Bird Assassin

Xbox Live Indie Trial Game – Bird Assassin

Bird Assassin is a 2D shooter were shooting birds in the name of “Pa” is paramount. Developed and published by Social Loner Studios for the Xbox 360 via XBLIG. Your probably wondering who Pa is. Well Pa is the reason you become a bird assassin in Bird Assassin (pun clearly intended). Birds killed your Pa and you must avenge his last dieing wish. This game has a clear comedic vibe to it so don’t take non of the latter seriously.

One of the immediate things I noticed about Bird Assassin was its clearly polished artstyle. Its true this game has gore and blood with a comedic atmosphere. I played the tutorial level first. The tutorial level was pretty good. It teaches you how to aim and shoot at flying birds and walking birds of various kinds. You learn about Golden Birds as well. The controls via Xbox 360 gamepad: A-jump, RS-aim/shoot and LT-jump. The controls were awkward in the beginning but as the minutes went by they became more natural. Light platforming was involved such as jumping over dangerous objects. It also teaches you how to avoid ground vines, bear traps and thorned bushes. The tutorial further explores mushrooms and your health jug which are used to refill your health meter that is tucked in the top left of the screen.

When you reach the end of each 2D level you see the protagonist’s pick-up truck. The pick-up signals the end of the level once you touch it. Bird Assassin features a world map of the area and level path you must travel. Among other things is the Gun Mart at the top of the map. At the Gun Mart you can spend all those goid coins the birds dropped when you killed them. You can buy more powerful guns such as the Mimigun $20,000, Shotgun $2,000 and Assault Rifle 4,000. I purchased a Heavy Rifle $500 which was better than the default Rifle you start the trial with.

Bird Assassin is about killing birds and there are plenty to assassinate such as hens, turkeys, chickens, ostriches and owls. Some birds take more shots such as the flying ducks but drop more coins as a bonus. You can access bonus stages in Bird Assassin when you touch special objects on levels. One bonus stage armed you with a mini-gun and thousands of birds to kill on screen (with a set time limit). The other bonus stages i played had hundreds of gold coins on screen, some big some small. At the end of the second stage (not tutorial level) a bird steals your pick-up in which a 2D side scrolling “run for life” gameplay scene ensues. At the end the bird ran me over with my own truck and the demo ends.

At the end of each level your scored on your performance. You’re scored on Money Earned, Bonus Money, Total Money and Birds Assassinated. When you actually start shooting birds and playing this good-looking 2D shooter you realize its a decent indie game. The cutscenes flesh out the funny story and the sound design featured funny dialog. I enjoyed my time with Bird Assassin. Give it a whirl if you own a Xbox 360.