Mirage

I pounced along from one level to the next, and for each "runback" portion escaping the Wall of Bird I died at least twice; I wonder why there are three lives if getting a game over places you back in the same level. Perhaps some arbitrary arcane grading rubric made it so, but I'd think that a game over screen for every time you lose is well enough, and simply don't have it for "trivial" losses like falling in pits or getting hit by bird lasers.
The game scrapes out a Land category with its transitional hallways frigerating day to night, but for all intents and purposes it is a pure-bred Nerve mazer, or "platformer" if you're not insane like I am. The music between levels one and two could have lent a clearer contrast with tempo or timbre, or perhaps the level design could have been presented with more of an "arc;" jumping from thin strewn pillars in the outskirts, to navigating a snaking path in the city, to sneaking into a bird party with a bunch of birds firing from everywhere.
Imagine making a game that was just the Desert Land from Mario 3. Even within the first few levels there's quite a bit of variety: in the first, the game introduces Goombas disguised as blocks; in the third, there are lots of block pyramids and Firesnakes, and of course the fourth level has the iconic Angry Sun. These features go a long way in taking the world from "a desert" to "a desert with places in it." Speaking of classic platformers, a hold-sensitive jump height is so ubiquitous at this point that there ought to be some intentional deliberation and design in not having it, otherwise you will have the layman rolling on the floor crying like a laybaby. I think the decision for the timbres of the music to avoid middle eastern stereotypes gives it a breath of fresh air away from the plumber and pedestrian platformer.
Mirage gets a C for Cat and Snake versus Bird.