We originally reviewed Birthdays the Beginning on the PS4 and found it to be a flawed, but fun experience. The rebranded Switch version comes bundled with DLC, more creatures, and some gameplay enhancements.
Educational and fun sandbox game that encourages you to create and sustain life
Keeping various species alive requires a lot of micromanagement
When I started to play Happy Birthdays it immediately reminded me of Populous. As we raised and lowered the land it reminded me of Populous even more. Happy Birthdays is different than Populous in what we do though. We are trying to create life in Happy Birthdays. That means animal life.
The peculiarly named Happy Birthdays is an ecosystem simulator conceived by Yasuhiro Wada, the mind behind Harvest Moon . Much like the iconic farming series, this "god game" is about managing your environment to produce something - in this case, entire species.
It's quite hard to categorise a game that tries its hardest to defy categorisation, but it's often something that needs to be done, in order to inform the consumer what they will experience.
Slow, methodical, and deliberate, Happy Birthdays is at times frustrating, but only because it's genuinely engaging premise demands an attention to detail and level of care. Its biggest fault is that much of the experience occurs at the player rather than with the player.
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