Fishy Feathers fosters the tagline: “Finally, a bird game you can actually beat!” No, it’s not about penguins, and no, Michael Vick hasn’t taken to the sky. Fishy Feathers, instead, involves birds seeking sustenance underwater. Those so inclined to find dissatisfaction in incompletion and anxiety in uncertainty, which the inclined may experience with similar iOS games, such as Flappy Bird or Don’t Touch The Spikes, can put their psychological deficiencies to (ocean)bed in the Lucky Mask Games Inc. debut title, released yesterday.
The free game, on the App Store, has players eating fish and collecting starfish fossil-esque ‘chips’. The world is flooded, and the birds take to the ocean to survive. Other birds, venues, and abilities are available to unlock with the collected chips. Challenges are available, such as eating a certain number of a certain size fish, which earn players more chips and helps to unlock more levels.
In my experience with the game, Fishy Feathers plays like, and has a structure similar to, fellow arcade games Tiny Wings and Feeding Frenzy. The controlled bird flies, in a constant, overhead. Holding on the touch screen lets the bird descend into whichever body of water involved in the selected level. Only a limited time without running into an air bubble is allowed underwater. A special power-up is selected before a round of play, and it recharges after use, whatever it may do. Fish and chips are collected, not necessarily within the English Channel. More fish consumed means a bigger bird, a bigger bird means the opening of possibility to eat bigger fish. Hitting an obstacle or being put out of your misery by a larger aquatic creature ends the player’s run.
3-D Artist at Lucky Mask Games Inc., Adam Carbone said, in a press release:
We created Fishy Feathers to be a fun alternative to the overly simple, mindless games that are currently saturating the App Store. Fishy Feathers is easy to pick up and enjoy, but it requires an element of strategy and a goal of progression that’s lacking from so many games right now.
For more on Fishy Feathers and its developer, check out Lucky Mask Games Inc.’s website.