Review of Bird Assassin

Ever wanted to assassinate birds? Well here's your chance. Bird Assassin give you the chance to slaughter thousands of birds on your quest to avenge your father. However, you won't be going at it all stealth like as Ezio would. Instead you will be like a redneck Mario blasting away birds with your rifle or shotgun. Either way many birds are going to be dead by the end of the game.

The story goes something like this. Birds kill your dad. He then comes back as a ghost and tells you to avenge his death by going after the birds. You take your dad's trusty rifle and get to work. That's pretty much it as far as story goes but at least it gives you a decent reason to go and destroy every fowl that comes across your path. The game plays as a platform shooter. You start on the left side and then shoot your way back to your truck. Along the way these very angry birds try to stop you by whatever means possible, whether that means dropping bombs on your head or trying to run over you in your own truck. A single bird on its own isn't much of a challenge, but these birds usually travel in flocks. Luckily for every bird killed some money is given to you for the shop. The shop contains more guns and upgrades to help you along the way.

The game is fun and simple. It won't require much thought as you mindlessly mow down birds with every weapon you have. It's actually quite amusing to see hundreds of birds falling to the ground in a bloody massacre. Graphics in this game are nice and crisp and go well with the theme of the game. The game is also a good length with my second play through being about 50 minutes.

Bird Assassin does have a few problems though. The first and probably my biggest complaint is that the game starts to get repetitive. After slaying a few thousand birds it begins to feel the same. There are a few bonus mini-game type things you will find through out the game like shooting all the cans off a tree and collect as many coins as you can in a certain amount of time. But the repetitive feeling doesn't go away when you see that all three bosses are the exact same in every way. Although the shop is nice all the weapons you buy are either a faster shooting rifle or a shotgun with a larger spread which dents much of the weapon diversity. The graphics are good but some of the animation could use a little more work. Also the Map Select screen can be hard to move around.

Overall Bird Assassin is a game worth checking out. It's perfect when you just want some mindless fun. I'd recommend trying the trial if it sounds interesting to you. The game is available for 80 microsoft points and should provide enough entertainment for an hour or so.

I give Bird Assassin a 3/4.