I really enjoy word games. When I was younger I used to devour wordsearch books and other word puzzles. Be it wordle, arrow words, or crosswords, if there is a word puzzle around it is likely I will try and complete it. So when Birdigo came to my attention, it made sense to try it out. Billed as a game inspired by Balatro and Wordle, developers John August and Corey Martin set some high expectations, but does Birdigo meet them?
Birdigo using bird migration paths as the basis for each run. There are six different runs in total, based on different birds including Swainson’s Hawk, Arctic Tern, Ruff, Northern Wheater, Amur Falcon, and Short-Tailed Shearwater, and then there are daily challenges alongside. Each of the runs is made up of a different number of stops, with each stop having a score target to meet to move on. Fail and your run ends and it is back to the beginning.
When you start a run you can pick a different deck of letters, with many that have to be unlocked by meeting various conditions. The standard deck has no penalties on it, but other decks will have more of one letter and could also reduce the number of words you can play. Letters themselves have different levels from basic up to diamond. The higher a letter rank is the more flaps, aka points, it is worth.
These points are then multiplied by power, with this power set by the length of the word and which feathers you have equipped. Feathers offer bonuses like giving a set power addition or giving certain length words more worth than others. In addition to feathers, there are song cards which you can use to upgrade a letter’s rank, convert letters into other letters, or refill the words you can play. These can only be used once, while feathers remain active until you replace them by buying a different one in store or earning at a stop.
So, Birdigo is not all about submitting the longest word possible as if you’re on an episode of Countdown, but creating words that will maximise points with the higher level letters and powers you have. The power worth of word lengths increases every time you use a certain length five times. For example, if you submit four letter words five times, four letter words will have more power.
Birdigo is a strategy game where you are trying to maximise the worth of a word, so making sure you are following a tactic is paramount. You need to focus on the feathers that will provide the right bonuses to meet the way you want to play, but it is a lot easier said than done and progress is very slow, so much so that is can actually be quite demotivating to continue playing. For instance, the second run is 27 stops and you have to pass that to unlock the other runs. According to my in game stats, after eight hours I have completed just one migration and failed 36 after 794 words played and 265 stops.
There needs to be some rebalancing as Birdigo seems to have the same quite small collection of feathers and songs, meaning you are quite limited in creating a strategy, and putting one of the longest runs second in the order, instead of building up to it seems like an oversight.
Birdigo’s visuals are quite delightful with calm scenes showing birds nodding along as you score, and with more birds fluttering onto the screen as you make progress. The day and night cycle is great too with menu icons lighting up as the sun descends and nighttime comes. The music is very calming alongside this and does take some of the edge off from the tension as you go through a run.