankfully there are a few more mechanics up Birdigo’s wings to help rack up huge totals. 

The first comes from feathers that can have a huge effect, bringing in roguelike elements like a x5 power for every gold card in the word or x20 points if a word has a double o in it. With the ability to hold up to five feathers, the chance is there to pull in some fun and unique combinations that can be quite fascinating to watch unfold. One run I had an x5 for an even word, x5 for an odd word, x20 flaps for every speckled card in the deck, x5 for a four-letter word and an x5 for every four-letter word I had created so far in the run. Watching these go to work on a word I just played was surprisingly filled with much excitement; just seeing the incredible amount of points I was raking up filled me with so much excitement and satisfaction that it became a constant hunt to feel that again. Plus, when you combine the different card points, it can get quite out of hand, sometimes scoring 1,000s of points from a basic word like “which”.

The other gameplay element is songs. You can pick up different tunes that will have different effects that can be used whenever you like. Some of my favourites were turning any card into a gold one, adding two copies of the selected cards to the deck and the very rare turning any card into a diamond one.  This system allows a chance for the player to really beef up the deck and create a powerhouse of cards that, when combined with everything else, can result in complete carnage. 

It’s these elements that give Birdigo such a deep strategy, which I really had to think about. Will this combination of feathers work together? Would this song work well with the deck I currently have? And did I choose the right letter to turn to gold? The feathers also had an effect on how I played the game, making me go for more five-letter words or leaving certain letters in my hand to gain more power. There were many attempts where I got it wrong, crashing out early, but other more exhilarating runs where it all just came together. Of course, the player is at the mercy of the game’s randomness with what gets presented, but I appreciated the way everything worked to create many deep thinking moments. 

What makes all this even more challenging is that there is a limit on how many words you can create in each stop and a limited amount of times you can swap letters. Thankfully these can be upgraded through feathers or by nests that are found along each run. These are basically the same as every other stop, but the reward will be a +1 word or a +1 dispose or a +1 card to your hand. Racking these up can also have a positive outcome for each run, so although you can skip them, I would recommend you don’t. 

Unused words from a stop are used effectively too by turning into seeds. These can be spent at shops that are scattered throughout the run. This is your chance to buy new feathers, songs or letter cards to really help get your bird to its destination. There’s the ability to spend seeds to restock if nothing takes your fancy, and it was here that I picked up quite a few rare items that really helped me out. 

I extremely appreciated Birdigo’s visuals throughout my playtime. It has its own identity and gave the game an original look through low-poly, cute bird models and environments. It gave a feeling of a cosy, inviting vibe, which was most welcome. Nothing overbearing, nothing too fancy; it kept the game running well and didn’t overshadow the gameplay.

The same goes for the sound design, with minimal, low, and calming music in the background; it wasn’t noticed at times, but during those long pondering sessions on which word to use next, it kept me sane enough to concentrate properly on the job at hand. Accompanying this were birds chirping in the distance and other ambient sounds to really set the scene without being annoying.

The only negative thing I have to say is about the game’s challenge, as it’s surprisingly tough. It was mostly felt from the second course onwards, and with such high totals to reach, I was on many, many runs just to finish the second migration. This, I believe, will turn some people away, especially as there are no second chances, no feather to come to your aid and revive you, and no extra lives; if you don’t hit that total, you’re done. 

This had a detrimental effect on me, going from riding high on the excitement of racking up thousands of points for one word to the realisation that it’s going to take even more from me to get past some of these lofty figures. And it was hard to motivate myself sometimes to play because I felt, more than likely, I was going to fail. Simple difficulty settings or accessibility options would completely wipe this issue, so fingers crossed for this to be patched in at some point in the future.