Upon graceful wings, The King’s Bird unleashes your agile hero across challenging gauntlets, combining fast-paced platforming with a wordless narrative. Through skillful traversal, you attempt to escape a ruined world held in a tyrant’s iron grip, running, leaping, and flying through increasingly dangerous worlds.
Reminiscent of the smooth navigation of Dustforce, The King’s Bird is all about momentum, its stages filled with exactly-placed ramps and slopes that let you maintain speed and dive into graceful arcs with precision. Using a combination of wall-running and your flight ability, your clumsy traversal in early stages soon evolves into zen-like flow, as you attempt to reach the exit or seek out collectible birds hidden throughout each level.
The stages in The King’s Bird are large, not limited to a single screen but stretching across rooms, letting you find the best paths through the corridors and open spaces. Beyond the movement, it’s the colorful vibrant aesthetic of these areas that enhance the game’s platforming, your blinding trail tracing your character through the bright hues of worlds inspired by Mayan, Roman, and Southeast Asian cultures.
The King’s Bird is available for $ 19.99 on Steam; you can visit developer Serenity Forge’s site for more details on the game, as well as their Twitter and Facebook pages.