Bluebird is another well presented, casual game from NimbleBit - a small indie developer who has impressed us with their previous games. You take on the role of a tiny bluebird, who has to maintain it's altitude by avoiding blackbirds & storm clouds - whilst chomping down bugs to keep it's strength high.

Controls are easy to pick up - all you must do is tap either side of the iPhone's screen to fly towards that side (you don't control the vertical, only the horizontal movement - although each flap lifts you slightly). When you fall off the screen then your best flight will be recorded, along with the total wing flaps and total distance covered for the statistics page.

That's literally all there is to the game. Two varieties of enemies (one being a monochrome version of your own bird) and a single objective. Now normally we wouldn't have a problem with this, especially for the low price NimbleBit are asking for - but this game really does pale in comparison to their other titles - it's truly lacking in features and feels more like a prototype or early demo version. Worse, you realise that the bugs are not enough to sustain your bird's flight, and before you know it, you've sapped the poor creature of energy and so it plummets to the floor.

Not that these guys haven't tried, because the presentation is still good. A gentle, soft piano lullaby plays all the while that you are flying, accompanied by some great sounding effects like the 'caw caw' of the blackbird, or the thunderous storm clouds. Online scoring is absent, as is save state (we don't expect it here given the game's short length), but NimbleBit are promising Twitter integration in the next update. iPod soundtrack is supported.

For us, that's not enough. The core gameplay is as shallow as an empty bath tub - to fix it, tweaking the energy received would go a long way, as would adding various other obstacles that you had to fly around or through, and possibly more varieties of scenery. In closing, this is the developer's weakest attempt yet - it's not a bad game as it stands, just not a very good one. Without online scoring incentive or any other feature that have made their games distinctive, Bluebird only just comes up above average.

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More by this developer

Dizzypad, C

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Fishtropolis, C

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Moon Drop, B

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Sky Burger, A

Review by Ben Briggs, April 21, 2009

Textropolis, B

Review by Ben Briggs, March 11, 2009

Scoops, B

Review by Ben Briggs, January 15, 2009

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