Review: Bird Strike

For iPod Touch, iPhone

New Zealand-made Bird Strike.

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With a charming graphical style and simple gameplay, Pik Pok's Bird Strike is a game that belies its $2.59 price tag.

Pik Pok is the iPod Touch/iPhone division of well-known Wellington game maker Sidhe Interactive and the premise is simple: it features a blue bird called Gerald who is sitting on a telephone wire, a city scape in the background. Pull back on the wire and you launch the bird into the air.

The main aim of the game is to gain as much height as you can, and as the bird soars through the air he collect seeds and smashes balloons, earning points. Helping in the quest to gain height are rockets dotted about the level, which will propel the bird higher into the sky. If you time it right, you can go from rocket to rocket, boosting your progress.

When you eventually reach the top of a level, a space ship appears, zapping the bird and turning him into a blazing fireball, plummeting to the ground, and smashing everything in its path. This is where you collect a lot of points.

Sometimes the bird will collect a helmet or an umbrella on his travels, letting him smash into obstacles on the way down or control his descent.

The controls, too, are simple: you simply tilt the iPod Touch left and right to steer the bird into rockets and seeds - and to avoid obstacles.

The game features nine levels, over three continents: the United States, Asia and Europe, and the game features online leaderboard support and achievements and has a cute sense of humour that will generate a chuckle or two. Pik Pok has told me that it is also working on an "Endless Climb" mode for the game.

Bird Strike is what an iPod Touch game should be.

It's reasonably priced, fun to play and charming to look at. And it's from a Kiwi company.

Go buy it.

- © Fairfax NZ News