Songbird Symphony

Byte-sized review
Sing a song of six pence
Review in under a minute
Songbird Symphony is as delightfully charming as it is equally frustrating, but at the end of the day that just could be me and my two left thumbs when it comes to rhythm based games. It does feature an endearing protagonist (a small little chick called Birb who is in search of his purpose in life) with a heartfelt narrative. Thankfully the game is a nice blend of rhythm based action mixed with a suitable amount of platforming so that the gameplay doesn't get stale even though the game is on the short side. In many ways it also acts as a musical with some very hummable musical sections that you can hum along too in the event, like me, you can't score higher than a "B" on the easiest of the rhythm-based sections. I had fun with it but I am not going to lie when it comes to the rhythm sections, I have two left feet to match my two left thumbs.
One word or phrase to sum up the experience
Charming
Performance/Bug related incidents
No performance issues or bugs found during my playthrough.
Similar to games
Beat Saber; REZ; Ausio Surf 1/2
Suitable for
All ages, the young ones will particularly get much delight out of Birb
Score
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Rating

Actual playtime: ~5 hours, I beat the game on the Switch.
Now that's a hidden gem if I've ever seen one. It's certainly not without flaws, but I feel like they're very minor compared to what the game gets wonderfully right. And let me tell you; I mean it when I say "wonderfully". That said, you're probably more interested to hear the flaws first, so that's what I'll describe.
The Less Good
The biggest issue is probably the level design. The game sort of wants to be a combat-free Metroidvania - and it has these sprawling zones full of hidden places where you can find collectibles and a sidequest here and there. And yet, the areas are somewhat difficult to navigate; mainly because of how featureless the terrain is. It's mostly just blocks of dirt with identical NPCs strewn around... and no map screen to help you orient yourself. Finally, the latter areas are a bit labyrinthine and confusing, even if you know where you are.
Next up, the puzzles. They're mostly pushing crates and moving floating blocks. They're uninspired at best; later on, they get actively annoying due to difficulty. I came here for cute bird songs, and I get difficult crate puzzles? I got Sokoban for that.
And finally, the song battles. Let me quickly mention that you can't lose them - it's impossible; instead, you're given a grade. C is the worst, S is the best. And that's probably a good thing, because they get TOUGH later on. Even if you're good with rhythm games they will push your skills to the limit, and the song that you hear will suffer if you fail - you get an annoying trumpet sound on a missed note. And there are many different mechanics, so you'll constantly have to learn and re-learn new formats.
Okay. Now let's get to the good stuff.
The GOOD Stuff
The song battles. Yeah, they're hard, but from a design standpoint... wow. Each fight you do has a completely new set of rhythm mechanics, and occasionally a new note to play. You still have to press buttons in the rhythm, but how the game presents this info to you is constantly changing. Some fights have notes bouncing around, some have them falling, some have them fade in and out, and some are more like Simon Says, where you need to repeat a pattern. There's a lot more of course; and usually at the end of a chapter you get a boss fight which combines the mechanics in a final test of sorts. The final boss combines all mechanics from the game, fittingly. Of course, all this stuff is incredibly fun - if you can keep up!
While we're at it, let's talk about the songs themselves. This feels almost like a Disney movie. The characters don't sing with real voices, instead you have this sing-along dot jumping around the lyrics, allowing you to "sing in your head". And while the songs aren't mind-blowing, they're very fitting, the lyrics are fun, and there are different music genres and moods for different bird species. Great stuff.
On the topic of bird species: this game might as well be called "Hidden Gem Discovery: Bird Edition". There are some weird freaking birds here. Out of curiosity, I started googling them, and not only I discovered that all bird species in the game are real, they're also incredibly strange and interesting. Blue-footed boobies look photoshopped, but they're not! Bowerbirds have an impeccable aesthetic sense! And there's one more kind of bird which I won't spoil, but once you learn the species of Birb - the protagonist - I suggest you look it up as well. You'll be blown away.
On top of all that, the game looks very pretty, obviously; and the story is somewhat simple, but still engaging and feels-inducing - especially towards the end. The music, the look and the story all come together in a wondrous way.
Conclusion
It's a somewhat flawed but certainly unique little game. It's not very long, but it's great while it lasts. A warm, familiar mixture of music, cuteness, and feels. I thought the game's not for me, but a friend made me play it and I'm really grateful for that - so hey, maybe I can convince you to play it as well? It has a demo.
Curator page

A 4-hour long emotional roller-coaster if you're good at rhythm games, and a 7-hour rage fest if you aren't. Beautiful game, 10/10.

Honestly, I wouldn't have been happy paying the full price for Songbird Symphony, but I got it on sale at 90% off for $1.69 so that's what I'm rating it by.
Cute story and graphics, easy rhythm puzzles, BRUTAL rhythm songs ... that don't penalize your progress even if you miss every single note, which makes this a pretty casual game - unless you want to S rank every song, in which case good luck to you. I was happy to get at least B's, and that's with the extremely lenient grading system with C being the lowest possible rank you can get.

Very cute and relaxing game!!
* the art is so good and full of colors and life.
* very nice music.
* simple nice puzzles.

Very cutesy and has good music. However i didn't feel like it was very fun for me but that might be just because it doesn't suit my preferences.

It's cute and all, but why in the hell is it so difficult?!