Firebird - Steam version

A good solid game. It's difficult for me to review this one. On one hand I can see it is a very well done game technically speaking and even in design for the most part. It feels responsive. Has many interesting enemy types and lots of FX, clear audio including speech and so forth. The biggest issue I have with it is the crazy amount of particles flooding the screen. Every time you destroy an enemy ship it seems like hundreds of particles of debris come out that don't disappear or if they do it takes a long time for them to disappear. And that is the biggest flaw of this game in my opinion. Destroy many enemies and the screen is basically covered with particles effectively clouding the display. I think if the particles disappeared MUCH faster or there simply were not so darn many of them this could be a very good shmup. Some people may enjoy the particle overload and as everything seems well done and I did enjoy playing it although visibility was poor I do recommend it! I hope there is an update that lets us customize the particle lifetime or amount maybe options such as Total Insanity (current) down to BareBones (like 1/10th the current settings). lol

As the description says, the gameplay is retro and very reminiscent of classic games such as Space Invaders. However, the developers clearly weren’t intending to make a clone of those old 8-bit games. The graphics (while quite basic) are far removed from the ‘80s era with clean curves and nice animation. The sound is also modern including the speech. The default keyboard controls have been well-planned and feel intuitive. They can be changed in Options which I think is a helpful feature. My Xbox controller also works with the game but I wasn’t able to find any option for changing the controls there. To fire the gun you can just hold the key down. This always seems a bit pointless to me. Perhaps some kind of overheat thing or the need to collect ammunition would have made it more interesting. It took me a little while to figure out that some of the objects didn’t kill and instead offered weapon upgrades. Once I discovered this I had great fun decimating the enemy. I really liked the shield too – it gave my poor adrenal gland a much needed rest! I also unlocked achievements which was very satisfying. At one Stage I encountered what looked like a mothership and thought there w…

That man, with a fetish for particle effects, is playing Galaga! A challenge and good fun. I think spotting bullets amongst the particles is supposed to be part of the challenge.