For my first DSiWare review I figured I’d go with something simple, something quick, something cheap. While it may not be a perfect example of what DSiWare can be all about, it is a good example of the kinds of games that should be downloads.

Bird & Beans started as a mini-game in WarioWare on Game Boy Advance, but now it’s here on its own as a downloadable game for the DSi. This is not at all a "deep" game, but rather something quick to pick up and play. This is the kind of game that you play for a few minutes, maybe try to beat your high score, and then move on which makes it perfect for a downloadable title since you would not want to buy a cartridge that had only this on it. You would want to play it, go to a menu, and pick another game from a menu, as you can with this game.

So how exactly is the game played? Quite simply, you move your bird Pyoro left and right, catching falling beans with his long tongue. The higher the bean, the more points you earn. The challenge is that his tongue only moves diagonally left or right and if a bean hits you, you die. You only get the one life, so die and game over. Also, if a bean hits the ground that part of the ground disappears, making your play area smaller since you cannot walk over gaps. You can eat white beans to rebuild one block or flashing beans to rebuild all of them as well as get rid of all beans in the air. That is it – very simple in an old arcade game kind of way, which can lead to high replay value for people that like to top their own score. Unfortunately there are no online leaderboards, something I hope more DSi games will use since you obviously have the system online to download games. I can understand that you may not be near Wi-Fi when you’re actually playing, but maybe save your scores and then have an option to send when you are near an internet connection.  The game also does not have you input initials or any other form of identification, just whatever the high score is, so don’t expect to pass it around a room of friends and know who did the best from just looking at the game.

Bird & Beans is only on one screen due to its GBA origins and you can swap which screen it is on which I thought was a nice touch. Speaking of "touch" though, there is no touch functionality whatsoever except when looking through the help guide. It is a straight port of the GBA game so you use the D-Pad and A button to play the game and navigate the menus. Like leaderboards, it would have been nice if they put a little more effort into it to add another control option for touching the screen to shoot your tongue out.

As a nice added bonus if you get a score over 10,000 or play at least 10 times you will unlock Bird & Beans 2. This sequel is very similar to the original, but instead of Pyoro using his tongue to catch the beans, he shoots seeds to knock the beans out of the air. This is a slightly different dynamic and has the added ability to get bonuses for hitting multiple targets at once. Just as in the original, if you get hit you die, or if it hits the ground that shrinks the play field. The white and flashing beans also make a return.

This is not an epic game meant to be played for hours, and while it does have high replay value, the amount of time total spent on it will not be much. It is a straight port with no effort put in to add anything else… So why am I still recommending you pick this up? Easy, it is only 200 DSi Points which is $2. While $1 would probably be better, that is not a price option on the DSi Shop, and it certainly is more fun that the plethora of clock, calendar, and calculator apps on the system. This is a great game to kill a bit of time waiting in line, on the bus, or in the doctor’s waiting room. It’s also a nice break from the hour of Sudoku you just did on Brain Age.

3 ½ out of 5 stars - In all, a worthy purchase for those looking for some quick arcade downloadable action. Could have used more, but it’s very cheap and does what it sets out to be, a quick game.

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