Birdy Call Party Game Review

Birdy Call

WBG Score: 6

Player Count: 3-6

You’ll like this if you like: Making silly noises and laughing with your friends!

Published by: Identity Games International B.V.

This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.

Birdy Call is a silly, funny, and noisy party game where you need to impersonate Bird noises. You will either love it or hate it. But I would challenge anyone to watch others playing it (who are enjoying themselves) and not laugh! It is that sort of game. SO, let's get it to the table and see how it plays.

How To Set Up Birdy Call

Decide if you want to play with the advanced Eggstra birds or not. I suggest taking a few out, but more on that later. Shuffle the remaining cards and deal them out to the players based on player count Seven each for a three player, Five for a four player game, and four each for five to six players. Place the 25 eggs into the centre of the table, and you are now ready to play.

How Play Up Birdy Call

Players now play in real time, looking at all of their cards at once. First, check for any pairs in your hand. If you do have any, place them down and claim an egg. Then draw back up to the hand limit. If you don't, pick one and start making the noise as described by that bird's call on the bottom of the card. You can do this however you feel is best. Up to you! Whilst you are doing this, you must be listening out to the other players' calls and trying to find a match to the call you are doing. You can move onto another card whenever you wish, and start trying a new call. But if you hear another player make a call similar to one you previously made, quickly find that card in your hand again, and make that call again to see if you have a match. If two players think they have a match, place your cards face down on the table in front of each other, flip them, and if they are indeed a match, both players claim an egg. Draw back up to your hand limit again, and go again. This continues until all eggs are claimed and the player with the most eggs wins.

There are five Eggstra cards. I recommend using just two of them. Here is how they work.

Waven - This is not technically an Eggstra bird, but it sure is different. Wave at other players instead of making a noise. Simple fun. Throw it in the deck.

Parrot - You can mimic any other player's call when you have a Parrot in hand. When you reveal your cards and you reveal a Parrot instead of the actual card, the tricked player takes their card back and must pay you one egg. The Parrot is discarded. I do not get this at all. The other player can do nothing about this. It is just annoying. Very strange decision to include in this game. It winds kids right up. This card alone brings this game down a full mark in its overall score. Sure, you can just take it out, but its inclusion annoys me that much.

Hawkward - Fantastic name, annoying mechanic. When you have this card, play it face up in front of you, and start counting down from ten to zero, in silence. If each other player notices this (which they always will) and also falls silent and places their cards face down on the table, then this card is discarded. But if someone does not notice and keeps playing beyond these ten seconds, they must then lose two eggs. Not as annoying and mean as the Parrot, other players do have some agency here. But as I found, most players mostly notice, bar younger gamers, it is just pointless, slows the game down, and on the rare occasions it does work, just annoys people. No one gains anything. Some players may just lose something. Terrible addition. Another point lost from the overall score.

Peacock - OK, finally, a fun card! When you play your Peacock, hold your cards above your head like a group of feathers and shout the Peacock's call. The first player to respond with the same action and call receives an egg, with the player who played the Peacock also gaining an egg. They don't need a Peacock card themselves to do this; it's simply a race. It's fun, players gain things, and it is funny. Great card.

Robin - Play it, try and steal an egg from another player. If they spot you, you have to return it. If not, it's yours. Zero jeopardy. You either steal or don't. The person defending gains nothing from spotting you. It's just annoying and feels like organised cheating, but not in a fun or clever way.

Is It Fun? Birdy Call Party Game Review

I want to love this game. We have had some games where we were all in hysterics. And I can see myself taking this with me to many holidays, parties, dinners, and events and having a blast with it. I just hate the fact that three of the extra birds are so bad. I mean, really bad. Sure, just take them out. But wow, come on. Who thought this was a good idea for a family-level party game? Who in testing thought that was a good idea? Take-that can be fun at times, but it needs some thought. Some two-way jeopardy. Not just a chance to steal stuff with no consequences. Or a card where you can flat out lie to another player about a card you have and then take an egg from them when they fall for it, with them having zero chance to block, defend, or know this is what is happening. Utterly ridiculous. I may simply burn these cards and pretend they never existed. Because the rest of the game is joyous, innocent fun. And these cards do not belong in this game at all.

It blows me away that these cards were chosen to be included. Some other cards could very easily have been added in that add positive effects that are funny, then benefit all players. Why anyone thought these effects added to the game genuinely blows me away, and honestly annoys me.

As such, I am giving this a six. I wanted to give it an eight. For a party game, if you like simple, silly fun, where you are happy to make silly noises and laugh at others doing the same, whilst they all laugh at you doing it too, this is perfect! But it does lose those marks as I should not have to remove cards from a game to make it better. The cards are optional, but their sheer existence annoys me that much. And other cards that offer mutual benefits and more fun would have been welcome. the game needs extra cards to add to the wrinkles. And it sadly now doesn't have them due to this lazy and uneducated design work.

OK, rant over. I think you get the message. Great fun game. Cute, bright and vibrant art. Decent card stock. And worth a look if you like this sort of thing. And do tell me if you try those other cards and find a different experience. I would love to know.