Your Sinclair


Star Firebirds

Author: Rachael Smith
Publisher: Insight
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Your Sinclair #1

Star Firebirds

No relation to either Firebird Software (unless it's a by-product of Don't Buy This) nor Star Birds, this is a recreation of an old arcade machine. A very competent recreation - but also a very old machine.

And it came to pass that Space Invaders begat Galaxians and Galaxians sort of begat Space Firebirds, who swoop around in various Red Arrows style flight patterns, dropping what the instructions say are bombs, though we all know what birds usually drop!

For protection your titchy little ship has got an umbrella... no, a cannon and a faulty warp which operates once only as and when it feels like it, wiping out everything you encounter in your race for the top. So you blast away at the birds shoot out the odd mega-bomb for bonus points, and finally take multiple pot-shots at the big red bird that swoops in at the end. All of which is so simple on the two easier levels that you'll soon be in a High Score Table that took umbrage to my name and crashed. The two higher levels are for speed freaks only!

So, the high scorers will love it, as will nostalgia buffs, and even I'd play it for a hour or two of brainless pleasure but for one thing - £7.95 is an awful lot of ten pees down the arcade. At this price it's strictly for the birds!

Rachael Smith

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