Happy Birthdays Demo Impressions

As I do anymore, I decided to check the Japanese Nintendo Switch eshop and see if there was a new demo to download. And I found a demo called Happy Birthdays right away. I knew it was a simulation game and that NIS America is going to bring it to the United States this year. I thought it would be an interesting download, even if it was all in Japanese. Then I actually played it on my United States profile and found that…the demo is completely in English??! My mind was blown. I started playing the demo. So what exactly is Happy Birthdays? Do I like the demo? Should you download it? Read on to discover my impressions of the Happy Birthdays demo for Nintendo Switch!

Happy Birthdays is a simulation game that NIS America will be publishing in the United States in June. North America may eventually get this demo. As of this writing, the demo is only available on the Japanese eshop, however if you play the demo under your English account the game will be in English! So what kind of simulation game is this anyway?

In the Happy Birthdays demo, you choose one of four different environments at the start: Grass, Block, Sand, and Snow. Once you start the demo, you find a game that is very similar to Sim City or Actraiser (without the platforming element). Basically you are the creator of a tiny world. In that world, plants and animals will grow, change, die off, and new ones will appear. As the creator, you can make more land in your world, more sea, or shape the world in other ways too.

The player has no real control over what creatures will pop in your world or when they evolve or die. You can zoom out from your world, pausing time or speeding it up. There is a capture element to the game that’ll give you more information about the creatures that are growing in your world. And one of my favorite things of all in this demo: you can go into a first mode and get an up close and personal look at your world. This is really great for taking pictures of the animals that appear!

The Happy Birthdays demo is at once a very complex game and also a very simple game. There are a bunch of things you can do with your world and yet you will also find yourself just watching your world a lot and seeing it grow. If you don’t like games like Sim City or Actraiser or any of the other “God” simulators, then you won’t like Happy Birthdays.

I’m a big fan of simulation games. I like Sim City and other games like that. I think the Happy Birthdays demo is really neat. I’m hoping to review the whole game when it comes out. I’m sure there will be even more content to the actual game.

So if you are a fan of simulation games, then you should start a Japanese Nintendo Switch eshop account. Its very easy. The Happy Birthdays demo is a must download for sim fans!