Birthday's the Beginning's is an ecosystem simulation game that task you with birthing all 292 species in the game. You are given various sized worlds represented as cubes. On these cubes you alter the terrain to match the requirements needed to birth and sustain desired species.  Temperature, Elevation, and food sources are the most important things to think about when getting ready to bring a new species into the world. There are 2 modes: The first is Micro; this is where you  manually alter the biome and then there is Macro, where you pass time to see the results of your work. When in micro mode, you cant just alter the terrain infinitely. Stamina is measured by an HP meter, which is lowered every time the terrain is changed. When it reaches zero you tire out and must rest by passing time. You have to be considerate about how you spend your energy because running out of energy, not having favorable climate and having to pass time (time is stopped during micro mode) to regenerate HP can mean bad things happening to your species. Luckily there are a ton of items that can be found in micro mode that act as instant effects like healing HP. Another example, to raise temperature you need a higher water to land ratio or you could just use a global warming item that does it regardless if the ratio is correct or not.  In Macro mode you can pass the time slowly which recovers HP or fast which uses HP. There is a chart that tracks  how the species are fairing, any new ones that pop up, any extinctions, and changes to the climate of the biome. This is how you figure out if you are making the right moves. 

When requirements are met species will be born and that means you need to capture them. Capturing species adds them to your Pokedex and it also gives experienece so you can level up. When leveling up you get a big increase in HP and sometimes your range for your terraforming increases (can toggle back down for more precis moving). This game is at its finest when you are task with birthing species that requires a ton conditions. You are given a hint about what the species needs in glossary (descriptions are available even if not captured) and when pressing R3. Using that knowledge while filling in the mssing blanks is key to getting everything right especially as you get further than the tree. Game does share everything with you which can lead to some wtf moments. Its all so fun and rewarding though.... except "Diphydon" It took me forever to spawn Diphydon. I must of remodelled that Biome a dozen times untill it spawned. No hint to its last requirement at all. 

That is the game in a nutshell. There is a story mode that takes you from the age of first ocean life to modern age. It is more like a tutorial though. Then there is a challange mode that has you birth certain species in a set amount of years: Get this this this and that to show up in under 5 million years. Unfortunately, there is only 10 of them...why? There are so many things that they could have done with these. Another disappointment is for how fun it is to birth these animals, they dont do much. Simple animations and walking back and fourth, It would be cool to see animals interacting with each other in a variety of ways. Also, alot of recoloring of models to represent different mutation of species when in actual life there is quite physical diffrenece. For such little animation every animal should have had its own unique model. That's all my negatives. A simple concept that makes for an incredibly fun addicting game.

8.5/10