BIRDCAGE

When it comes to video games, if there is one era that I missed out on (besides the one before my birth) it is the 32-bit era. Much about that period I could only glean from magazines, which I read rather frequently. My brother had a friend that came over once with a PlayStation and played Grand Turismo and a little Metal Gear Solid. I also once played Twisted Metal at a friend’s house. Even without firsthand experience with that generation of games and consoles, as soon as I launched BIRDCAGE I knew what was up. Flashing text overlaying backgrounds, a mixture of texture-mapped polygons, gritty sprites, shadows galore, simulated burn-in, and scan lines: this is a homage to the late 90s. A very good one too. Polygon Bird games released BIRDCAGE last year on Steam. Now, since 23 September 2026, it is available for consoles thanks to eastasiasoft. I played it on the Switch and I think it fits right in on that console. This is a shmup for lovers of the genre, and maybe a few curious…