Bird & Beans

Genre: Compilation / Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Bird & Beans, also known by the name Pyoro (the name of the birdlike main character), actually started its life as a pair of unlockable minigames in WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$ on the Game Boy Advance in 2003. In 2009, these minigames (Pyoro and Pyoro 2) were repackaged on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service under the title Bird & Beans, which was later grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when the Nintendo 3DS released.

Both Pyoro and Pyoro 2 are family-friendly Arcade-style games that have players controlling Pyoro as he moves left and right on a single screen. In Pyoro (redubbed “Birds & Beans” in the game’s menus), Pyoro must use his frog-like stretchy tongue to gobble up seeds floating down before they reach the ground, with players getting more points the higher up they intercept the seed. Seeds that reach the floor, on the other hand, will destroy that block of flooring, making it impassable for Pyoro. Occasionally, there will be white and pink seeds which repair these broken sections of flooring when swallowed, and eventually flashing seeds which repair multiple sections of flooring and clear the screen. Players lose the game when one of the seeds falls on Pyoro’s head.

When players beat the default high score in Birds and Beans, they unlock Birds & Beans 2 (a renamed Pyoro 2), which works similarly, but instead of Pyoro using a stretchy tongue to swallow the seeds, he instead spits to shoot them out of the sky. This game is a bit easier to play, but it’s harder to get a high score.

Both of these games are extremely simple, yet have a surprisingly addictive quality to them that you tend to look for in a really good Arcade-style game. This is a superb little time-killer, and the inclusion of both Pyoro games for only $2 makes this a pretty good bargain.

The presentation here is really appealing too, with some colorful pixel art 2D graphics, with some nice little bits of animation for the seeds falling down. These are joined by a lighthearted but forgettable soundtrack, and some really good use of stereo sound as Pyoro’s actions fade from left to right or vice versa as he moves in either direction.

When it comes to downsides, there are two that I can note here. First, know that this is a very simple pair of games. When you’ve played each of the two included games for a few minutes, you pretty much have an idea of how they’ll play overall. And second, if you’re one of the Nintendo 3DS owners who was an early adopter and thus became a part of the “Ambassador Program”, there’s little reason for you to buy this game, as the Ambassador Program includes WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$, meaning that once you unlock them you can already play these games on your Nintendo 3DS without spending a penny more.

However, Ambassadors aside, Bird & Beans is a wonderful little one-two punch of simple Arcade-style goodness that may not be very deep, but I think it’s well worth the tiny $2 price tag. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and fun game to kill time on your Nintendo 3DS, this is an easy recommendation to make.

tl;dr – Bird & Beans is a Compilation that includes the simple Arcade-style games Pyoro and Pyoro 2 (redubbed Bird & Beans and Bird & Beans 2 here), first introduced in the original WarioWare game. While these are both extremely simple games, they are nevertheless surprisingly catchy, and the tiny $2 price tag makes this a great choice for players looking for a simple time-waster on the Nintendo 3DS.

Grade: B-

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