Happy Birthdays Review
Happy Birthdays
Publisher: NIS America
Developer: Arc System Works
Genre:
PEGI: RP
Comments:
I love simulation games. Animal Crossing is my all-time favorite game. I’m also a huge fan of Sim City and I even like The Sims. Well, kind of. But the simulation genre really appeals to me. So I had a feeling that I would like Happy Birthdays. But how much do I like it? And does this game appeal to non-simulation genre fans?
I was surprised to find that Happy Birthdays has an actual storyline. I didn’t think there would be a story at all when I played the demo for this game. The main mode in Happy Birthdays does have a story. Its not that great but I think its pretty cool that a storyline was included. It does give the main mode a different feel from the Challenge and Free modes. That said, Happy Birthdays is all about its gameplay. If you like the simulation genre, then you are in for a treat.
If you ever played Sim City or Civilization, then you’ll have an idea of what Happy Birthdays is. For those who have no clue about either game, let me try to explain what this game is.
In Happy Birthdays, you are presented with three different modes: the main mode, Challenge mode, and Free mode.
With the main mode, you follow the storyline of an avatar who is tasked with bringing back the human race. You do this by first taking control of one piece of land and then another. In these lands, you’ll have goals that you can reach but there’s no hurry. You will move pieces of land up into the sky and down into the water. The player is tasked with creating a world where animals and plants live and die.
In a sense, you are the God of these little worlds. You create the worlds but you don’t control the animals. The animals walk around in the world you’ve created. You can “capture” them to see what they are and get points to spend on skills that’ll help you change your world even more.
The other modes in Happy Birthdays play much like the main mode, expect they have no story. Challenge mode gives you a certain task to reach (like capturing some type of dinosaur) and Free Mode has no point other than to create a new world and watch it grow.
There is a lot of watching in this game. Happy Birthdays is the type of game that you’ll likely want to play in small doses rather than long ones.
And the controls in this game are simple and complicated at the same time. There isn’t a lot of direct interaction between you and whats going on in your world, but you can influence things with skills, speeding up time, and more. It’ll take you a bit to get use to the controls in this game. Once you get hang of it, then you’ll either be impressed with what you can do or think that the game is much too complicated or too simplistic. I guess it depends on your point of view.
Happy Birthdays is not a game for everyone. I don’t think this game will be a best seller on the Switch. I am very happy the game came to the system though because its my type of game. I think the gameplay is very good and so are the graphics!
The graphics in Happy Birthdays could be better, but for the type of game that it is, I think its the best looking world builing sim I’ve seen. In fact, when you got into first person mode in Happy Birthdays, the animals and plants look really great.
As for the game’s music, its nothing special but when its there, its not bad. The sound effects in this game are a little more pronounced and they do an excellent job.
If you are looking for a great simulation game on the Nintendo Switch, then you found one with Happy Birthdays.
Happy Birthdays isn’t for everyone. If you enjoy Simulation games such as Sim City and Civilization, then you’ll probably love Happy Birthdays. If you don’t like simulation games such as that, avoid this title. Happy Birthdays is without a doubt a niche title for the Switch. Personally, I’m very happy that the game came out on this system. I love simulation games and Happy Birthdays is a great one.
A digital code was provided for this review. Happy Birthdays for the Nintendo Switch will be out tomorrow.
Trailer
Article By Daniel Fugate
Daniel Fugate has wanted to be a writer since he was seven years old. He has a bachelor's degree in English and he's a huge Animal Crossing fan. The Wii U and 3DS are currently his favorite video game systems!
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Twitter: @df2506