Here's a link to The Infinite Cat Project: The Infinite Cat Project
5.5 mid-normal
Anyone else love mixing breakfast cereals? The other day I mixed Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch with generic bran flakes. It tasted great and as a bonus it was healthy, too. However under no circumstances should you mix Peanut Butter Crunch with Grape Nuts, except maybe as part of some sick practical joke.
Birdies, by Taboo Games, proves that there's always more to learn about baby birds. Some people know a lot about baby birds (called chicks). And some people just think they do. I know I do. In the game, you're a stork who has just been promoted from pond janitor to babysitter/nanny at a kindergarten for baby birds. The mother birds drop their chicks off and they're in your care for the day. It's up to you to keep them happy until their mothers return to pick them up. You guessed correctly. Birdies is the latest in a torrent of time management games like Diner Dash, Belle's Beauty Boutique, Little Chicken Hiccups, and the recent Nanny Mania.
Your daycare center consists of some comfy nests for the birdies to sit in, a kitchen staffed by three hummingbirds, some stumps, a few toys... and well that's about it. When the baby birds arrive with their parents, you use your giant floating ghost hand (mouse pointer) to drag the bird to an empty nest. If a nest has previously contained a girl chick, you should put only girls in that nest. Likewise for nests which previously held boy chicks. The birdies don't want to get cooties, after all. Soon the baby bird will begin asking for something. You'll see the picture balloon pop up over its head. Food, water, toys, a nap, and when its mother appears - to go home. Keep them happy and you'll get more dollars from the mothers. Making big $$$ is the name of the game in Birdies. Every day has a monetary goal that must be reached.
To feed a birdie, click on the meals sitting on the stump next to the kitchen to pick one up. (You have to have ordered the meals first by clicking on the kitchen.) In the beginning of the game your stork can carry only two items at once. Finally, click on the birdie to deliver the meal to it. The hummingbirds' specialty is turnips and what looks like a nice omelette. The baby birds love it. As you might expect, if you take too long in attending to a chick's needs, it will become unhappy and you'll get less cash from its mother.
The food plates are made of wood, and are provided free of charge by the kitchen staff. However leaves to hold water for thirsty chicks are not provided. You have to pick them up off the ground. Every now and then a leaf will fall from the tree. Pick it up and take it to the kitchen, and the staff will pour some water into it.
When a chick wants a nap, click on it and your stork will sing to it, and it will fall asleep. If only it was that easy in real life!
When the birdie's mother has returned and it's time to go home, pick up the birdie by clicking on it. Your stork will wrap it in a blanket, similar to the way it might wrap a baby delivery. Then just click on the mother to take the chick over and collect your cash. Why does the stork deliver the baby birds from the nest, but when they arrive to the nest the floating disembodied hand drags them over? Because of bad game design, that's why.
Clicking ahead to set up a chain of events is necessary if you want to advance to the later levels. The faster your stork moves, the happier the birdies will be. Sometimes a sparkling wagon wheel will appear in the kindergarten. Pick it up to temporarily increase the stork's speed. There are other powerups, such as a heart that improves the mood of one bird, or a box that allows you to carry three items instead of two.
You can use your hard-earned cash to buy improvements to the kindergarten. For example, $11,000 will buy you a strawberry field. That's pretty steep. I'd buy a huge sofa for $11,000, but not a strawberry field. If you perform your duties well, your boss will assign you to bigger and better kindergartens, and you'll get to take care of new species of birds. If that's not an incentive to take money from mother birds, I don't know what is.
The graphics in Birdies are simple, and almost but not quite too realistic to be cute. The tune that repeats again and again at the kindergarten won't drive you crazy, but you won't be tapping your toes, either. Most likely you'll become bored. Because feeding, watering, and lullabying baby birds is only fun for so long. Everyone has their limit. What's yours?