Each level starts with you launching little Gerald from his power-line perch with your finger, then guiding him onwards and upwards through an obstacle course comprised of iron girders, clothes-lines and bunches of balloons by tilting your device. The aim of the game is to climb as far as you can whilst munching the grains of seed scattered throughout these vibrant environments. Gerald isn’t the world’s greatest flyer so staying in the air is achieved by hitching a lift on a series of handily placed rockets.
Rockets give you a brief boost, propelling Gerald a short distance. If you lose momentum or collide with an obstacle Gerald gets knocked out of the air and begins to plummet downwards, frantically flapping his adorable liccle wings, and you must quickly grab another rocket before our feathered friend becomes considerably less adorable street pizza.
Along the way you can also make use of a selection outlandish power-ups such as football and viking helmets that allow Gerald to smash through obstacles unharmed, an umbrella for some Mary Poppin’s style floating, a jet-pack and more. As you work your way through the game’s four areas things get progressively more difficult as you have to contend with air currents, less rockets, and more obstacles (including some ginormous sea-gulls).
It’s in later levels that Bird Strike comes into its own though, shrugging off that tiresome Doodle Jump comparison, and starting to feel more like a puzzle-cum-platform game, with quick thinking, skillfull tilting, and tactical usage of rockets and other power-ups required to conquer these tricky stages and earn medals.
All in all, Bird Strike is an absolute blast; its wonderful sense of fun, charming central character and gorgeous, cartoony graphics helping the game to rise above any similar offerings on the App Store. A dizzying selection of bonus modes and extras, including leaderboards to be climbed, OpenFeint achievements and an infinitely enjoyable endless mode, mean that this freshly updated edition of Bird Strike really is worth its weight in gold.