Star Trek: The Birds of Prey

-jumbuck (2004)

-played on a LG-5450

Summary

It’s the most action packed adventure of the original Enterprise crew ever.

My Thoughts

If you weren’t getting enough Star Trek in your life, jumbuck has created an excellent mobile shooter based on the original series. The prime directive has been thrown aside in Birds of Prey. The Enterprise bathes in the blood of its enemies as it destroys dozens of Klingon and Romulan ships in each of the five stages. The original Enterprise has never seen so much action before.

Each stage has a different goal or play mechanic. In the first stage the Enterprise flies dangerously low to the surface of a planet. The only times I’ve seen an Enterprise this low to a planet was when it was crashing. The ship even goes to warp while this close to the surface. I don’t know the specifics of Star Trek technology, but wouldn’t going to warp that close to the planet potentially destroy the Enterprise and the planet? I digress. The other stages feature tons of variety with the next stage the Enterprise flies through an asteroid and mine field. After that the ship has to stop and defend a space station. One stage is in a wormhole where the ship is pulled to the sides by the wormhole’s gravitational field. In another mission the Enterprise will be equipped with a cloaking device and will have to sneak past sentries.

Between and during missions the heads of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Scotty, and Uhura will pop on screen to add more to the story. The sounds are actually very good for a cell phone game. The familiar theme plays during the title screen. The phaser, impact, and explosion sound effects are excellent and much better than most of the piddly sounds I hear on almost every other cell games.

The Klingon Battle Cruisers and Romulan Birds of Prey can fire in any direction, but the Enterprise can only fire its phasers forward. The phasers will only angle if they are already hitting a moving enemy ship. The phasers can also overheat if you try to use them too much in succession. There is a limited supply of photon torpedoes which can take out a ship in one hit. The Enterprise has two health bars; one for shields and one for heath. The shields recharge but more health is only obtainable in power-ups.

Birds of Prey has pretty much everything you would want in a mobile shooter. It isn’t just a good shooter, it’s actually a good Star Trek game.

Score: 8.5

-Shawn  

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