Developed by Mikael Tillander
Released for XBLIG (3/2012)
Birth Order is a horizontal 2D shmup from Mikael Tillander, who would later go on to form Wide Pixel Games and create some of the better shooters on XBLIG (check out Broken Pearl and Twin Tiger Shark). Everyone has to start somewhere though, and there's a reason this is one of his titles that stayed exclusive to XBLIG. That's not to say it's all bad, however, as the game controls well and has some pretty cool ideas, there's just not really a whole lot to it. You have four methods of fire, each mapped to a different face button on your pad. Enemies can only be defeated by whatever button they are assigned to (you will literally see the button on the enemy). It's a decent idea but in execution it doesn't work quite so well. If you have the controller layout dedicated to memory, the game is far too easy for the most part. If you struggle to remember which button is where, however, you may have a difficult time with this game. The levels are very short, you'll shoot some fodder enemies for a little bit then face off against a boss. The boss battles will actually require some bullet dodging which is a bit difficult due to your ships one and only default speed. Birth Order looks good with its weird ship designs, decent looking backdrops and bonus point stars exploding all over the screen from downed enemies but the gameplay overall is a bit lacking. With no need to line your shots up and just pressing buttons to take out your enemies, Birth Order looks like a shmup but doesn't really play like one.
Final Verdict: Birth Order looks like a shmup but is more of a button-match-em-up. It's nice to see attempts at innovation but this one didn't really work out.
Related Links:
Wide Pixel Games - Xbox Overview
Birth Order - GameFAQs
Wide Pixel Games - Official Site
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