Birdigo Review (PC) – At A Place Called Birdigo

A deckbuilding roguelike. If you follow my reviews and listen to the podcast, those aren’t two genres that I would normally jump at. I’m a little old school at heart when it comes to my video games, so one that so brazenly promotes two genres I don’t particularly play nay understand would pass my by on its migration. Still, Birdigo promotes itself as ‘Wordle meets Balatro’, and that was enough. I’m in. Sold. Give it to me. And I’m absolutely obsessed.

Created by screenwriter John August (Corpse Bride / Big Fish) and Corey Martin (who made the fantastic Bonfire Peaks and Pipe Push Paradise), Birdigo is a cute word finder about migrating birds. You find words, the birds continue on their migration to new horizons. It’s a concept I’d never heard of before and because of that it’s always going to grab my attention in some way or another. As a self-confessed Wordle obsessive – I do it every single day without exception – Birdigo takes that concept and ups the stakes with additional roles and decks you can build in order to fare better in the next go. When they said ‘Wordle meets Balatro’, boy howdy did they mean it.

And you’re tasked with building words with the deck presented to you. Each letter is has its own card with the exception of XYZ, which is a single card that can be played for any of those letters, handy when you’re in a pinch (or are smart enough to think of a word with one of those letters that can be a benefit).

Birdigo is made by Screenwriter John August, who wrote movies like Corpse Bride and Big Fish, and developer Corey Martin, who made games like Bonfire Peaks and Pipe Push Paradise. So, I read the Steam description, and I get it. And it sounds exactly like what I was looking for.

And stacking upon stacking is the aim of the game. Longer words naturally score higher – with an aim of hitting a certain score for each level to progress, but those card combos can turn two or three letter words into monumental score buffers, using ‘platinum’ or ‘gold’ letters on top of that to boost your score even further. Each level ups the ante – because, well of course it does – so choose your boosts carefully, and you can earn word currency to spend in a shop for buffers such as double points, choosing your own letters ‘songs’ with various different buffers. The game does everything it can to help you out, all you have to really do is think of some words.

And that’s where it gets tricky. There were moments where my deck would just be consonants, so I’d have to discard them (an option on each level up to four times, but this can also be buffed with the right card), only for them to be replaced with other consonants, meaning I simply didn’t have anywhere to go with the letters I was provided, unless I could think of some words without vowels which isn’t a simple thing to do on the spot. You have as long as you like per level to think of words, but it’s not the easiest when it’s impossible to form anything of value.

It’s these moments where the frustration comes in, progressing is tough without the ability to even make a word, so you need to be extremely clever with your ol’ turn of phrase if you’re going to get these birds to where they need to be getting.

And yet I kept coming back. And back. And back. Birdigo has that Balatro neediness that made it so successful, it’s ‘one-more-go’ on acid, Birdigo had its talons in me almost immediately and as I learned the game and its mechanics they only trenched in deeper. Despite its unfathomably annoying mechanic of having to waste the ‘Discard’ option on deck hits that don’t throw you what you want, something tickling the back of your brain makes you think that surely the next round won’t be so difficult? That concept of making up words shouldn’t be so hard, right? I’m a ‘writer’, that’s what I do. Nah, Birdigo is not an easy flight, and it makes you want to beat it all the more.

And boy is it satisfying, there’s something to be said about a game that you keep coming back to because you keep struggling with it and want to overcome its barriers. Birdigo is one of those games for me. It’s why From Software games are so successful, it’s why Balatro took over the world the way it did and it’s why Wordle is a daily grind for millions around the world.

Combining those elements and turning it into a mechanic inside a game about migrating birds wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card and yet here we are, Birdigo is a rewarding, satisfying almost zen-like experience if you’re willing to roll with its mechanics. There’s plenty to love, a little to niggle at but more than enough to ensure there’s a joyful experience that has been lovingly crafted for us to dive into whenever the urge strikes. And it’ll strike a lot.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Birdigo lands on Steam on July 30th. You can play the demo now via this link.

Developer: John August, Corey Martin
Publisher: GameTeam6

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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