For many reasons, I cannot write any specific obscene words here, but I can only roughly imagine my feelings on this matter. Birdcagedamn anime, “Sword Action” shooting game,” it would be something like, “This game is so damn disgusting, like, what the hell, how the hell can one game be so damn stylish.” I'm sure you can fill in the blanks on what words I'd like to use there, but if you'll allow me, I'd also like to take the time to talk about why Birdcage rules so much.
Birdcage is a new game from Polygon Bird Games featuring just two people: Yiannis Milonogiannis, a comic book artist who has worked with big dogs like DC and Marvel, and Barry Topping, a composer Paradise Killer. Milonogiannis is behind the entire art of the game, which is just the perfect blend of moods and influences, clearly expressed in the recently released demo (warning of large flashing lights).
Inspired by '90s arcade games, Birdcage's opening cutscenes are as sparse but enticing as the best of them. You are the pilot of a ship called the Halykon with one goal: to destroy a new type of weapon that will “end the reign of Earth and create a new universe, the World Egg.” It's presented to you in single-screen scenes with art reminiscent of the best JRPG classics—think sketchier, more pixelated art cover of Breath of Fire 4.
This is the type of game you'd imagine getting a straight-to-VHS OVA adaptation, which now costs $300 and wasn't released in high quality, so your only way to watch it is a crappy rip uploaded to the Internet Archive. The story in the demo is minimal, with apparently only six stages, but the restraint shown makes me curious for more, better storytelling.
With your ship, you have several combat options. You can fire bullets that do less damage but hit more enemies, or you can concentrate them to deal more damage, but the trade-off is that you move slower (which turns into a boon in levels with more bullets). This ship also has a sword, a tip that controls an incredible amount that can destroy certain types of bullets, which can be swung to damage certain ships, or shot at the enemy. It's all basically simple, but damn complicated. You only have three health and a limited number of lives, so dodging every bullet is a lot more stressful than you think.
On top of that, there's an arcade mode, which is just a story mode with no story and a score attack where enemies spawn endlessly over a set time limit while you try to score some points. A true classic arcade game.
You can try the demo version yourself at Steam right now or, alternatively, you can wait until November 18th to get the full version.