Must.Eat.Birds. Review

We all get a craving for birds from time to time. Our mouth waters when we picture a plate of delicious hot turkey, chicken, or… sparrows?

OK, eating birds may not be for everyone, but we recommend Must.Eat.Birds. for even the most discerning shooter nut. It's beautiful to look at, a joy to play, and it's about as cheap as a KFC Snacker.

In this wacky, wonderful game, you play as a meatball with teeth (maybe it's a Langolier?) that has to protect precious picnic cake from parachuting birdies. You slingshot this "nomster" around with a flick of your finger, and you can also bounce him off the sides of the screen.

If you fire more than one nomster, you can stack them up on top of each other for a stronger, larger attack. It takes some precision, but you can build up your nomster to a huge size, and he'll gobble up nearly anything in his path.

With each bird you consume, you add to the multiplier combo, and for every 25 birds in a row you activate "Maximum Bake", where nomsters continue bouncing around the screen for a short period of time. If you miss any targets on the way to maximum bake, the combo resets, so accuracy definitely matters. It's also impossible to earn a sufficient high score without taking advantage of this system.

The mechanics of Must.Eat.Birds. are solid, but what makes this game a Must Have is the outrageous, over-the-top art style. Must.Eat.Birds. has an ingenious faux-Japanese aesthetic similar to the classic Mr. Sparkle commercial from the Simpsons. It's a bright, beautiful graphical style that is refreshingly original. Even the birdies have a cool look to them-- the fat ones plummet downward much faster, and the really tubby ones have a little bib on them that says "eat".

The graphics and gameplay are excellent in this game, and it's surprising you get so much original content for just a dollar. However, the mission structure is not quite ideal-- you only have nine missions, which set goals based on total points or the number of birds eaten, and these can be tough without any helpful hints from the game.

You also have an endless challenge mode, and can challenge your friends through an in-game email button, but this doesn't really do much except spread the word about this game. That's great for the developer, but not so useful for the players.

Instead of sending you an email, we'll just tell you flat out: We are adamant that you must play Must.Eat.Birds. A buck will buy you a lot in the App Store these days, but this is a shockingly creative game that deserves your attention.