Bird Week - Rounds 1 to 6

[tepidsnake]

Bird Week is a game that completely fascinated me the first time I played it, and I still think about it every now and then because there's not much else out there like it. Developed by Lenar, a company who also made quirky games like Mercenary Force (Game Boy) and Deadly Towers (NES), Bird Week is a simple arcade-style Famicom game released only in Japan in 1986. As a mama bird, you have to look after your chicks by feeding them butterflies you grab with your mouth, all the while avoiding other wildlife including flying squirrels, woodpeckers and hawks. 

 

What makes the game fairly unique is you'll mostly be avoiding enemies rather than fighting them- you have a mushroom to grab and hit enemies with, but moving about is much more efficient. It's most certainly flawed- the one in-game song is very short, it gets pretty hard/frustrating quickly and it's tough to even grab butterflies at times- but it's such an unusual idea for a game (I really can't think of any games where you play as a bird looking after her young beyond Flicky and arcade ultra-obscurity Birdiy) and it's kinda cute in its own way. 

Anyway, each round changes the season, so here's the first six, plus a fish-catching bonus stage.
 

 

Comments

[moon_hotel]

Ooh, thank you so much for posting about this one! I kept meaning to look it up after you mentioned it on twitter, but it conpletely slipped my mind. This is such a cute game :^)

This reminds me also that I want to do a post or essay about MELDAC games as well! Your mention of Mercenary Force reminded me of that, Heiankyo Alien and Zombie Nation too.

[tepidsnake]

Thanks! It's just one of those games that's stuck with me for whatever reason- I think I first found it via emulation based solely on the name. and yeah, something on MELDAC would be great for here, they published some really quirky stuff!