Aery Calm Horizon Switch Review

Aery Calm Horizon is the greatest hits of the Aery franchise. Its an environment, a bunch of gems, and flying around as a bird to pick them up. Game over. 5/10… wait… never of heard of this franchise? There have been thirty-one of these in six years, averaging about five a year. And they’re pretty much all the same I couldn’t review Calm Horizon without reviewing some others. So, I picked Cyber City and King’s Messenger and played them. Oh boy, strap in for one of the most mind numbing experiences I have ever played. Mixtape was more interesting.

The Aery Franchise

Aery King’s Messenger was the better of the two(released last March), so I’ll focus on that. You start out with badly voice acted text setting the stage. You are a ranger’s scout bird. You fly around ugly towns and field picking up gems… and not much else. Behold this video showing how exciting it is:

That’s unfortunately the Aery Franchise summed up. Because I sat through that level, and got to the next one, where you’re flying around a burning village(probably the same village) picking up gems to calm piano music. No danger, no threats. Bump into something you turn around and fly in the opposite direction(which can get confusing). Thirty-One of these. Again, THIRTY-ONE!

You’d think this would be interesting. It isn’t.

Aery Cyber City(released in 2024) was bad. First, they don’t tell you, A slows you down, B speeds you up. Its required here, and if you don’t know it, you’re screwed. Second, the entire first level is one cluttered rectangle. One well made, pretty detailed rectangle, I’ll give it that. But you pick up gems and that’s that. Since you turn around every time you bump into something I got lost fast. Also, thank the lord they allow you to not invert the controls! Also, the piano music drowns out the voice acting for some reason.

Calm Horizon

Aery Clam Horizon is the “Greatest Hits” of the franchise. No danger(not that there was any), just calmly flying around picking up gems. Strangely, I found this more interesting than either of the other two, because the gems seems to be randomly scattered around, and all can be picked up at any time. In Kings Messenger, you pick up one, then the next appears. Here, pick up them all.

The sparkling doesn’t disappear upon pickup, and the birds trail stays around until you hit something.

So what else is there to say about the Aery Franchise? It exists. And that’s about it. Its bad, but I’m not going to give Calm Horizon a Garbage verdict, because as lazy as these games are, for a certain person, they can be trance like, calm your mind and just fly. My brain requires more of constant dopamine hit that most. Still I don’t feel a Your Mileage May Vary verdict is warranted either. These are games made in an assembly-line, story and environments aside, they’re really all the same. Play one, play them all. I think a Not Recommended with a five score is warranted here.