Feather

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Title: Feather
Developer: Samurai Punk
Publisher: Samurai Punk
Website: https://samuraipunk.com/feather
Genre: Adventure, Simulation, Other
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Audience: E – Everyone
Release Date: Out Now
Price: £8.09 – Rapid Reviews UK were very kindly provided with a review code for this title by @nicholasmc1.

What the Developers say

A serene game about the joy of flight.

Fly like a Bird.

Feather is a peaceful game about immersing yourself in a beautiful island. Become a bird, fly around and lose yourself in zen-like flow whilst listening to the soothing ambient soundtrack. With responsive and fluid flight controls to swoop, glide, backflip and roll your way around the island. Relaxing Ambient Gameplay No enemies, no combat, no threats, just peaceful flight by yourself or with other birds. Passive multiplayer allows you to join a flock and discover the world with others. Explore a vast open world and find new songs which can be found around the surroundings. Each element of the island responds to your presence with a hum, tone and rhythm to connect you to the world.

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/feather-switch/

Introduction

Feather is a bird flight simulator where you fly around a tranquil island, listening to a soothing, ambient soundtrack while you barrel roll, dive and fly with other players in fascinating passive, online experience. Is it an experience worth investing in? Find out with our Rapid Review of Feather on the Nintendo Switch.

Audio and Visual

The audio in ‘Feather’ is a relaxing mix of nine ambient soundtracks which are scattered around the large island. Each one is lovingly crafted and draws you into the experience of flying above the clouds as a bird.  Although it would be expected, each song doesn’t cycle from one to the other during play, instead, you’ll have to find special gates that are located all over the island.  Some of these may even be located underground within the caves of the islands underbelly. All you need to do is simply fly through them to activate a new song.

Visually, ‘Feather’ offers a very unique look which is challenging to explain. It is not incredibly detailed but quite stylised, and both the audio and visual, when combined, work well within the nature of the title. It brings together a relaxing and atmospheric world where you simply fly across a beautiful, tranquil space without the hassle of completing either objectives or quests. It is best to just take flight and not worry about anything else.

Gameplay and Replayability

There is a strong focus on the core mechanics of flight in the gameplay of ‘Feather’. There are no needless quests or time limits here: you are completely free to soar, dive, barrel, roll, flop and fly freely without interruption. 

The world around you changes, much like the real world, with its day to night cycle immersing you into its experience and it all works extremely well. Offering the ability to fly around the island is quite breathtaking at times, especially during sunsets or diving from high altitudes – who hasn’t wondered at least once in their lifetime what it must be like to simply take off and fly among the clouds as a bird. In ‘Feather’, you can live out that dream while listening to relaxing melodies that will soothe your heart and soul. It is a great title to relax to after a hard days work or a trip home on the bus. Just pop some headphones on and get lost within the world for a few moments. 

The island has its own secrets to discover during your time in flight, like passageways leading to an underground cave system where more songs can be discovered.  As well as this, you can fly through different objects on the island such as fruit which is attached to trees near the coast, or wind chimes that are hanging near old ruins and you will hear little notes play as you pass through  them.

Its little details that make this game enjoyable to play.  Seeing your bird pull its wings back while diving, gaining speed as it plummets towards the ground only to pull up at last second, and watching dust, leaves rip from the ground as you narrowly miss it! It can truly be thrilling to experience this type of freedom. There are also portals hidden around island too. These can teleport you above the island and even above clouds, allowing you to see the world from a completely different perspective.

You’re not alone though as ‘Feather’ has a passive online mechanic where other players can join your world.  Hearing a tweet in the distance is a sign you’re not alone.  You can call back with the tap of the Y button and before you know it, you’ll see a trail of other birds flying about.

There is something exhilarating about following an unknown player as they dive and barrel-roll around the island.  While communication is boiled down to simple tweets, it works surprisingly well.  Using this ability allows you to find others quite quickly and you’ll soon be flying as a flock around this picturesque island together. Controlling the bird is really easy to do as a brief tutorial will show you what you can achieve. You move with the left analog stick, spin the camera with the right analog stick and use your ‘Tweet’ ability with a press of the Y button. There’s also other moves like barrel rolls, flipping and speed boasts.

Most people will enjoy relaxing nature of this flight simulator. 

There are no missions, races or other birds to pick from and no unlockable content… what you see is what you get.  But I really can’t say anything too harsh about this title as does exactly what it says on the tin.

I had a fantastic experience during my first few hours with ‘Feather’. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck while I was: diving through the clouds and came out of the other side only to witness a gorgeous sunset in the distance, or seeing two other players fly past me and in that moment, there was real sense of complete freedom which I found quite profound. Real indie games can activate that type of response from its players and think Feather achieves that well.

Conclusion

If you are looking for game to unwind with after a hard days work or you want to free fly without restraints and objective-based mechanics then consider buying ‘Feather’. Flying as a flock with others in this passive online multiplayer world can be thrilling, yet I cannot deny that I’ve really enjoyed playing ‘Feather’ even though it hasn’t got any additional modes to speak of. The relaxing nature of simply flying around is enough to warrant having this unique simulator on your Nintendo Switch console.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase Feather on the Nintendo eShop at the following link: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/feather-switch/