Brianna Fox-Priest
September 2, 2024 From the creators of Rain on Your Parade, Unbound Creations’ latest release is the epitome of knowing no limits of silliness in creating games. Short, sweet, and chaotic is the best way to describe Just Crow Things.
If you love the cunning and trickster personalities of crows and the silly spark of joy from playing games like Untitled Goose Game or the recent Little Kitty, Big City, this sandbox adventure will give you the best of both worlds.
On a mission to retrieve your family’s stolen shiny trinket from a gang of sunglass-slinging crows, you traverse 10 sandbox levels to help other woodland creatures with various tasks, try to win races against the clock, and get up to a little chaos wherever you go.
After a quick tutorial on flying and picking up various items, it’s off to caw your way to the top and regain your lost family heirloom. Where Just Crow Things lacks in challenges, it makes up for in absolute absurdity. The main attraction to playing as a cute crow other than flying through levels is aiming and pooping on the unsuspecting humans below. Not only is it fun to knock out people with the different “poop modes”, but it is also encouraged, especially by a revenge-seeking hedgehog who will pay you “crowputation” points, as a reward. This point system is used to progress to the next level. To move on, you must take on different missions from other animal pals like a paranoid mama squirrel to earn at least 100 “crowputation” points. Each level has 150 points eligible to earn, but you can always return to complete the rest in your free time.
The levels themselves are just large enough to stretch out the mission, but not too big you are aimlessly cruising the skies, although from time to time it may be difficult to find small items. The areas are themed like a Japanese neighborhood or the ancient pyramids in Egypt keeping the experience and missions fresh. Mechanics are kept simple; you can fly, swoop down to attack people to collect items they drop, pick up small items and critters, and of course poop on people and cars (the real crow experience).
Just when it seemed like the game couldn’t get sillier, there are secret quirky references that cause laugh-out-loud reactions. Like “Pitt” the loaf of bread, who chuckles like Brad, the famous actor, when you drop him to the street below. It feels like the developers thought of everything here; the number of poop modes including a fiery version that sets innocent victims ablaze was the cherry on top. Aside from collecting “crowputation”, collect various trinkets and hats to customize your crow swag which helps with the title’s replayability as you go back to levels to finish extra missions and find new accessories.
Games that lead with silliness will have my heart always. Sometimes you need a refreshing four-hour brain rot session of being an absolute menace to society. In those moments, reach for Just Crow Things.
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