Fledgling Heroes from Subtle Boom is a colorful and charming 2D game with simple gameplay mechanics and lots of fun for gamers of all ages. Learn more in our Fledgling Heroes review!
In Fledgling Heroes from Australian indie studio Subtle Boom, you will take on a colorful and charming 2D adventure that the team describes as a flam ‘em up. You’ll be controlling a growing group of birds that travel through air, sea, and land in a journey to rescue other animals, battle the evil pirate lizARRrds, race against the clock, collect coins and open up treasure chests, and even go up against mighty dragons! The game offers more than 90 hand-crafted levels with a colorful art style that makes everything pop.
Fledgling Heroes is easy to control. You will flap your wings around with the A button, flying upwards the more times you press the button – or swimming faster in the water. Your bird will always be moving forward, so you won’t have to worry about that. If you hit the ground, your bird will bounce off the ground and carry on. But if you hit your head on an obstacle, such as a stalactite, it’s going to hurt! You should also avoid any enemies on your path, such as flying fish since touching them will make you lose. If you press and hold down the A button, you will glide, which will allow you to fly faster while having a bit more control over your overall trajectory.
If you complete each of the objectives the stage will throw at you, you’ll be rewarded with a golden feather. These objectives will include collecting all coins in a stage, bouncing off the ground X number of times, or defeating Y number of lizards. Some feathers will also be out on their own in a stage, while others will be kept inside of treasure chests that you will have to bump into to open them. You will need to collect all the feathers you can as you complete each stage so that you can use them to open the doors marked with a specific number of feathers.
As you progress through the game, levels will start to get longer, and more elements will be introduced to keep players entertained, but you will never feel overwhelmed since new elements – and new characters – will be introduced gradually at a steady pace. There are also checkpoints in some stages that will mark your progress so that if you end up bumping into an obstacle, an enemy, or hit the water, you can carry on from that checkpoint without losing all of your progress in the stage, which will allow you to replay the section after a checkpoint to make sure you complete the extra objectives that are needed to get some extra golden feathers.
Levels are of a bite-sized nature, so you’ll be able to complete them in a couple of minutes or so. But if you want to 100% the game and unlock all color schemes to customize your birds, the blueprints for extra items for creating stages, save all bunnies, and obtain all feathers, then you’re going to have to replay some levels more than once. Many stages will usually have different routes for you to take, and you can’t be at two places at the same time! For some levels, you could, in theory, lose after grabbing a feather, blueprint, or bunny, and the game will save that before you start again from the last checkpoint, but you’re still replaying parts of each stage. And then, there are the Endless levels. As the name suggests, these stages will carry on for as long as you manage to survive, and you’ll be aiming at getting as high a score as possible as you aim to unlock some extra feathers for your collection. The longer you last, the faster things will get, so be ready for a challenge!
Once you unlock the Lab a few stages in, you’ll be able to customize each of your birds by changing their colors by using the different color patterns that you can find. The other thing you can do at the Lab is create your own stages! By pressing the L button, you’ll access the Blueprints section from which you can place items, creatures, props, water props, islands, caves, platforms, decorations, water decorations, background props, special items, and even signs! Some of these will also have properties attached to them that you can edit with the R button, and you can unlock more stuff to customize your stages by finding their corresponding blueprints.
Fledgling Heroes is a fun game with simple controls that make it easy for players of all ages and skill levels to take it for a spin. It has a colorful storybook look to it with characters and enemies that come to life. New characters, gameplay elements, and enemies are introduced at a steady pace, and there’s plenty of content in this one that makes its $9.99 asking price a steal. Add the ability to create your own levels – as well as play those created by players from around the world – and you have a game that will keep you busy for many hours.
Disclaimer
This Fledgling Heroes review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Subtle BoomSubtle Boom.
