Ruffled: Feathers Rising Review

Monday, September 12, 2011

Ruffled: Feathers Rising Review

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Ruffled: Feathers Rising Review

By Jason Wadsworth on September 12th, 2011
Our Rating:

:: BIRDBRAINED
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

A feathered environmental crusader flaps around excreting vengeance on humankind. Unfortunately, the experience is unfocused.

Developer: Pixelloop, LLC

Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.00.01
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 3GS

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars

Humans have been abusing the environment and tearing down animal habitats and ecosystems to make room for their ceaseless expansion for too long, and one bird has finally had enough. What will this bird do to fight back against humankind? He’s going to poop on them of course. What else is one little bird going to do?

It’s an interesting premise to control a revenge-bent bird and fly it around dropping excrement on the humans who have destroyed his home. There is a real opportunity here for the player to feel something for the bird, but other than a quick comic book intro to the game, there is no mention of the bird’s motivation or situation. Now it may seem silly to be nitpicking about something like the plot in a simple iOS game, but without some kind of plot or characterization, Ruffled: Feathers Rising really doesn’t have much going for it.

Aside from the intro, there is no real motivation in the game that makes the player really want to poop on anything. As the bird flies around the environments, the player can see the humans walking about randomly, but they aren’t doing anything particularly evil and it just seems pointless to attack them for walking around in circles. What’s more, when the humans (or cars or whatever) get pooped on, they don’t react at all. They just continue walking as if nothing happened. Some revenge that is, they don’t even care that they’ve been sullied in the name of environmentalism.

The game’s controls aren’t very easy to figure out, either. One half of the screen controls the flight of the bird and a tap on the other half of the screen controls (there is no polite way to say this) bird’s bowels. These controls aren’t apparent at the outset and since there are no tutorials or instructions, the player is left to figure this out on their own. The same goes for the game’s scoring and mechanics. It seems like pooping on different targets awards points and players must score as many points as possible before a time limit runs out. However, targets that award points aren’t distinguished in any way from those that award no points. There are also coins and hoops hanging around randomly in the skies. Flying through the hoops awards extra time but it is unclear what the coins are for.

The game has several different environments including the suburbs, downtown, and a college campus. Still the variety doesn’t add much to the game. Flying around and pooping gets old quick and the gameplay just isn’t very engaging enough. Players are probably better off just flapping right by this one.