App Review: Mini Squadron Special [Video]

Do you feel the need to shoot flying cats from your UFO while listening to classical music? I hope not, but if this is a dream you want to follow then you could do a lot worse than checking out last years Mini Squadron or the recently released Mini Squadron Special. What makes it so special? Well it’s very much the same as last years game but with more helicopter and more hamster.

So Minisquadron is a little wacky and if you played last years title then I’m sure you’ve enjoyed flying around in craft such as the Pandair (a plane with a panda head) and to get very quickly to the point, if you did play last year’s game and you want some more of the same then besides a few additions here and there, that’s exactly what you get with Mini Squadron Special. For those who didn’t play the previous game; Mini Squadron Special is a combat shooter where you attack waves of other aircraft in eight different areas and try to build up a high score to unlock each of the fifty various aircraft. The game is controlled with a set of directional arrows in one corner and a fire button on the other side, you have full movement around the small 2D environment and there’s a degree of physics involved as climbing too high or slowly will cause you to drop into a stall. The different planes all handle differently with things such as speed and turning circle making a very big difference to how you approach combat, but also each craft has it’s own weapons which vary greatly from devastating lazes and homing missiles to simple guns and fireballs. There’s no upgrading of planes or switching weapons so often you’ll get a new high score and unlock a craft, only to never use it because of the poor weapons it carries. Getting a new high score to unlock a new craft is done by trying to score kill combos without being hit, this can mean that the slower craft that can take a real pounding might be easier to play with, but you’ll be getting a far lower score, so you’ll need to find a  balance between risk and reward when choosing, or just keep hidden and keep firing off lazes and homing missiles.

Combat plays out very quickly so it’s fortunate that the graphics are kept clean. there’s rarely any clash between the combat going on in the foreground and the background art and with arrows to help you find other craft and smoke trails and fire, even when things get a little cluttered, things don’t become confusing. The game’s art is hand drawn and creative but some of the sprites simply aren’t that well drawn, especially the animals that pass across the screen you’ll often have to look closely to understand what they are supposed to be. The game’s music is made up from various pieces of classical music, these aren’t partially great quality but the obscurity of listening to music like The Blue Danube Waltz while playing a game of this type is a great novelty and I always had the music turned up.

Mini Squadron Special defiantly isn’t a sequel to the previous game, it’s more like a stand alone mission pack. The helicopters do mix things up with their instant turning, making them potentially very powerful tools to rack up larger combos but that alone doesn’t necessarily make this game better than the original. Either game is worth a purchase as a fun and unique time waster.

When you’re ready, head over to the Android Market and download this game by clicking or scanning the QR Code below.

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