This week, we’re going to take a look at WWII arcade shooter, Armageddon Squatron, by Polarbit AB.  Having played, and enjoyed, Polarbit’s 3D racer, Raging Thunder, I was expecting more of the same from Armageddon Squadron.

Armageddon Squadron is not a flight sim, so don’t expect to see accurately portrayed physics or flight mechanics.  It is, first and foremost, an arcade-style shooter, throwing you straight in to the action without any monkeying around with flaps or landing gear.  Here’s the official description from the Android Market-

“Take to the skies in some of the most famous aircraft of WWII in this arcade flight-sim/shoot ‘em up.  Experience thrilling dogfights, strafing raids and devastating bombing runs as you fight your way towards the heart of the enemy!“

The game sees you controlling a number of different World War II plane types, such as Spitfires and Messerschmitts and taking out air, land  and sea targets with machinegun, missile, bomb or torpedo.  The game is controlled using the phone’s accelerometer and weapon selection and firing is achieved by touching on the relevant virtual buttons on the touchscreen.

I’ve seen criticism of the accelerometer controls by others, but I found the controls actually worked quite well, perhaps slightly sluggish feeling, but then, these aren’t state of the art super-fighters we’re trying to push around the sky, so for me, the controls fit.  The game is quite forgiving (essential for a casual game to my mind), collisions with objects or walls don’t spell instant death in a fiery explosion, rather they drain a little from your damage, also, the auto-targeting is very quick to lock on to a target, and not very fussy about how close the crosshair is to that target either, which makes the blowing stuff up bit nice and straightforward.

Missions range from blowing up tank factories, to busting dams and are straightforward to grasp.  Mission objectives and enemy craft show up on your radar and some handy floaty arrows point you in the right direction of any targets nearby, so it’s not hard to find your way around.  One frustration I did find though, is that, you can’t actually climb above some obstacles, so, where a tank factory is inside a valley, you have to fly along the valley from it’s opening rather than just flying up and over the cliffs to reach your target.  A minor frustration, but worth pointing out.

There are 3 game modes- Campaign mode, in which you follow a number of set missions, Time Attack, which involves you flying through some rings within a time limit, and Arcade mode, which throws you in a battle against a never-ending number of enemies, trying to survive as long as possible to get a nice juicy high score.  There is also a multiplayer mode which allows you to play against players across other mobile platforms, which is a very nice touch.

Graphically the game looks good, the 3D engine plays nice on my Hero, with only the odd, brief spell of lag when there was a lot going on.  I gather the Droid and Nexus One performance is perfect.  The sound, however, is a bit grating after just a few minutes, and I found myself turning it off altogether after my first play.

All in all, I’m very impressed with Armageddon Squadron.  It’s a nice and tight little game with plenty going for it.  The multiplayer option lifts it above many of it’s contemporaries, and it’s definitely one of the best games available at the moment.  Aside from the multiplayer element though, it doesn’t have a lot of longevity, it won’t take you long to finish the missions and I have a suspicion that a sequel would be preferable to Polarbit over an additional mission expansion pack.  Considering it’s short length, it’s also quite pricey compared to many of the other games in the market, coming in at €3.00.  But, hey, that’s one pint of lager in some places, and it definitely took me longer to finish Armageddon Squadron than it does to finish a pint.

Some selected comments from the Android Market for Armageddon Squadron-

Very good game.  The ability to play against friends with iPhone and iPod Touches is great.  Lags a little on Droid Eris but the graphics are great. – (4 out of 5 stars)

Top notch! A good demonstration of Android gaming possibilities. – (5 out of 5 stars)

The online play is great and so is the game, might be the best game on the platform. – (5 out of 5 stars)

Fun game, but too easy to beat.  Needs an update with more levels that are more challenging. -(3 out of 5 stars)

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