Last week I bought myself a new phone: Apple's 4th generation tool for world domination.

It is very efficient!

Also, one evening, I went for a drink for work at the other side of the city. On the way back, half drunk as I was, I forgot my headset there. And you know, a bar at the other side of Paris means it's pretty far from home. It takes like 40 minutes to get there. 40 minutes! I protest! When you live in the country, 40 minutes is what it takes to go 60 kilometers away. At least... So, yeah, I didn't go get that headset back right away. I needed to prepare for the long trip first.

That's when I downloaded SteamBirds from the App Store.

I had almost never played an iPhone game before. Not for real. The only one I tried was Voice Fantasy... only to find out it wasn't for no reason that it wasn't listed as a game on the App Store. I picked SteamBirds after I saw it over on some website. It said it was developed by SemiSecret Sofware, the guys who did Canabalt. I love Canabalt. I expected to find some of its quality in this one even though it looked obvious from the very start the two games didn't have much in common.

So I started to play... Oh and before that I bought it too: 0,79 €. That is cheap, but keep in mind Canabalt's flash version was genius for free.

In Steam Birds, you pilot old school planes from the early 20th century while they are engaged in some of the most famous and atrociously violent dog fights the World Wars have known.

Talking about it with 2fre the other day, he reminded me how, when we were teenagers, we used to play this board game called "Wings of Glory" in French - I think "Wings of War", yes "WoW", is what it's called in English, but I'm not sure. Well SteamBirds is a lot like an on screen version of this board game we used to play.

From a top-down view, you use the touch screen to give your planes orders and directions on how to attack the enemy force, turn-by-turn. The interface is pretty good, nice and smooth.

The game failed to impress me to start with: despite the effort made to set the battles in a historic contest, I really felt like I was playing with some pointless fake plastic little Fisher Price planes.
For the very easy few first rounds, the game felt like it lacked depth in the gameplay department. The dull feeling started to disappear a bit after I completed more levels and it got a bit more challenging. But the moment SteamBirds really got to its best is...

When I got my headset back from the bar at the other side of the city.

Playing in the metro without a headset, I had turned the music off. With the headset - and the sound - on, the game took another dimension. Spread its wings, if I may. While the historic hints were a notable attempt at creating an atmosphere, the music totally took me on a trip. Now I was really going after these sexy Luftwaffe MF's! I felt danger and power, walking the tight rope up up and away.

I see SteamBirds as a really good example of what music can do to a game. It's often overlooked. It's even often said that's it's often overlooked. But it's still not said enough. SteamBirds just is not the same game without the music. That goes for Canabalt too by the way.

All in all, SteamBirds is pretty good, especially, you got, it with the sound on. I still think it lacks a bit in gameplay, which is either too complicated or too simple or not impactful enough. Or something. But maybe I'm only saying that because I couldn't beat it yet...