Five Things I Learned About Puffins (the Animal) from Puffins (the Game)

1. Puffins are fashionable
The first thing you'll do when you start a new game in Puffins: Island Adventure is create your own bird. What kind of hairstyle do you want your puffin to have? Pompadour? Go for it! Mini-afro? Okay, that's kind of weird, but do what you gotta do. You can also change the shape and color scheme of the bird's beak, and choose from among a number of sparkling eyes that would put most animes to shame. My character, for example, looks like a cross between Elvis and Sailor Moon... with some puffin mixed in.

2. Puffins don't fear death
Puffins are reckless, dangerous creatures that live life to the fullest. You may fear death, but they certainly don't. They have hobbies that include barreling down mountains in the Puffin 500, take part in life-threatening cliff dives in Puffin Plummet, and venture into what are most assuredly shark-infested waters in Dive Fishing. Yes, Puffins offers a multitude of dangerous mini-games for you to tempt fate and spit in death's face... if only puffins could spit.

3. Puffins don't trust you
As you progress through the game, you'll need to earn the trust of your fellow puffins by earning reputation points. These are gained by successfully completing minigames, which are then used to unlock even more games. From the outset, you're limited to a certain number of puffin events you can take part in, but work your way up the social ladder by proving your worth in these light, stylus-driven minigames and you'll become king of the island. And then, you'll be the one shunning new puffins--or at least I assume.

4. Puffins are adorable
As you play through Puffins, you'll unlock bonus material that includes photos and video of real puffins hanging out in their natural habitat. And do you know what you'll discover after unlocking these extras? Puffins are adorable. That is a fact. That is science.

5. Puffins are very Canadian
The publisher-provided fact sheet that came with our preview build touts how authentically Canadian the Puffins experience is, going so far as to mention "music in traditional Atlantic Canadian styles" using all manner of Celtic instruments. I had no idea Puffins were so Canadian! To make sure this was the case, I asked our two Canadian editors, Sophia Tong and Brendan Sinclair, what their favorite childhood puffin memories were. Here's how they responded:

Sophia: "my only childhood puffin memory was seeing them at some kind of zoo... somewhere... and me buying postcards of them because they were so cute"

Brendan: "I think I liked that the spine of my Robert Louis Stevenson books had a penguin on it."

I'm not entirely sure that Brendan knows the difference between a puffin and a penguin. At any rate, you can expect Puffins: Island Adventure for the DS to be released this spring.