Birthdays the Beginning

Even though certain design elements aren’t as streamlined, fleshed-out, or user-friendly as they could have been, part of me is just thankful Birthdays even got greenlit. Niche as it might be, I’ve wanted something like this for years, and despite my admittedly high expectations, I still came away impressed. I hope the game is able to find an audience, because it so clearly deserves one.

Raise mountains! Cleave seas from the barren earth! Cultivate dinosaurs and woolly mammoths! Birthdays The Beginning lets you play God like no other game has since Populous, but is it any good? Find out more in our review.

I’m tempted to describe the entirety of Birthdays the Beginning as ‘bittersweet’, actually; it’s equal parts massively addictive yet horrendously frustrating, but it somehow manages to always provide an enjoyable challenge. Despite the exasperation that comes with seeing a species become extinct, the game never feels impossible, and when you do reach your goals it’s pretty satisfying. It’s just a shame several minor issues hold it back from being more than just “good”. Whether it’s trying to find a lost save, figuring out an unclear objective or to getting to grips with the controls, it feels ...

Despite the many obvious flaws there’s a mesmerising quality to the game’s artificial worlds, as the gameplay itself creates a surprisingly palatable form of edutainment.

Birthdays the Beginning begs to be enjoyed by a particular gamer, which could hold it back from non-simulation fans to give it a try. I would have enjoyed more interaction between me and my organisms, but the game draws the line of interaction with the world to merely altering the land. With that said, the systems introduced in the game work well for a game that is supposed to the "beginning" of a much larger idea. I'm excited to see where the series goes moving forward as well as the incredible environments that are sure to come from the community.

Birthday blues.

Birthdays is a fantastic idea on paper, but suffers from some very poor execution that hinders the overall experience.

Birthdays the Beginning is the brainchild of Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada, but it has little in common with the laid-back farming simulations. Instead of finding your own place in a community and reviving an ailing farm, your ambitions are far grander: raising mountains and filling oceans, while guiding the shape of life in a fledgling ecosystem. Rather than worrying about who to romance, your concerns include the extinction of entire lifeforms. While the stakes may seem high, Birthday’s fussy moment-to-moment interactions are an evolutionary step backward.

In the end, that’s maybe the biggest problem with Birthdays the Beginning: It often feels more like a thing to do rather than a game to play. While I loved the cute aesthetic and simplicity of its mechanics, the game gave way to tediousness and dullness far too often for such grand subject matter. It felt nice slipping into grade school nostalgia for a few hours, but I’m not in fourth grade anymore. A thing to do isn’t enough anymore.

Do you remember when Spore came out? Months of hype  followed by a resounding, world-wide “meh”.  God games have a tendency to seem really good in the premise, but are found to be really lacking in the execution.  Some can break the mold and be enjoyable however (see any Sim City game pre-2012). Unfortunately, Birthdays the Beginning falls into the former.