A turn-based aerial dogfighting game may sound bland in writing, but as SteamBirds conclusively proves, it's the whole nine yards of awesome. Working from a top-down perspective, you fight a series of increasingly difficult enemies with your small squadron of planes. Set your course, unleash a fancy ability if necessary, and try to maneuver yourself to a direct line-of-sight to your foe to set your guns blazing. And, you know, don't get shot down yourself.
SteamBirds takes place across a fictional past where fusion aircrafts utilize super-heated steam to wage powerful warfare in the skies. Each stage is a small chapter highlighting battles that took place during this time, the outcome of which is determined by you (assuming you win, of course). You control the red planes on the left side of the screen. Set each craft's flight path by moving the arrow that extends from its nose. When you're all set, end the turn and watch the show.
Planes only fire at each other when they're close enough and facing the right direction. Fortunately, you have a few tools that can help you get out of sticky situations. At the end of each plane's flight path you can choose one of two abilities assigned on a per-level basis. At first, your planes' special abilities are limited to a defensive shield, a speed boost, and a quick-turn option. Later you get access to weapons such as missiles and bombs, but naturally your enemies at that point require a lot more finesse to deal with.
Analysis: SteamBirds emanates perfection from just about every part of its construction. It's an easy game to play, requiring only the mouse to control, and new elements are introduced at a gradual pace, giving you plenty of time to acclimate. SteamBirds' subtleties definitely take some practice to master, though, and in later levels, you'll discover just how important strategy and patience can be.
Visually, SteamBirds is simple but very well designed. The green relief maps give the game a feeling of age and strategy, while the bright explosions, green poison gas, and white ammunitions fire provide a stark arcade contrast that stands out in more ways than one.
Also worth noting is the development team behind SteamBirds, including Andy Moore (Fantastic Contraption), Daniel Cook (Bunni), and DannyB (Canabalt). Can you say... "wow"?
Brilliant casual gameplay design, SteamBirds weaves action and strategy elements with a bit of storytelling to create a stunning experience.
Thoroughly enjoying this one, though I am stuck in 1948! Love Dane Cook's graphics, and Andy Moore's work is also beautiful.
This plays a lot like an old windows game I found called Shadow Armada. The two games have more or less identical control schemes.
Woo, beat it!
For 1948:
Use your poison gas and run!
There are some really fun bonus levels which introduce missiles and bombs.
I'm up to the seventh level so far (not stuck, just taking a break). Fun gameplay, great music, well-handled controls, nice graphics. Yay dogfighting! :D
I like this game. I like it a lot.
THE GODS OF FLASH (excluding mur) HAVE GIVEN US OUR SAVIOR
But seriously, play the game, you won't be disappointed.
Very smooth, but I could wish for more: primary vs. secondary targets, an idea of the enemy's capabilities...
A lot like Critical Mass by Sean O'Connor, but that was all missiles rather than guns. Steambirds is a lot more forgiving too!
I really like it, but I'm having a hard time getting more than one or two stars from 1939 up. Very hard not to take any damage on these whatsoever.
The poison gas really ruins otherwise fun gameplay for me. It's weird in a lot of ways:
-It kind of replicates a tail-gunner, but the damage zone is persistent instead of instantaneous: I can't pilot through a zone which would be dangerous in one part of the move but not another, it's just always on.
-When I can gas, it stays on the field permanently, whereas enemies' disappears - this winds up hurting me way more than it helps, since my own gas damages my planes.
-Enemy planes appear to be able to gas every turn, whereas I have a cooldown.
-Not that realism is super important, but why the heck would poison gas bust components of my plane?
I also just found out that your homing missles, if no other enemy target is in range, will target your wingmen.
I agree with LTR,1TW. The poison gas makes the game too tedious. I really enjoyed the game up until the gas becomes your primary weapon. I would prefer a larger variety of weapons or planes instead.
I got stuck on 1949
I can handle their plane just fine, but I have no clue how to take out enemies with 360 degree firing areas that move too slow to get to my gas before it dissipates.
@mystify
Gas flip around and don't let the turrets get you right away. Let the bturtle follow you and gas it to death. Lead it away from the turrets so you have room. The floating turrets/balloons don't have 360, more like 270. You can come in from behind and get them, pick them off like stray herd animals. It's tedious but it can be done.
Anyone else having major lag issues? On a few of the mid-to-late levels, the game slows down to the point that I can't do anything.
Sorry for the typos "gas flip" doesn't make much sense. :(
I am having trouble on 1945 i just cant kill that zepplin can anyone help me
@mystify and for people having trouble with balloons
It seems that their range is much shorter than your range is. I suggest approaching them from far away, and then get 1 or to turns of very small movement so that you can get a bunch of shots off before getting too close. Then circle away and try again.
To all employees of jayisgames.com:
I love what you guys do, but you're dangling a carrot in front of my face on this one. A link to armorgames is a slap to the face followed by a kick to the genitals for me and alot of other people, too. The thing is, Armorgames NEVER LOADS!!!!!! You guys really need to give alternative links, because I am going to die of anticipation for this one to get onto newgrounds.
[Sorry to hear that Armor Games never loads for you, have you tried contacting them about it? I am sure they would love to figure out why the site doesn't load for some people. I have never heard that problem reported before. -Jay]
That said, 1939 is proving to be...troublesome.
I can't get it to work either. I'm playing on a Mac, if that makes a difference. I see the logo for the developers, but then it just cuts to a green screen. Sad =(
The game loads fine for Me and the other 200,00 people who have played 'SteamBirds' in less than 24-hours!
Thanks for reviewing the game JIG! Andy Moore and his team did an exceptional job on this game.
general tip: get behind, go slow(pull the marker as close to the plane as it will go) and you WILL get combos into the 60s and beyond. when you move in front, 180 or speed outta there.
I liked the game. Until it erased all my info and I had to start again. I was on the level with the really big plane verses my three planes and I beat it. When it went back to level selection all my game data was gone. I went O_o. I love the game but this random glitch makes me sad.
I'm on a Mac, too, and experienced no problems loading at all in any of the major browsers.
Tested on: Firefox (3.6), Opera (10.10), Safari (4.04), Camino (2.02), and Chrome (5.0.307.11 beta)
apparently there aren't TOO many problems with loading, but I still stand by my reccomendation of posting multiple links to play the game on.
Good game. Here are some suggestions for the sequel:
1. An in-game "restart" button.
2. Stats should focus on range and direction of enemy's guns. Or, when you focus on an enemy, maybe it could have a ring around it showing the range of its guns
3. The ability to choose your planes' special abilities. Do you want shields, speed, gas, or u-turns? I understand the dev wanted to have specific strategies for specific levels, so each level can have a recommended ability setting.
4. 2 player or multiplayer. That would be sweet.
5. Maybe a sandbox where players can create their own levels.
There's good replay value in trying to beat a level again taking less damage, but there would be more if there were an element of randomness, or as I said, a sandbox.
Anyone else think this would be great on the iPhone? I'd buy it! Great game!!
I loved Critical Mass and now I'm looking up Shadow Armada. Thanks Vebyast. :>
I do love this game very dearly, nice work to the developers with the elegant gameplay and the compelling steampunk/dieselpunk theme, but it does make me miss something that Critical Mass had: more information about enemy planes. Exactly how many guns is that enemy bomber carrying? What are their arcs of fire? Their ranges? For that matter, what's the effective range of my own guns. I have a decent idea by now, but it'd be nice to just *know*. More information please.
I hope there's a sequel -- Chromebirds or something like that -- do the Cold War in space in full 50s tailfin space opera style!
Stuck on 1948. I
use the gas with the first plane and keep on going straight
but I get off the map and die! And how do you take out the
bomerino
anyway?
@raddaya:
you just
Circle around the slow, unmaneuverable bomberino. Then, fire at it from dead-behind it, where it can't fire back. Trail it at the slowest speed you can until you have only a little room, then break off.
How do I get perfect scores on the missions (roughly half of them) where I come in facing a group of enemies, and then closer ones coming from the north and south? I can kill them with 3 stars, but one of them always clips me.
Bob
The best (and sometimes ONLY) way to get 4 stars on these levels is to exploit the AI. As near as I can tell, each opposing plane picks 1 of your planes as its "target" and will not chase (though it will shoot at) any other planes you have.
The easiest way to take advantage of this: Have all your planes turn around and run ASAP. Get the enemy to split up by moving your planes in different directions. Now, you need to free up a plane. If you have one with gas, you're set. Let the enemies get close (not too close) and keep gassing them. This will allow you to kill all the planes following your duster, which can then swing around and kill off the opposing planes one at a time.
If you lack a duster, then use a speed plane. Have the speedy plane out distance its pursuers, wheel about and hunt down the SOBs chasing another plane, which can then return the favor.
Woah! Critical mass similarities here, I am getting a huge amount of nostalgia, can't wait to play it!
I like a lot of xief's suggestions above, especially being able to see the shooting ranges of all planes.
Also, this game has a real pet peeve of mine that a lot of other games have--in that it doesn't have separate controls for the music and game sounds. The large majority of the time I end up turning off the in-game music because it's annoying or get tired of the loop. But sometimes the only option given is to mute everything.
Also I found a couple times in this game that the mute button would disappear while playing a level and was stuck with whatever setting I had it on at the time.
Overall I enjoyed it and shows a lot of potential with added options and customization.
1. For those of you that have lag problems, open up your task manager (ctrl+alt+del) and look at the memory your browser is using. This game EATS memory. If you're lagging but still want to play you need to periodically close and reopen your browser.
2. 1939 4 star strategy:
Plane on top is P1 plane on bottom is P2
P1 & P2: Hard right.
P1: Hard right with shield.
P2: Hard left continue zig zagging this way until the enemy is in firing range of you, then do a hard turn with shield. Afterward you should be in the "circling" mode to get behind them to fire.
P1: Go straight, then begin zig zag pattern like you did with P2.
So, basically, this is a very nice adaptation of the excellent miniatures boardgame Wings of War but without the clever card management aspect and with some of the tedious bookkeeping done automatically.
That's not to say it's not very enjoyable. But I would be very surprised to learn that the designers had never played Wings of War. (Of course, the main difference with boardgames is that you are playing a real person, so it's rather more difficult to exploit the AI!)
@Scurra
I made that point 2 days ago, but strangely, my comment was not posted.
@Scurra
Andy played Wings of War briefly at PAX and one day doodled up a simple prototype that he then showed me. I am embarrassed to say that I had never played the board game, but was intrigued by his prototype, so I started riffing on it from there.
Other than the turn structure, the rest of Steambirds was pretty much black box design. The control system, the units, the poison gas, the setting, etc. We should have stolen them, but we weren't smart enough. :-)
Games have long and curious histories. After the promo video for Steambirds came out, someone alerted me to the existence of Critical Mass by Sean O'Connor, a game with a similar mouse-based control system released in 1995. Emergent evolution at work...I had managed to independently 'invent' the same idea 15 years later. :-) He in turn tells me he was inspired by a game called Full Thrust released in 1991.
IMO, it is an under represented genre...4 or 5 titles in 19 years is mighty slim pickings for folks who enjoy a bit of turn-based air combat. So the more the merrier.
Glad folks are enjoying the game! What sort of things could you imagine being in future versions?
Danc.
PS: As an ode to Critical Mass, we added missiles in the bonus missions. Thank you Sean!
Problems from another Mac user:
I can play the first training level (1907) with no problem. After completing it, I return to the menu but am unable to play any other level. The game still thinks I have yet to complete 1907.
OS 10.6.2, Camino 2.02 and Safari 4.0.4
Thanks for that. I wasn't trying to suggest that anyone had "stolen" anything - after all, there are only so many ways of doing this, as the similarities with Critical Mass show; I suspect that it's because I'm an aficionado of Wings of War that it struck me that way. And this is a nicely elegant implementation of the principle, but you're right - it's a badly under-represented genre, although hopefully this will inspire more exploration of the ideas.
It'd be fun to see a "night-flight" version - where you need searchlights on the ground to illuminate the enemy... (assuming, of course, the game doesn't have that. I'm still stuck in the middle somewhere!)
Stuck on the last level. Any help?
Did I miss the warning that says "Whatever you do, don't fly off the bottom of the map. The game will totally stop."? 'Cause that's what happens. It's a shame, I was really enjoying this one until then.
I have only two complaints
the sequel needs info on the enemies gun range and needs to be longer! I love it but feel sad when I beats it
raddaya:
At the start, have the two northern planes turn northwards, and the two southern plans turn southwards, and take a few turns to lead the two Turtles away from the Behemoth.
Once you have enough open space, turn in tight circles to get behind and inside each Turtle. Try very hard not to cross his path during your "current" turn, since you don't know beforehand whether or not he'll be gassing this turn. If you must pass through some gas, use your armor, and cross through it as quickly as you can.
With practice, you should be able to take out both Turtles without taking any damage, and then you can focus on the Behemoth. It will be actively following one of your planes, so have that plane get way out ahead of it and fly very slowly, while the other three approach it from behind. Make your attack runs very slowly (so as to maximize firing time), and when you get too close, use your armor, break off to one side, then circle behind it and make another slow attack run.
Once you get a feeling for the range on the Behemoth's guns, it's not too hard to earn four stars on this mission. Just be patient, and use your armor when you have to.
Thanks I finally did it :D but nothing seems to have happened... what do you need to unluck 1835?
raddaya:
1835 isn't a playable mission, the mouseover comment at the bottom of the screen just sets the tone. :-)
When you finish 1950, it unlocks the bonus levels in the main menu.
Anyone been able to get 4 stars on 1946? Enemy planes are so much faster than my planes; it seems impossible NOT to get shot at least once.
Update to my previous post:
The bug I reported appears to be OS X 10.6 specific. On another computer running 10.5.8, I am able to progress past the first level fine.
So...something about how 10.6 interacts with Flash for this specific game seems to be a bit screwy.
@ Notbob
I have 10.6.2 and it works fine for me. Try clearing your flash cache: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
I don't understand why my two planes have different powers. Why is it that one can do a 180° and the other can't, while one can turbo-boost and the other can't?
Reminds me of critical mass. Loved that game
Um, I could play bonus levels from the very start. Anyway stuck in 1956, help please? :S
@ raddaya
Try to get all 3 of your planes to pass in between the bombers, then do a U-turn and stay right behind them. Shoot them while keeping an eye on incoming missiles. Missiles have pretty predictable routes, so you can usually tell when you'll need Shields and when you'll be okay.
it is not in a fictional universe! the infamous Luftwaffe plane? the bombing of London? the Blitz? ring any non-fictional bells?
I cannot seem to get past lvl 1945 can anybody help me please?
What would make it a bit less frustrating is a save system where one could reload a certain position prior to making a trivial mistake. An 'undo' function for when you're attempting high-risk maneuvers 15 turns into the round so that instead of having to start over from scratch you can start with one of your safe positions and try again.
I played this one over and over. Great game. =)
I love this game, but I do have an issue with one of the rules: if you fly a plane off of the map, you lose it (and the stars for keeping it healthy). Actually, once I encountered it and worked it into my playing, it was acceptable. The big problem came when I was maneuvering too close to the edge at endgame of 1939, destroyed the last enemy plane, and both of my planes were 'forced' to fly off of the map, even though I had had enough space to turn and avoid it. This turned my 4 star performance into a 1 star one.
Off-screen destruction should not occur after a level's end, especially since one no longer has control of maneuvering the planes.
Personally, I consider a game I see here at JiG to be a "great game" if I continue coming back to play it after it has fallen off of JiG's front page.
By that standard, this is a great game. :-D
(Still can't pass the last bonus mission, though.)
For 1956
Drive all three planes through the middle of the enemy (shield might help for the outer two planes) then use the two outer planes to tail the enemy and the middle one as a spotter a couple of turn lenghts behind to pick of the missiles.
Just finished the game (did manage to)...
It has a wonderful gameplay and the way it works... superb.
I was only imagining levels where we also had Bombers (and had to protect them), and why not... also bomb, and Flak.
I haven't yet figured it out on HOW can one play some levels WITHOUT being Hit... but will return to try it out :)
Four stars in 1956
This is easy once you realize you can shoot down missiles. Use the same teamwork you have to achieve four stars in the previous levels.
Fly your three planes between the two enemies. (You'll have to dodge or shoot down their first salvo) Have all planes pull a 180, then fly them slowly behind the northern enemy and pour all your fire into it.
A couple rounds in, the enemy missiles will begin to loop back for you. Take one plane and pull another 180. Fly this plane down the missile path, and shoot them down as they come. This frees up your remaining birds to finish off the northern enemy and then casually pick off the second.
hi all
liked this game and finished it. redoing levels i got more starts, now i am "revered ace". some levels drove me crazy though, like the ones where a couple of fast planes chase you and you can just run run run!
see you
I was on the lvl with the four plans chasing you, and I learned that if the end of you little line is off the edge of the screen you are screwed. You can't steer, so you just die.I coulda won!
I loved the game up until 1948, when having to keep ahead of the fast enemies led to my planes' movement arrows falling off the edge of the field. Also, I agree that fights that rely on stupid AI + poison gas aren't so fun.
Made it through the game, but cannot get 4 stars on 1951 or 1952...get hits on second run...
1951 and 1952 can be four-starred by the following:
(Your planes are numbered from northernmost (#1) to southernmost (#3).)
Turn 1: #1 and #2 make huge sweeping turns to the north. #3 makes huge sweeping turn to the south.
Turn 2: #1 continues north. #2 makes huge sweeping turn to the west, dropping gas (1951) or bombs (1952). #3 continues south.
From this point, it's just a matter of running away from pursuing enemies, staying out of their ranges (the tricky part), and relying on your defensive weaponry to finish them off. Once no enemies are in pursuit of any one plane, it is free to turn around, close in on other enemies, and take them out using missiles.
100 chain link! woot
Finally 4 stared all the standard levels, the most difficult to make a clean run was 1946 by far:
For those wanting a little initial hint in '46
Top to bottom P1 - P4.
Initial move:
P1 - Booster Left turn, about halfway between Cream Dart and max left turn
P2 - Pull throttle all the way back so you move the min going forward
P3 - Reverse move
P4 - Booster Right turn, about halfway between the Gray Dark and the max right turn
Turn 2:
P1 - Gradual right turn
P2 - Straight, engage shield
P3 - ignore this round
P4 - Gradual left turn
(at the end of the turn P1 and P4 should be more or less facing east, P2 should be nose to nose with a blue dart, and P3 facing west)
Gray Dart and bottom Blue Dart will follow P4, Cream Dart and Top Blue Dart will follow P1, middle Blue Dart can go either way
Turn 3:
P1 - booster straight
P2 - left turn, should be able to fire upon Top blue dart
P3 - Reverse
P4 - Booster straight
After turn three there are enough variables that all I can do is offer general advice.
P2 should be able to kill Top Blue pretty quick, freeing P1 to sharp bank right and engage in the fight. P2 will have to avoid Cream as it is at a difficult angle to engage with right away.
If you are lucky Middle Blue will follow P4 along with Bottom Blue and Gray. After the second reverse P3 can drop down and use angles to catch Gray and Middle Blue (if it went south)
After P2 Takes out Top Blue, P1 can cross over going south and catch Bottom Blue while it is pursing P4.
Use Boosters, not gas with P1 and P4. I had a lot of trouble with the gas self harming the planes it came from. If you are having trouble catching up to pursuing Darts, have your lead planes (P1 and P4 likely) make wide turns with the boosters and your pursuit planes cut the angles
can any one help me on 1945 i can't kill the zepplin?
Hey!
Thanks a lot for making this great game.
I've finished all levels and the bonus ones as well, with the latter requiring some thinking.
Unlike other folks, I liked the poison gas bit a lot - once I'd figured out what it was that was killing all my planes off... :)
Touche!
Great Game! Got 4 stars on every level. 1946 was the hardest but finally got it. Here's how:
Planes from top to bottom:
Move 1
1st: Make a 90 left turn
2nd: Fly straight but almost as slow as possible.
3rd: U-turn
4th: Make a 90 right turn
Move 2
1st: Use speed
2nd: Use shield
3rd: Nothing
4th: Use speed
From then on just use planes 1 and 4 by alternating the speed and poison gas to kill the chasing planes.
Plane 2: Bank back to the left to catch and kill enemy that just passed you. (Not the enemy chasing plane #1)
Plane 3 just trys to catch up.
I have no idea what people had trouble with for 1946. I got it first try (only 2 stars, though.)
Loved this game, and got four stars on every level (including bonuses). It's really almost a puzzle game given the tightly controlled starting conditions. Turn here, shoot here to get a perfect score.
Anyway, I like the game but I'd like to see steambirds 2 opened up a bit to be more RPG style. Collect points on missions and use them to buy and upgrade planes. Add a few more plane styles (especially for the player). And maybe some more variation in the maps--I liked the style, but for a longer game the plain brown might get repetitive. Some map-drawing style bodies of water or forests might look nice. It would also be neat to have some canyons to fly through or mountains to avoid.
I'd also like some way to plot your move a few turns ahead, or put planes in a holding pattern.
But that's all just stuff that would make nice extras, the game as it is plays very well.
Oh, one other suggestion: I'm not normally one for instant replays, but it'd be neat to have the option to watch the whole battle over again without pauses.
There is a video of Andy Moore giving a postmortem on SteamBirds:
http://casualconnect.org/content/Seattle/2010/steambirdsseattle10.html
how do you beat level 1945?
watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpQ_coRVPVE&p=FFBDDEEFF2015695
2 beat level 1945
In the level with the flying wing and the dusters, fly away from everything. Then turn around, and the dusters will be away from the wing. Take them out. If the wing catches up with you, turn and run away again. The dusters will keep up. The you shoot them down some more. Once you have beat them all, go towards the wing. Send two of the planes away from it, and one of the planes towards it, but not close enough to get shot. This is a diversion, to get the others behind it. BE CAREFUL, IT CAN SHOOT SIDEWAYS AS WELL AS FORWARDS! The just keep shooting at it while flying short distances. Then when you get behind it, turn around, fly away and come back again. Eventually he will die, and you will get 4 stars.
Please help me! I'm stuck on 1948 for ipod! I easily passed the level on the computer but can't on the ipod. Ive listened to every walkthru I can find, but none are reliable. Could someone please tell me where to find a good one, or just tell me how personally.
I think the game is broken, all it lets me do is the training over and over... none of the other levels appear. The chrome version is the same. Perhaps I need Internet Explorer? If so it should say.
[Have you collected enough stars in the training levels to move on? Make sure you are and the other levels will unlock. The game does not require IE. -Jay]
Update