captkevman

I am a hopeless gamer.

I’m not talking about a die-hard World of Warcraft hermit or a gung-ho First-Person Shooter sniper (although I have been both in the past). I’m a husband, a father, and a business owner, so unfortunately, I don’t have time for extended gaming like I used to.

But thanks to the explosion of casual gaming brought on by the mobile market (particularly Apple’s iPhone/iPod/iPad App Store), I still “get my game on” quite a bit in much shorter sessions that are far less distracting than, say, a weekend-long WoW bender (“It’s 4 a.m. already?!”).

Two of my favorite games over the past several months have been bird-themed. Of course, anyone not living under a boulder over the past year already knows about Rovio’s behemoth Angry Birds and its variants. Like millions of others, I’ve enjoyed the game, and my kids have, too (they were thrilled when they finally saw it in 24-inch glory on our iMac). More recently, I’ve found Tiny Wings, a very simple, yet beautiful game for the iPhone.

Although visually similar (they’re both based on very simplified cartoon versions of birds), Angry Birds and Tiny Wings come from two different philosophies. The Birds are Angry because the mean Green Pigs have stolen their eggs; they want to get their eggs back, and in order to do so, they must destroy the offending pigs. So there’s some hostility there. And some violence, since the pigs’ homes must be destroyed to free the captive eggs.

Tiny Wings is a tale of hope and determination. Its hero is a ball-shaped rooster who can’t really fly due to his…erm…inadequacies. Fortunately, he lives among some very hilly islands that complement his round belly rather well, and he utilizes them together to surf the crests and valleys like a champion skateboarder, trying to maintain as much airtime as possible and go as far as he can. His only enemy is daylight, and he must get as far as he can before the sun sets.

Angry Birds is known for its physics-based gameplay (different birds behave as different types of projectile weapons, while different building materials used by the pigs react differently to what is thrown at them), but its complexity is wrapped inside a very simple, very appealing cartoon presentation.

Tiny Wings is remarkable in that it only has one control: tap the screen to have the rooster “ball up” and fall faster. But timing is key here. Fall at the wrong time, and you can get stopped dead in your tracks, wasting precious sunlight and progress trying to accelerate again. It’s also remarkable in that it seems to be the work of a sole creator, who created the art, music, sounds, and code for the game. Impressive.

There are plenty of other games out there, probably even a few others with birds. But these are a couple of games that have kept me interested and playing, and they’re great examples that it just takes a simple idea with a bit of polish to appeal to a wide audience.