Of all the “what if Balatro, but” projects on offer, there are surely none so atrocious and indecent, so utterly irresponsible of conception and offensive to human dignity as Birdigo, which bills itself as “what if Balatro, but Wordle”. For the uninitiated, Balatro is the rad poker roguelite that took the games industry by storm in 2024, while Wordle is what the New York Times do now instead of articles.
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Before you NYT sympathisers accuse me of riding far too high on my already stratospheric high horse, let me confess that a significant percentage of Rock Paper Shotgun’s daily eyeballing comes from Wordle guides. I’m not saying that I sleep on a bed of Wordle guides, but if I had to stuff a mattress with any RPS content, it would be that. And Skeal. The idea of these two games forming one game makes me feel like I’m watching a stellar collision, and that’s before you consider the birds. Combine Balatro and Wordle, and you get birds. These are the puns that cause our parents, children and employers to stop talking to us.
Birdigo is the brainspawn of John August, scriptwriter for Corpse Bride and Charlie’s Angels, and Bonfire Peaks developer Corey Martin. Apparently it all started on a podcast. Nothing honourable ever begins with a podcast. The basic mechanic is assembling letter tiles to make words, which earn you “flaps” with which to fly a flock of fidgety, boggle-eyed wildfowl around the world. The Steam page acknowledges Scrabble as a third influence, here. If they were true artists, they’d have incorporated that into the title pun, but I guess they couldn’t think of a SFW narrative theme for a game called Birdigrabble.
The Balatro element, meanwhile, takes the form of multipliers and modifiers which let you jimmy the basic scoring system. “Longer words score higher, but specific combos can turn short words into powerhouses,” the Steam page comments. “Use enchanted feathers, letters and songs to change the rules of the game as you go.” All japes and jeering aside, I think this is probably quite fun. It’s out 30th July, and you can find a demo on Steam.
