Songbird Symphony Review

Rhythm games are a rare commodity in the gaming world now-a-days and it’s even rarer to find one that sticks with you even after the game is long done. Songbird Symphony from Joysteak Studios and publisher PQube Limited is definitely one of those games thanks to its heart warming story, captivating rhythm battles and beautiful 2D graphics and animations.

Songbird Symphony stars Birb, an orphan chick who is raised by his adopted Peacock father. While his adopted family cares for Birb, the rest of the Peacocks talk about him behind his back and question his purpose in their flock, making Birb feel left out and to seek the wisdom of the Owl to learn of his real parents.

This comes to the realization that Birb is a Songbird, an almost extinct type of bird who can learn musical notes from other birds in the forest. Owl agrees to help Birb if he can learn all of the available notes from the birds of the forest.

In order to complete this task, Birb must travel around the forest and help a variety of birds via the power of song. These rhythm battles are the real challenge to Songbird Symphony and are expertly done with songs getting on-screen lyrics and a challenging mini-game designed to test your rhythm.

The challenges are easy enough at first, with one or two notes coming at you in a similar fashion to Parappa the Rapper, requesting you to repeat a set of lyrics via whistles, but as the game progresses the difficulty curve amps up and the style of minigame changes from a mixture of Elite Beat Agents, Persona Dancing All Night and DJ Max, among others.

The game throws in more notes as you progress in the game’s story which along with the style switch up, helps to throw you into a loop with attempting to match the game’s speed and commands. The challenges are fun and can be easy if you’re paying attention, but it never feels like you’re overly punished for failing a beat. I found it difficult to fail despite missing what I believed was half of the notes in the song, and still got a passable rating.

Aside from the music battles, the game does feature a great platforming element allowing you to explore and attempting to bring the environment to life by collecting music notes. These are small optional puzzles which when solved creates an additional instrumental track to the level’s music and provide you with a way to unlock blocked areas later in the game.

On top of this, the platforming elements are very easy to control and get used to so it’s never a problem when it comes to even more trickier tasks that you’ll need to accomplish. The only complaint I’ve had in regards to the platforming is how sensitive platforms requiring notes can be as you absolutely must play the note at the exact time as it shows on the platform or it will not move.

Songbird Symphony is easily one of the most adorable games I’ve played in recent history, everything from the various birds’ animation and design, to the background and level design. Of course Birb and Eggbert (a Chicken Egg that follows you around to help with some platform puzzles) are the the highlight of this, and are just lovable mascots for the game.

Aside from some slight frustration in the game’s difficulty curve, it’s hard not to find something to love about Songbird Symphony. Catchy musical numbers, lovable main characters, and a charming world that reminds me of a classic Disney movie creates something unique for the genre and something that anybody can enjoy.