GAMES REVIEW: We Bare Bears “Feathered Chase”

Recently with the finales to many of the new classic cartoons of the generation audiences are now looking forward to the next big hit coming our way to hit the internet by storm. However, there remain a few key shows still wooing the hearts of animation buffs and cartoon lovers of all ages; Star Vs. the Forces of Evil, Trollhunters, The Loud House and Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears. The series about three bear brothers, Griz, Panda and Ice Bear, as they go on misadventures while interacting with what is supposed to be a regular modern society but in this case has these three doofuses running about. The game I’m covering today, Feathered Chase, is actually based on the bears’ first episode, Our Stuff.

The plot for the episode is that after playing some basketball, Griz, Ice Bear and Panda discover that their bag with their wallet, phone and ninja stars has been stolen so they trek across the city looking for it, finding their stolen bag after uncovering an underground pigeon cartel. Feathered Chase doesn’t go that in-depth story wise, within the game you play as the three bears in their iconic piggy back formation chasing after the pigeon that stole their bag. Now they have to blind members of the Pigeon Cartel with Panda’s phone and avoid their poop so that they can get their stuff back.

Gameplay wise it is set up like an endless runner game. The bears non-stop run to the right as the pigeon cartel go in to attack from both sides. To take out the pigeons you use Panda’s camera with the directional left and right keys and flash them in their faces, twice if the pigeons are also sporting cute little ski caps. However, the pigeons can also dive bomb towards the bears and poop in their path, to avoid that you hit the up directional key to make the bears jump. It’s a pretty functional control scheme and with the percentage markers as you run you get a clear indication on how far you get each attempt you make. But even game overs don’t hold much annoyance as gameplay can be reset in a click to try again which is very much appreciated for this style of game. The closest oddities that I can gather from the game that could become pet peeves of players are with the pigeon types themselves and the never explained power up.

Pigeons come in four variants; the regular, ski hat and dive bomber are all members of the Pigeon Cartel and knocking out/avoiding these birds rewards you with points towards your final score. The fourth variant is what throws a wrench into the works as you have the police pigeons, when you snap a pic of these birds you knock them out and get deducted points. This is quite annoying at first as the difference between the ski hat pigeon and the police pigeon’s distinguishing features are hard to spot when compared to the bears there are very small. It’s not even laid out in the instructions that there are different types of pigeons which was a design flaw that I roasted Regular Show’s Galaxy Escape: Rescue Squad Impossible for.
The exclusion of key game mechanics such as the different enemy types is annoying. Unlike in Galaxy Escape though where its exclusion of explanation lent itself to hiding its effort to decrease the difficulty curve, Feathered Chase’s difficulty curve is unhindered. The discovery of the game’s hidden tricks feels more like an accomplishment and mastering of the game giving a sense of achievement as you get better and better each round. This includes the discovery of the electrical box power up, unlike in most other games where you need to avoid the electrical box in Feathered Chase you should jump head first into those electrical shocks. The power up acts as a temporary shield for any pigeon approaching you that zaps and barbecues any pigeon that gets too close.

With these little tricks, you pick up via trial and error, the game becomes quickly addicting to play. The only true detriment I find is that with the visual presentation of the three bears stacked when they jump it becomes a visual overload, at first looking like it won’t clear over the dive bomb birds or poop. That’s why I always looked forward to when it was just Ice Bear left, as the visual stimuli you need to focus on becomes concentrated and you can just focus on spamming the camera in the last final stretch. If only the game had a true endless run mode, then there would be more replay value for the top score hunters. At its current state, Feathered Chase is a fun yet short experience. It kept its mechanics simple and stable. Didn’t let its exclusions of information come off as hindrances but acting as incentives to get better. Plus, gave a cute visual nod to the series premiere that fans of the show will enjoy to play through, especially if you enjoyed the cute pigeons.

If you want to play We Bare Bears: Feathered Chase you can play that HERE on Cartoon Network Games.