Plenty of games have been made with bird protagonists: Angry Birds, Banjo Kazooie, Animal Crossing and the Star Fox series just to name a few. Never before have I seen a robotic flamingo take on other avian robots to save the world. Featherpunk Prime is a twin-stick shooter/platformer hybrid created by Super Hatch Games that puts you in the role of the Cyber-Flamingo, trying to save the other flamingos from the Cybirdroid Corporation.
In Featherpunk Prime, your brethren have been kidnapped by the evil Cybirdroid Corporation! You play as Cyber-Flamingo as he traverses the tower of the Cybirdroid Corporation, taking on an army of avian warbots to try and save the flamingos. Every time you play through Featherpunk Prime, the tower’s layout is different. Not only that but as you traverse each floor, you get a new weapon to add to your arsenal. Cybirdroid bosses also stand in your way on each floor and destroying them will give you incredible upgrades to enhance your skills.
The game plays like a standard twin-stick shooter and is designed with a gamepad in mind. However, it has been fully equipped to be playable with mouse and keyboard as well, so any variety of gamer can feel right at home with the tight controls. Immediately, you are immersed into a cyberpunk environment with catchy techno-style music playing as you progress through the tower. Featherpunk Prime is no walk in the park and becomes more difficult and intense as you progress. The upgrades and enhancements you get can offset this to some degree, and you easily become more comfortable with the controls as well.
It is immediately clear in playing Featherpunk Prime that they have put more thought into the platforming than other games in the genre. There is wall clinging, wall jumping, dashing, double (and triple) jumping, and all sorts of other fun mechanics to make navigating more satisfying. At first, only ballistics weapons are available, but as you progress explosive weapons are provided to you as well.
Killing enemies provide Tekcells which are used to upgrade the Cyber-Flamingo. If you are killed in the tower, you will respawn at the bottom floor; however, checkpoints do exist, and if you unlock a checkpoint you can begin your trek up the tower from that last checkpoint. Death is pretty much inevitable, but with the upgrade system in place, most of the deaths aren’t unfair. This is where Featherpunk Prime becomes highly addictive. Every time you die it urges you to try again, and as you progress, there is a sense of satisfaction in place that only comes from the next hard-won victory.
I can honestly only compare Featherpunk Prime to a more platforming-optimized, better balanced Rogue Legacy. Sure Featherpunk Prime isn’t quite so frustrating as Rogue Legacy, but it is the same sort of experience and offers the same thrill of achievement. Unique to Featherpunk Prime, you can find data spheres which provide you with exclusive art related to each sector’s enemies. A small touch like this helps to add depth to a game that otherwise really doesn’t have much storyline to it. The storyline is there throughout Featherpunk Prime but is more used to give you a reason to go forward, rather than being a measurable narrative.
Featherpunk Prime is insanely fun and addictive, but there honestly isn’t much variation in gameplay (though there really doesn’t need to be). First, you explore through floors of enemies, attempting to reach the boss. Each boss at the end of each sector provides a frantic, brutal fight for you to overcome. These are intense, incredibly fun tests of your skill and testament to how well you have prepared along the way. I cannot express how enjoyable and satisfying the boss fights are. With that being said, however, if you are unprepared for it, it can truly kill a run and make things frustratingly hard. This does circle back to the satisfying progression system they have in place though, so you could argue that trial and error is part of the point of the game. There is a lack of diversity in the environments, as other than changing color schemes things begin to quickly look the same. On top of all of that, there are atrocious loading screens that sometimes can be long and annoying.
Despite the few issues it has, if you want to dive into a fun rogue-like, twin-stick shooting platformer, then Featherpunk Prime is definitely a game that should be on your radar. It also lacks the adult themes of games like The Binding of Isaac, so kids and adults can both enjoy it. If you like things like Rogue Legacy, but don’t necessarily want to break your gamepad (or keyboard) in frustration then Featherpunk Prime is a great substitute.