View Full Version : What the hell is up with birds in video games?
Veepa
05-18-2005, 08:08 AM
I was playing Ninja Gaiden for NES earlier, and I asked myself: "Which one of these enemies is the most annoying?" Even though there are several extremely annoying wacked out Ninjas and dogs(I guess they're dogs), the answer was obvious. The birds! But it's not only this game that these birds annoy.. It's basically every platformer from '87-'96. I really don't get it. I've taken strolls through a forest, and I've seen birds.. they don't challenge innocent strangers to fight to the death! So why did video games paint such a bad picture of birds? Maybe every game ever designed after Super Mario Brothers was actually designed to be based on Hitchcock's The Birds, but at the last minute they lose the film rights or something, and in a panic they change all of the graphics.... but they leave the birds. Ooorr.... Maybe soon after Duck Hunt was released, bird activists(they exist!) demanded they remove the game from the shelves... but instead the bird activists made a secret deal with every game developer to compensate for the killing of ducks.. The birds get their revenge.. and then some. And this way the kids wouldn't go out shooting birds... they'd fear them.
Not only are the birds incredibly annoying.. they're incredibly unrealistic. Imagine you're walking, and a bird decides that you're gonna die. So, he swoops down at you.. and just uh.. kind of.. crashes in to you. All you have to do is grab it and twist it's neck! It could crash onto you all day,.. you wouldn't die! Trust me! Try it out some time. Plus it's weight surely wouldn't obstruct your jump.. if say.. you're jumping from one platform to another... it wouldn't send you plummeting down.. uh... down.. ..So where exactly do you go if you fall down one of those holes in Super Mario Brothers? Hell? Nevermind.. that's a whole other pointless rant...
I guess what I'm trying to say is... uh... leave me alone.
NE146
05-18-2005, 08:13 AM
Imagine you're walking, and a bird decides that you're gonna die. So, he swoops down at you.. and just uh.. kind of.. crashes in to you. All you have to do is grab it and twist it's neck! It could crash onto you all day,.. you wouldn't die! Trust me! Try it out some time.
I think I'll pass. There are lots of birds that can do you plenty of hurt if they wanted... talons in tow :P
But yeah I know what you mean ;)
Xantan the Foul
05-18-2005, 08:14 AM
Not only are the birds incredibly annoying.. they're incredibly unrealistic. Imagine you're walking, and a bird decides that you're gonna die. So, he swoops down at you.. and just uh.. kind of.. crashes in to you. All you have to do is grab it and twist it's neck! It could crash onto you all day,.. you wouldn't die! Trust me!
Well... if you were in the middle of trying to clear a 20 foot gap with your kickass leap (like Ryu has) and a bird half your hight smacked into your face, I'd have to imagine that you'd fall to your doom. LOL
Veepa
05-18-2005, 08:26 AM
Not only are the birds incredibly annoying.. they're incredibly unrealistic. Imagine you're walking, and a bird decides that you're gonna die. So, he swoops down at you.. and just uh.. kind of.. crashes in to you. All you have to do is grab it and twist it's neck! It could crash onto you all day,.. you wouldn't die! Trust me!
Well... if you were in the middle of trying to clear a 20 foot gap with your kickass leap (like Ryu has) and a bird half your hight smacked into your face, I'd have to imagine that you'd fall to your doom. LOL
Birds are incredibly light weight.. that's how they achieved flight! Ryu would just charge right through it.
§ Gideon §
05-18-2005, 08:26 AM
LOL Veepa's right! Though maybe, with all those early video games being Japanese, companies simply modeled their video game birds after common birds from the region--which are far deadlier than their American counterparts:
http://gojistomp.org/photos/ghidorah/stroll.jpg
Didn't you read the manual!? Those aren't normal birds...they're EVIL birds, transformed due to an alien invasion/radioactivity/brainwashing/mad egg-shaped scientist turning them into cyborgs. That's why they're attacking you! As for the "killing you" bit...um...well, maybe they have super powers? From being super evil, naturally.
it290
05-18-2005, 10:33 AM
It could be that those birds are simply misguided... they're trying to pick you up and carry you to the end of the level, but they keep running into you instead.
It's not just Ninja Gaiden, either... I was playing Vice: Project Doom the other day, and that game has the same annoying bird behavior.
Immutable
05-18-2005, 10:42 AM
You use a friendly bird in Joust. :)
rbudrick
05-18-2005, 11:01 AM
They use birds because there are no flying ninjas. Also, even if there were, there aren't many ninjas as big as a bird.
Also, have you ever harmed a bluejay? If you do, you will suddenly have you ass being kicked by many of them.
Hey, maybe the birds in NG et al are trained by their ninja masters to attack.
Or something.
-Rob
christianscott27
05-18-2005, 11:21 AM
i remember nothing being more annoying than that condor in pitfall II, even that pushy rat thing. the condor is right there on screen 2, screwing up your drop into the caverns.
i've noticed in modern games theres a trend of letting you blast away at background birds for no good reason.
CreamSoda
05-18-2005, 12:56 PM
Birds in the NES game Kid Niki, another good example of how these flying things can ruin a perfectly good(Ninja killing) adventure.
Ed Oscuro
05-18-2005, 01:36 PM
True...the first enemy I saw in Iga Ninden Gaoh (PC-Engine CD-ROM sidescroller) was a hawk. What is that all about?
Revenge from Metroid Prime?
At the first level you can peg them off if you look up :)
Dire 51
05-18-2005, 02:13 PM
So where exactly do you go if you fall down one of those holes in Super Mario Brothers?
That's easy - Koopa Hell.
youruglyclone
05-18-2005, 02:15 PM
real life birds aren't that innocent either
http://www.fabioifc.com/fabio/fab_news.html
I mean for god sakes they attacked the guy from iron sword 2
doubledownon11
05-18-2005, 02:22 PM
I think Flicky and the little birds he has to rescure are cute and fun. Did I say that out loud. I do love Flicky for the Gensis though. Possibly my favorite game in it's entire library.
daikaiju
05-18-2005, 02:25 PM
It's the age old struggle of man vs. bird ...still going on today!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/18/birds.attack.ap/index.html
Emily
05-18-2005, 02:50 PM
Ive been attacked by birds before! Sometimes if you walk by bushes they have nests in, blackbirds will dive-bomb you.
The_EniGma
05-18-2005, 02:51 PM
The worst is on the roof of MGS2 where raiden keeps slipping on the bird crap. Id rather be fighting the 3 metalgears than dodging that crap.
I took pleasure in killing those evil little things, then the damn colonel codecs me. CANT YOU SEE IM KILLIN BIRDS! lol
I saw this thing where a mockingboird divebombed a guy on a bike that was going pretty fast and the dude woke up in a hospital all banged up with amnesia.
rbudrick
05-18-2005, 04:20 PM
real life birds aren't that innocent either
http://www.fabioifc.com/fabio/fab_news.html
I mean for god sakes they attacked the guy from iron sword 2
HAH! Too funny....awesome post. LOL
My buddy's cat, when it was a kitten, attacked a bluejay. Now, this cat is almost 17 and will still to this day attack ANYTHING....except bluejays. After he killed the bluejay, a shitload of them came out of the woodwork and beat the living hell out of him....wouldn't let him escape...he'd run and they'd bomb from the other direction. When he sees bluejays now, he runs in fear.
When my brother was a kid, and being a jackass as all kids do, he shot a bluejay with a BB or pellet gun or something....dunno if he killed it. Soon after, a bunch of them were circling our back deck where he was standing, and starting to dive bomb.....he got the fuck out of there before anything could happen.
Don't fuck with birds. Especially if you are a videogame character, a cat, or my brother.
-Rob
Veepa
05-18-2005, 06:05 PM
Also the koopa troopas in the first Super Mario Bros. sure did look alot like birds... it was a perfect disguise.. lay low during the first platformer.. then.. pounce. It was all thought out so perfectly.... Who's behind this?!
pragmatic insanester
05-18-2005, 08:28 PM
there are actually fish near the coast of japan's isles that have caused fatalities from their odd habit of leaping out of the water. they also have a sharp protrusion from their faces.
Queen Of The Felines
05-18-2005, 10:10 PM
Don't forget the deadly condor crap from "Crazy Climber."
Kristine
Veepa
05-19-2005, 03:33 PM
they also have a sharp protrusion from their faces.
At first when I read that I thought it said "a sharp prostitution from their faces" and then I thought... that can't be right. So I reread it and sure enough...
pragmatic insanester
05-19-2005, 04:42 PM
when our ocean dwellers do prostitute, it smells like chicken but tastes like fish.
Veepa
05-19-2005, 06:29 PM
when our ocean dwellers do prostitute, it smells like chicken but tastes like fish.
That made about as much sense as attempting to make love to a waffle iron..... .....Sigh... what a night that was..
when our ocean dwellers do prostitute, it smells like chicken but tastes like fish.
Doorknob elephant trousers a waffle donkey?
Tron 2.0
05-20-2005, 07:48 AM
I was playing Ninja Gaiden for NES earlier, and I asked myself: "Which one of these enemies is the most annoying?" Even though there are several extremely annoying wacked out Ninjas and dogs(I guess they're dogs), the answer was obvious. The birds! But it's not only this game that these birds annoy.. It's basically every platformer from '87-'96. I really don't get it. I've taken strolls through a forest, and I've seen birds.. they don't challenge innocent strangers to fight to the death! So why did video games paint such a bad picture of birds? Maybe every game ever designed after Super Mario Brothers was actually designed to be based on Hitchcock's The Birds, but at the last minute they lose the film rights or something, and in a panic they change all of the graphics.... but they leave the birds. Ooorr.... Maybe soon after Duck Hunt was released, bird activists(they exist!) demanded they remove the game from the shelves... but instead the bird activists made a secret deal with every game developer to compensate for the killing of ducks.. The birds get their revenge.. and then some. And this way the kids wouldn't go out shooting birds... they'd fear them.
Not only are the birds incredibly annoying.. they're incredibly unrealistic. Imagine you're walking, and a bird decides that you're gonna die. So, he swoops down at you.. and just uh.. kind of.. crashes in to you. All you have to do is grab it and twist it's neck! It could crash onto you all day,.. you wouldn't die! Trust me! Try it out some time. Plus it's weight surely wouldn't obstruct your jump.. if say.. you're jumping from one platform to another... it wouldn't send you plummeting down.. uh... down.. ..So where exactly do you go if you fall down one of those holes in Super Mario Brothers? Hell? Nevermind.. that's a whole other pointless rant...
I guess what I'm trying to say is... uh... leave me alone.
That's like asking how come those, Crows in RE can kill ya x_x @_@ :eek 2: :embarrassed: *_* :o
Sotenga
05-20-2005, 04:29 PM
Ooooh... this topic struck a nerve upon me. Birds in video games... well, they are, so to speak, "TEH SUCK!!1!" But you know what else I hate? Bats. Ever since Mountain King for the 2600, bats have been real pricks to deal with. Hell, even dragons and wyverns can be real pains to deal with. Here's my rule; "If it's winged, it SUCKS." Remember that one.
Arcade Antics
05-20-2005, 04:41 PM
"Do these chickens have large talons?"
"Son, I don't understand a word you just said."
Flicky = awesome.
Joust = awesome.
Birds = awesome.
Here's a noodle scratcher though: Karateka (etc).
In Karateka, you have to fight a vulture. Now, the vulture in Karate game / movie thing isn't new, Karateka just borrowed it from the old standby chopsocky flicks. BUT... vultures are lazy scavengers. A vulture wouldn't chase down a young deer, let alone attack a man. LOL If there was a sidewalk buffet more than 100 yards away, they probably wouldn't even bother to go that far.
And yes, blue jays are NOTORIOUS for kicking ass when they need to. Do not taunt the blue jay. Do not upset the blue jay. Do not look directly at the blue jay. :)
Ed Oscuro
05-20-2005, 06:25 PM
Ooooh... this topic struck a nerve upon me. Birds in video games... well, they are, so to speak, "TEH SUCK!!1!" But you know what else I hate? Bats. Ever since Mountain King for the 2600, bats have been real pricks to deal with. Hell, even dragons and wyverns can be real pains to deal with. Here's my rule; "If it's winged, it SUCKS." Remember that one.
Tell me about it. Two of the most dangerous enemies in Castlevania: Belmont's Revenge are the BIRDS and the BATS, if you don't know how to deal with them - actually, the bats are worse since they're unpredictable and in some places you have to pass above or below them, and all you can do is have a plan how to dodge them until they're at your level...
Oh, but I love Blue Jays. When I was a kid my first favorite baseball team was the Blue Jays, for no reason in particular. I can see some jays ...well, maybe not right now, but if I look for them...hmm, there's one right now, STOMPING CHICKADEES AND RUINING THEIR SHIT. Typical!
I recently saw a hummingbird, though, and took some pictures. Don't know of any nasty hummingbirds in a game yet :D
Rikimaru
05-20-2005, 06:37 PM
See below post for owies!
You'd never think a double post would happen to you!
Rikimaru
05-20-2005, 06:38 PM
http://www.coasterforce.com/randompics/unknown/fabio.jpg "Duck! Bird!" "Duck Bird? Where? *Slam!*
Ed Oscuro
05-20-2005, 06:53 PM
We've all seen it by now, but thanks
GamerNerd
05-20-2005, 07:43 PM
LOL
Speaking of ducks, I shot down a record 256 ducks playing Duck Hunt 7 years ago. By the way, The photo where Fabio got hit in the nose by one of thise things speaks the truth.
LOL
Rikimaru
05-20-2005, 08:29 PM
We've all seen it by now, but thanks
:fist:
Ed Oscuro
05-20-2005, 08:36 PM
Thank you for enhancing my webternet experience! Now, please go lie under that rock some more LOL
Rikimaru
05-20-2005, 08:41 PM
Thank you for enhancing my webternet experience! Now, please go lie under that rock some more
Sheer Comedy. Coming from one who decides that he doesn't need to make good on the DP trades forum deals with other members because he is "having a rough spot in his life". The "webternet experience" isn't real, I don't have to be respectful and courteous to others!! Grow up.
Ed Oscuro
05-20-2005, 08:51 PM
I accept my faults, correct them, and don't aim for the groin. Sorry you decided to take this seriously.
Rikimaru
05-20-2005, 09:27 PM
Now, please go lie under that rock some more
It is unlikely that anyone would have an overly positive response after reading something like that, but then afterwards to say 'sorry you took it so seriously' is rather hypocritical.
Ed Oscuro
05-20-2005, 09:39 PM
You're forgetting that Rikimaru is supposedly killed by a rock at the end of the original Tenchu. Apparently you're hardcore about being angsty tonight, and I can't help you there. Just give it up, man.
If you don't like birds you can always drop bombs on them in Balloon Bomber, just head over to the arcade section! Just don't take my trophy. :D
http://www.coasterforce.com/randompics/unknown/fabio.jpg "Duck! Bird!" "Duck Bird? Where? *Slam!*
what I don't get is all the smiling chicks around who seem all super happy that he's a bloody mess.
Veepa
05-21-2005, 09:11 AM
what I don't get is all the smiling chicks around who seem all super happy that he's a bloody mess.
They're all super siked because they get to heal him.. like a wounded bird.. He's such a hunk... uhm.. I'm told. I am so not a homosexual...I think.. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
CartCollector
05-21-2005, 06:30 PM
There was an article written about this phenomena on I-Mockery.com. (http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/nes-birds/default.php)
oesiii
05-21-2005, 07:49 PM
I thought this topic was going to be about the damage you can do to birds because the last game I remember messing with birds was Half-Life 2. The big albatross looking birds don't mess with you but you can have lots of target practicing fun shooting them all over the outside levels.
I like to switch off between the sniper rifle and the sure-fire shotgun and watching them fall a thousand feet into the river or something :D
Veepa
05-21-2005, 09:33 PM
There was an article written about this phenomena on I-Mockery.com. (http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/nes-birds/default.php)
Wow, so I'm not the only person to obsess over something like this.. Now that I know that... I will move on and rant about something else that bothers me..... Get ready for more mindless literature from me in the future, but don't look forward to it, because it will be garbage.