FTL meets XCOM; Star Command Released for the iPhone

iPhones get all the good stuff first – Star Command comes soaring through space this week, bringing FTL like combat and action to all iProducts.

With its simulated 3D look, story missions, and crazy looking style, you can guarantee that it will be what mobile gamers will be talking talking about for weeks to come.

Take on the role of a captain, pick your crew (race, purpose, colour co-ordinated or otherwise) and go flying through the galaxy on rather well done story missions and one-on-one space battles, while trying to micro manage your crew to keep your ship (and your captain) alive.

Aesthetically, the game is beautiful. You have a form of Habbo-Hotel look to your crew and your ship, and can watch them moving about fixing gear, turning off fires, and firing at crazy boarding parties with the best Star Trek style phaser fire ever seen in an iPhone game.

Story cut scenes are told in old-school adventure style – with a pixelated image from the perspective of the captain followed by white floating text above it to show conversations. Story missions tend to be mostly this, followed by a one-on-one battle with an enemy ship A-La XCOM: Enemy unknown.

Combat itself is dealt in true mobile gaming fashion – a score of WarioWare style minigames start up, putting quite a bit of skill into surviving battles between enemy ships.

Now the game does have some problems. The AI isn’t particularly well designed, as your crew members tend to stand right in the middle of a fire just wasting away unless you tell them to move. Also, the promise that there would be a stellar sandbox to explore has not seen fruit, instead leaving you to complete basic battles with a single ship each time. But having room for improvement is not always a bad thing, especially on mobile games that tend to be quite frequent on updates.

Not only that, but both an Android and a PC version are being worked on as of writing this article, thanks to a well funded Kickstarter.

So join the fleet today! Star Command is $2.99 from the apple store.