Take to the skies in SteamBirds: Survival
The latest iOS game from Spry Fox and Halfbrick (the studio that brought us the immensely popular “Fruit Ninja” title) takes a turn-based top-down approach to aerial combat in a WWII UK setting. You take the role of an elite WWII Allied pilot and must stand your ground to defeat waves upon waves of Axis enemies, all while helping the UK citizens evacuate before the Axis Armada obliterates their homes. There are 8 aircraft available and 64 missions at application launch, with updates promised to come adding more content over time. Each aircraft has its own strengths and weaknesses, so there’s some strategy involved in choosing the right one for each mission. Power-ups are also dropped occasionally by enemy fighters, which will certainly come in handy as you work to conquer the Axis invaders.
Work with your reinforcements to take down multiple targets
Playing through this game is a lot of fun, honestly. It’s turn-based, so you direct the flight path of your fighter and can go a certain range each turn. You have to try to line up enemy fighters to shoot them down, while also taking care to stay out of their line of fire. The difficulty really starts ramping up after the 6th level in the first campaign, though, when there start to be many more enemy fighters on the screen to try and dodge around, and the power-ups you pick up from downed aircraft become an essential part of completing the level.
The enemy is closing in on both sides!
Power-ups like healing your plane, super speed to get out of tight situations, bombs you drop behind you so that anyone chasing you gets caught in the explosion, and the like. A variety of enemy planes comes into play as well, from standard fighters, to larger bombers, all the way up to a zeppelin in the 8th level (which I’m currently stuck on). In some missions, you have some friendly backup planes helping you out (as long as they don’t get shot down as well). You also can unlock additional fighters and missions after collecting copper coins in the game by completing missions.
You've got the whole Axis fleet on your tail!
Now, I have to mention one dissatisfier to the game that jumped out at me right when I started it up. The game is free, with micro-transactions to purchase additional copper coins so that you can unlock planes and missions quicker. This, by itself, is fine – I fully understand (and sometimes participate) in that model. What I don’t like, though, in any game, is ads.
Greeted with a Dating App ad on my first launch
Especially poorly targeted ads (I don’t need a singles/dating app, thank you) that are poorly placed and obstrucing things on the screen that I want to click on. I understand free aps and the need for ads to support them, and this is honestly a great game to be able to play for free, but at least don’t make the ads obstructive and try to target them a little better. I don’t mind paying for a game if it means I don’t get any ads, and I hope they make that option available as I would happily pay for this title.
Ads stay on the bottom of the screen until the actual gameplay, covering some menu selections
So, in conclusion, this is really a fun and addictive game with a lot of “just one more try” factor built-in. I’m determined to get to the end of the first group of missions to see the boss fight, and have almost collected enough coins to get to the next set of missions. Do something about the poor placement of the ads, and I think I have a new favorite waiting-in-line-at-Starbucks game. The game is available in iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad versions
UPDATE 10/20 – There was an update to the app that loaded in for me last night, and one of the patch notes said that it was fixing a bug with the banner ads. I loaded it up again this morning, and the ads were gone! I played a few levels and didn’t see any ads at all, though I’m anticipating seeing them again at some point, just not all the time as it was. And, I’m perfectly fine with that. I understand free games need to generate some revenue somehow (along with the micro-transaction system in the game), and this change made that much less intrusive upon the overall experience. Bravo, and this app now gets my full seal of approval! Now, back to trying to take down that boss in the Manchester levels…
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