When I saw there was a game about a little crow causing mischief, I knew I had to play it. While reminiscent of Untitled Goose Game, Just Crow Things sets itself apart through its 10 diverse and adorably created levels and varied tasks that are fun and sometimes evil to complete.
You Know Nothing, Jon Crow
After much fun trying to fly, swoop, and poop, I find a sparkly pair of glasses that must be what she’s talking about, and I’m right! She also grants me a pair as a reward that she wore when she was my age, which is a family heirloom from crow’s past. She instructs me to speak to other animals to learn crow ways. I head off, pooping all my poops as I go, which accumulate on the top left side of the screen.
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Straight off the bat, in the main menu, you control the crow to make selections, a fun way to spice up a usually boring process. The story tutorial starts immediately, with your 32-year-old “Grandmother” instructing you on how to leave the nest. Your first task is up! You have to drop down and pick up “something” you like. Being the literal person I am, I grabbed the first thing I saw which was a radio, but Grandmama was not impressed.
Shiny circles indicate the next points in my journey, leading me to find the animals my Grandmother Crow told me about. My first encounter with PonyHawk (ha) teaches me how to swoop properly. After a few tries, I nail the Sonic-like obstacle course and get all the rings in a row. I continue through the mission quickly learning skills and am delighted when I get to the last and learn that I can replenish my poops by eating fruit.
Poopin’ on Hoomans
I now have to find some “Hoomans” to poop on to finish my quest. Delightful!
I find the Hoomans quickly and it’s easy enough to poop on them while looking at my shadow on the ground. I also now learn that other items grant me different pooping powers after ingestion, such as chillis making my poop fiery – allowing me to set things on fire. Coffee gives me infinite poops! Who’d have thunk?
I also find a little hut where a Link-like character sleeps with some pots and potions. I also find… Snow White? I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. Anyways, I promptly poop on her because it’s become my mission to poop on everything.
(Spoiler: I can’t seem to poop on the goats. Why?)
Bad Crowputation
Once I get through the tutorial, the real story starts with a cutscene showing a murder (read: three) gangsta crows taking my glasses a la schoolyard bully style. Clearly they’re jealous because one has the Kanye glasses of old and another has the thug life ones. I assume I must get them back. Can’t let Grandma down.
Players can navigate through the 10 levels on an Overcooked-style map. Tip: make sure you thoroughly explore this map to get hidden items. Grandma Crow tells me I can “crowstomize” myself with various hats, skins, scarf, and even my croak! Once that’s done, I move on to my first area, Quaint Town. Each level has “Crowputation” that players earn from helping other animals and completing races. There are also items for “crowstomization” hidden in each level. After earning 100 Crowputation, players can move to the next area.
Becoming the Crow
One of the things I enjoyed most about Just Crow Things is being able to fully embody a crow; fly, poop, and swoop just like the lovable black bird. Throughout the game, you’re also given several different items to perform tasks, including a blowtorch, leaf blower, and camera. Tasks include ruining a child’s birthday party, whacking people with baseball bats, using a metal detector to find moon crystals, and of course – pooping, always pooping! Pooping is a key mechanic in the game not just in tasks, but in races too.
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Tasks disappear as you complete them, and are easily trackable on the left side of the screen, something I love as a completionist. However, being a completionist also means being irritated when I don’t collect everything, super hard as a reviewer, and there’s a lot to collect and do in Just Crow Things. Another plus is you don’t have to complete each task to move on – you can accumulate and accomplish as you please, making it easier to complete multiple at a time.
One thing I noticed, I couldn’t speak to characters again if I wanted to hear instructions again, as sometimes the task tracker didn’t capture everything I needed to know, or if I was too trigger-happy during the dialogue. It didn’t interfere with the gameplay, but would’ve loved to get more info again if required without having to quit the level and open it up again. Additionally, there were some sparkle bugs throughout the game – again, nothing that interfered with gameplay but made me think something was there when it wasn’t.
Easter Eggs
Just Crow Things is full of interesting little Easter Eggs and references to pop culture that I loved discovering, including the Ancient Egypt area which bears a striking resemblance to Aladdin’s Agrabah, so much so that it prompted me to attempt several ways to try to open the Cave of Wonders-esque POI in the desert. Towards the end of the game, I remembered there was an overarching story which does wrap up nicely in the last level, giving us that expected closure.
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Should I Buy Just Crow Things?
While it’s likely that many will draw similarities to Untitled Goose Game, I found Just Crow Things refreshingly fun and original, with cute graphics, great level design, fun and mischievous tasks and interesting character dialogue that was short and sweet. I particularly enjoyed playing this on the Steam Deck, so recommend using a controller for those playing it on PC to navigate the skies and swooping easier.
The game felt sufficiently meaty with the amount of things you can do, and I enjoyed discovering little gems throughout the level map too. While the story wasn’t strong, a game like this isn’t really about the story but rather allowing yourself to be the menace you can’t be in real life, and I’m all about that guilty pleasure.
Just Crow Things is out August 15th on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S, with more news on a PlayStation release to come.
Quest Daily score Just Crow Things:
9/10
Quest Daily was supplied a review copy of Just Crow Things for the purpose of this review.
