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Games

A Tour of a Beautiful, Maddening Game, Thanks to Beautiful, Maddening GIFs

'The King's Bird' will tax your fingers, but let me try to show you why it's worth it.
Image courtesy of Graffiti Games

It’s difficult to convey why a game “feels” good. A combination of factors, knowable and instinctual, results in a game where the act of doing feels good, whether it’s swinging an axe, climbing a wall, or flying through the air. And while 2018 has delivered us all sorts of feel-good games—Dead Cells, God of War, Monster Hunter: World—the latest to grab my attention is The King’s Bird, a platformer I’m almost sure you haven’t heard of.

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I could write lots words trying to articulate why The King’s Bird is both mechanically and aesthetically beautiful, but instead, I’ve captured moments with the same truth.

If The King’s Bird is about anything, it’s momentum. Tapping jump also functions as a boost, and when combined with the game’s many peaks and valleys, the player can able pull off some truly impressive feats. Getting there is a challenge, though; after the tutorial, I hadn’t quite internalized what the game was asking of me, and it was frustrating. Once everything clicked, I was effortlessly gliding about.

This momentum can be truly exhilarating, almost as if you’re controlling a rollercoaster.

This emphasis on momentum is often a puzzle. There will be sections where the player cannot make it far enough on the initial jump, which means you need to be thinking about where to land, where to recover, and where to link actions together to progress.

As you start doing that, instinct takes over, the mechanics meld with the aesthetics. You, the player, become part of the art, and, in turn, part of the game’s beauty.

The King’s Bird arrives at a time when a lot of very big games are about to take over my life, but if you’re like me and always find time for a good platformer, consider The King’s Bird. My guess is it'll turn off a lot of people because the controls are, at first, an immense hurdle, and it doesn't help the game is only released on PC right now. It would be perfect on some kind of portable console, you know? But what do I know?

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