MiniSquadron Windows Phone
Well, this is about as old school as they come. A side-scrolling dogfighter, this isn’t MiniSquadron’s first sortie: it’s been available on iPhone and Android for a good while now, and seems to have been quite well received. The question is: is its reputation deserved, and is it a good conversion?
Let’s tackle the issue of quality first. As already stated, this is a very traditional type of game – you control a propeller plane (or, occasionally, a UFO, but they control identically) and have to shoot down others. Taking place on a 2D plane (the other sort), you use a virtual stick to manoeuvre your plane, with it altering its pitch to suit: that is to say, pulling its nose up or pushing it down. Invert your aircraft and it automatically rolls to right itself, allowing you to switch direction without having to fly upside down.
Complicating matters are issues you might expect when dogfighting: your plane has a maximum flight ceiling, trying to exceed which will cause you to stall – to lose control as your aircraft ploughs towards the earth, requiring you to put it into a dive to regain speed. Fail to do so at the right moment and bam! You’re toast. Similarly, flying at low altitudes is risky, or even pulling up while in a dogfight – enemy attacks can and will cause your aircraft to jerk in different directions and slow down, potentially putting you into a stall at low altitudes, or simply pointing your plane in the ground’s direction at an inopportune moment.
Enemies, meanwhile, face the same problems you do; they too can stall, can crash, and for the most part are flying planes with similar manoeuvrability to your own. Unlike you, however, they tend to come in large numbers – early levels may see you only facing 3 or 4 at a time, but as things progress it becomes normal to have more than 10 to face down in a single wave. You soon learn to recognise the different types of plane, and their different abilities – some are dogged and will pursue you relentlessly, others will fly aimlessly and only take pot shots at you; some are equipped with homing rockets, or bombs, or laser weapons: knowing your enemies’ behaviour and armaments is key to besting them in combat.
Aiding you are powerups, randomly dropping from the sky – extra lives, points, health and single-shot weapons are all available. Meanwhile, as you defeat enemies you unlock their planes for your own use, getting access to planes with different attributes, equipped with more powerful weapons. It leads to a pleasant progression structure, as you struggle to unlock better aircraft to take on the more difficult missions.
That said, the makes some missteps. The biggest is in allowing the enemy to pick up power-ups. In the levels with larger quantities of enemies, the odds of a power up falling out of the sky onto one of them become quite high, and there is little more frustrating than dying because an enemy chanced upon a power-up which froze you solid, or blasted you straight into the ground. Meanwhile, the randomness of the power-ups can make for a variable experience – so it is that sometimes a level will go smoothly, with the occasional health boost or extra life tiding you over; other times, no such power ups will appear and you’ll find yourself slowly worn down and unable to recover.
The game is a bit samey, too – the concept is fun enough, but will wear thin after an hour or two. The included ‘survival mode’ is just the normal mode with added enemies per wave, and the unlockable aircraft add some compulsion to carry on, but aren’t enough to drastically improve the lifespan of the game; not least because they look so plain. Though not an ugly game, the craft aren’t particularly exciting or attractive, so unlocking a new aircraft doesn’t tend to offer much in the way of an aesthetic reward. And finally, the MIDI-fied ditties that fill the game are somewhat charming in their naffness, but begin to grate a little as the game goes on.
Oh, and then there’s one other issue. And this one’s a bit of a game-breaker – literally. That conversion I talked about? It wasn’t perfect. Personally I’ve had the game crash out a few times between waves – which doesn’t sound terrible, until you realise that it wipes out your score for the level. However, my suffering is nothing compared to some owners, for whom the game purportedly has a raft of problems, including some users being unable to get the game to register any motions on the virtual stick, while others have the game crash on them whenever they finish any wave. Even without the bugs, this isn’t a brilliantly optimised game – it likes to stutter and halt whenever there’s too much going on – “too much” in this case meaning whenever the music loops to the beginning of the track, and whenever any aircraft is hit with a laser weapon. Which, if you’ve equipped a laser-equipped aircraft, happens quite often. Hopefully these are bugs that will be swiftly ironed out, but it’s incredible that an Xbox Live certified game would be released in such a state.
Simply put: this is an entertaining game, but not one with great longevity, and not one whose quality or production values really match up to the price tag. This would be bad enough, but combined with the bugs and compatibility issues riddling the game in its current state, and I can’t recommend it. With the bugs fixed and the price lowered this would be a lovely addition to the Marketplace, but for now? Not so much.
MiniSquadron Xbox Live Achievements
- Bang (5 points): Shoot down your first enemy plane.
- Boiiing (5 points): Bounce off the edge of the screen 3 times in a level.
- Peashooter (10 points): Shoot 3 enemy planes in a row without getting hit.
- My First Plane (10 points): Unlock your first shiny new plane.
- The Survivor (20 points): Play a single wave in Survival Mode without getting hit.
- Big Guns (20 points): Shoot 20 enemy planes in a row without getting hit.
- Easy Peasy (20 points): Complete any level in Classic Mode without losing a life
- Mmmm Planes (30 points): Unlock every plane in the game.
- Globetrotter (30 points): Complete every level in Classic Mode.
- Indestructible (50 points): Complete every level in Classic Mode with 3 or more lives left.
MiniSquadron Gameplay Video
MiniSquadron Screenshots
Version Under Review : 1.0.0.0
There is a trial version available and the full version is available for $2.99, we are not sure what the limitations of the trial version are.
Our Rating for MiniSquadron
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What do you think of this WP7 Game ?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is actually a surprisingly fun game! There are 9 different levels each with many waves of enemies. Atleast 70 different planes, some very funny and others very kool to unlock. The controls are great once u get used to the game. I would recommend you buy this game BUT ONLY AFTER YOU TEST THE TRIAL FIRST! :)
downloading now , looks like a fun game. Wish it were cheaper T_T
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