Have you ever wondered why birds poop so much? Specifically, have you ever wondered why they poop so much on your car? Or even worse, on you? Maybe it’s not just bad luck – maybe you’ve wronged these birds somehow and now they’re out to set things right. That’s more or less the premise behind the bird poop bomber Pigeon Squadron.
Have you ever wondered why birds poop so much? Specifically, have you ever wondered why they poop so much on your car? Or even worse, on you? Maybe it’s not just bad luck – maybe you’ve wronged these birds somehow and now they’re out to set things right. That’s more or less the premise behind the bird poop bomber Pigeon Squadron.
Despite the bird poop motif, Pigeon Squadron is essentially a playful spin on the bomber genre. If you’ve ever played games like AC-130 Spectre or iBomber 2, you’ll know exactly what to expect – albeit with a charming, colourful polish not found in those down’n’dirty military sims.
Sticking with the military motif of its inspirations, the loose story follows a squadron of pigeons as they seem to fight a faux World War II in the skies above London, Paris, and New York. Their General bears a striking resemblance to Winston Churchill. The pigeon Philby looks a lot like an RAF pilot. A WW2 vibe sneaks into every little corner of the story and character design – which ends up making for a cute contrast when you see how common and peaceful the cities are that you’ll be pooping on.
Using the iPhone’s tilt controls to manage direction and speed, players will guide a pigeon around the city in an attempt to poop on specific targets and take out the enemy. Sometimes you’ll simply be targeting cats. Other times it’s tennis players whose balls pose a threat to birds everywhere. Play long enough and you’ll even get to drop a deuce on the Queen of England. In many respects, Pigeon Squadron is silliness personified.
That silliness is appreciated, and it remains throughout the game’s lengthy campaign – but the gameplay can feel somewhat repetitive after awhile. Missions are largely the same, simply requiring you to poop on a certain number of specific targets within in a time limit. And the game can be quite easy, too. Meeting mission objectives is rarely difficult, and you’ll almost always complete them on the first attempt. Still – despite this simplicity and repetition, Pigeon Squadron manages to be a well-polished bomber game that moves a little faster than the competition, making it something that even seasoned veterans of the genre are bound to enjoy.
In fact, the only real mis-step in execution seemed to stem from the “bomb” button (and yes, by bomb we mean bird dookie). By making it a small button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, it became all too easy to miss your tap during crucial moments. What’s truly baffling is that the developers decided against letting you tap anywhere to drop your payload. With the touch screen being used exclusively to drop bombs, it’s hard to imagine why this superior design choice wasn’t employed.
With a lengthy campaign, a colourful cast of characters, and some fast and fun gameplay, Pigeon Squadron is a bomb run that can providecasual gamers a great introduction to the genre. We would have liked to have seen a higher difficulty and more variety, but all in all, there’s more than enough going on here to justify the price of admission. If you’re looking for a casual and colourful alternative to the all-too-serious military bomber games on the market, Pigeon Squadron is currently your best bet on the App Store.
