It’s not everyday you get to play a game that has no enemies, no boss fights and no objectives. The team at Australia based Samurai Punk set out to do exactly that. “Feather” puts you in control of a bird, flying around a deserted island. As stated there are no enemies or objectives other than….fly.
Controling the bird is incredilby rewarding. If you’ve flown in any other game you’ll be an ace. I was quickly flapping through the island, dive bombing ravines and through the trees. The control scheme makes it easy to stop and flip around, do barrel rolls or swoop down and take a better look at what you’re doing. There is also a button to tweet which I took full advantage of (CAW CAW CAW CAW)
Throughout the island are glowing cirlces that change the soundtrack song as you play. Each track is beautifully composed by Mitchell Pasmans, and is a character in itself. It creates an atmosphere that no stage design can as you discover different things about the island. Also as you fly you can go through glowing triangles to morph into a different bird (my favorite being the black bird CAW CAW CAW).
There are different portions of the island that I enjoyed more than others, again flying right above the creek that flows through the island, at one point a circular door opens for you to fly through which teleports you to far far above the island. The resulting dive bomb felt incredibly satisfying as you go through a cloud, cutting a hole through it. As you discover more and more on the island and become more and more birds (remember the black bird is the best), you find yourself becoming more and more relaxed. Even if you do run into something, the result is pleasant. You essentially rewind with flight marks to show you where to change course.
There is a secret in the middle of the island which I highly recommend flying to, because that is quite possibly my favorite level design. The graphics aren’t anything worthy of next gen, but the stylization is very nice. It doesn’t take anything away from the gameplay, and is still striking enough to get your significant other to stop as they walk through the living room. All in all “Feather” is by far one of the most innovative and interesting titles I’ve played this year.
Graphics: 8/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Black Bird: 100/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Over All: 9/10 Must Play
Available on Switch, Steam now and on PS4 and XBO On Sept 30th!
FrankenCulture 