Thanks to Teyon for the review code

Title: Bird Mania Party
System: Wii U (eShop)
Price: $1.99
Release date: 03/17/2016

The main game/story

Essentially an expanded version of the 3DS eShop title, the story is exactly the same as the portable version, in that you must guide a bird named Mojo to Africa on an endless journey. Now with multiplayer!

Graphics

The visuals and menus are exactly the same as the original Bird Mania, with a bright background and character designs. Outside of a gradually changing day-night cycle and a few enemies, there’s not much in terms of variety. Just lots of green trees as far as the eye can see.

Music and Sound

Every song from the 3DS Bird Mania is intact, which pretty much means that you’re still stuck with two themes, a tropical themed song for the menus and a rather unfitting melody for the main game. Outside of brief sound effects, there’s really not much to talk about except for the fact that it’s a bit disappointing that the developers didn’t in add any new themes for the game to add more variety.

Gameplay

For those unaware of how the original Bird Mania played, well it’s essentially an endless runner that takes place in the air. Using either the controller or the stylus, you guide Mojo (the blue bird) around a variety of obstacles, doing your best to chain multipliers with balloons and enemies to get the highest score. It’s a rather simple yet fun concept, and the Wii U version even gets online leaderboards, which is a nice incentive to try again for a higher score. The reason why the word party is in the title, however comes from the brand new local multiplayer modes! There’s one where you and up to five friends can compete for the highest score, and a Co-Op mode where you essentially “pass the flag” to the other player, working together to get a high score. While the free-for-all isn’t anything to write home about unless you have four or five players, my friend and I found the co-op to be surprisingly a lot of fun, and even the co-op scores have their own online leaderboard!

Conclusion

In conclusion, Bird Mania Party could be easily summed up as the “DX” version of Bird Mania, retaining the same price as the portable counterpart, but with minor touches like multiplayer and online leaderboards to sweeten the deal. If you are a high score addict and have a friend or two around, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick the game up consider its low price point. For solo players however, you likely won’t be playing this one for long considering how once you spend a bit of time playing the single player, you’ll pretty much reach your own personal cap and will struggle to go further.

I give Bird Mania party a 6 out of 10, and strongly recommend it to those who love high score games and have a few friends around in the house! For solo players however, be sure this sort of game is something you don’t mind playing before you buy it.