30 Birds Review

thesixthaxis.com:

30 Birds is art. A unique piece that uses rotating lanterns to blur the line between 2D and 3D perspectives, and filling these lanterns with a vibrant city stuffed with quests and mini games. 30 Birds is a narrative puzzle game in which a goddess has been kidnapped, and the only way to save her is to round up 30 of her feathery friends that are dotted around the magical Lantern City.

30 Birds’ inspiration can be found in Persian art and mythology. The artwork of the lanterns, which are bright, colourful, and feature unique looking characters, are based upon Persian miniatures. The goddess at the heart of kidnapping is Simurgh, based upon a bird of the same name from Persian mythology. Within the world of Lantern City there are some mischievous djinns, and puzzles that require music to solve them.

The person to solve the mystery of Simurgh’s kidnapping is Zig, a detective. She arrives in Lantern City on the night of Simurgh’s disappearance after getting a mystical message from one of her informants. She quickly comes to understand that The Scientist is behind the kidnapping of Simurgh, and the only way to save Simurgh is to find the 30 Birds, who have their own problems that need sorting out.  Take Hoop for example. Hoop is the first bird you are required to rescue after she gets locked in a cage due to gambling debts. To rescue Hoop, you need to match a pattern design, manipulating lines so they represent the puzzle. It is a bit like using an etch-a-sketch and can be just as finicky. This is just one puzzle type in 30 Birds. Others include animal based musical synthesizers from which you need to get a melody going. The puzzles themselves are generally pretty easy to solve, it is just using the controller and lining things to be near perfect can take a bit of patience.

After you rescue Hoop, 30 Birds really begins as you begin the quest to find the other 29. Now, that does not mean there are 29 individual quests to complete to find each one, as some birds are in pairs