Shoot the Birds Review

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Shoot the Birds Review

at 10:05 AM

Shoot the Birds Review

By Lisa Caplan on August 16th, 2011
Our Rating:

:: ODDLY SATISFYING
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Shoot the Birds mixes elements of iOS bird classics and comes up with a new game with a decidedly different attitude about our avian “friends.”

Developer: Infinite Dreams
Price: $.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.19 out of 5 stars

Shoot the Birds poses the question: "Do you really hate when those [bird] bullies peek at you with this angry look that says – "Hey, I'm not scared of you and I'm so not getting out of your way?” Or do you just want them to pay and suffer for the chicken flu, the diseases they carry and waking you up by tweeting and chirping after midnight?

Well if the answer is yes, Shoot the Birds is the answer to your prayers.

The game is something I’ve not seen before – an endless shooter. Well, of course it ends, but Infinite Dream’s press release compares it to iOS darling Tiny Wings and it is similar in that a) there are birds and b) gamers have to achieve a goal – in this case, killing as large a number of avian pests as possible before night falls.

The games also compares itself to Angry Birds and it is also similar in that a) there are birds and b) gamers use the same sort of projectile physics to aim. Beyond that, Shoot the Birds stands apart – it’s ironic, not sweet or cute.

in this Game Center enabled title, players control a pumpkin-headed man who is out to seek vengeance on the flying beasts that plague him. Players pull back on a crossbow to control the path and speed of an arrow and let loose in the hopes of skewering as many birds – and there are a variety of species worth different point values, smaller being better – as possible.

Small birds fly faster too, but the hilarious big ol' fat chickens who defy gravity can take out smaller birds on their way down. Don't fire randomly. Missed shots make night fall faster, while accuracy pays off with longer daylight flying time.

The controls are simple and accurate, but perhaps a touch oversensitive. It's easy to start firing willy nilly, but ill-advised. The graphics and soundtrack are simple but compelling, and again like Tiny Wings, certain achievements, like hitting a set number of birds in a row, add permanent score multipliers.

That's pretty much all there is to this simple, addictive game. Aim, shoot and hope to kill as many birds with one arrow as possible, and do it all fast.

Like many of Infinite Dreams games, like Can KnockDown 2, the premise and gameplay are simple, but strangely compelling. There isn't much to create replay value per se, so much as the game offers a short burst of visceral satisfaction gamers will return to again and again.