Crash Birds Islands Review

Crash Birds Islands may look familiar to some gamers because it is the successor to a 2010 game known as Crash Birds. Both of these games involve slinging birds in an effort to successfully complete levels. The newest installment makes up for the lack of stages and goals in the original, but both seem to suffer from issues that affect the quality of the game play.

The game includes a total of 45 levels packed into 9 stages and 5 different challenges that range from finding the secret golden egg to crashing through all the blue toilets. Completing a challenge results in a star that players must collect to advance. Players also must work hard to try to earn all three time bonus stars on each challenge.

Gamers can select Fred, Suzy or Jack at the start of a level. Each of the birds have a different speed and handling percentage which makes them beneficial for different challenges. At the start of each game, players pull down the slingshot with their finger and let go to fling the bird across the island in an effort to complete the challenge and make it successfully through the windmill without crashing into objects. When the bird is in flights, players must tilt their device to control the bird's path.

There are jetpacks and helmets to help players along the way. Jetpacks give you the extra boost of speed to complete timed checkpoints while helmets are great at protecting the bird’s fragile head from the various objects in each stage. However, these items aren’t free so gamers will have to spend their coins to utilize them.

The controls have been revised to improve the game play, but they are far from perfect. The only option available is to invert the axis. There is no way to change the controls to touch only for those who aren’t fond of tilt-based controls. I found myself getting frustrated far too often in the game when I couldn’t control my bird as well as I desired, especially since it takes so long to earn enough coins to unlock one of the other characters to utilize their flight skills. The other disappointing aspect about this game is that it does not work on devices older than the iPhone 3GS. Many gamers have complained about it crashing and not working at all.

While it is categorized as a kid game, Crash Birds Islands is also ideal for casual gamers too. If you're a die hard fan of these types of games or in need of a new pick-up-and-play title, Crash Birds Islands may be just up your alley. However, other gamers may want to wait for an update to improve the game play experience.