History VideoGame / Steambirds

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: {{Subverted|Trope}}. Airships are present, but they don't carry aircraft. They do have wide gun coverage and an absurd amount of armor, but not complements of aircraft.

* AmericaWonWorldWarII: {{Subverted|Trope}}. It's implied that America ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Canada]]) joins neither world war. In fact, it's implied that America doesn't even care that the Germans are taking over Europe.

* BonusBoss: The Barrage, a gunship equipped with ridiculously heavy armor and paired missile launchers (although it can only fire one per turn). It appears at the end of the bonus Commonwealth levels.
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: The Germans are implied to be invading all of Britain in ''Survival'', but we only see the Battle of London and that is understood from the text to be the most important part of the battle.
** Subverted in the mobile version of Survival, however; we see the fights all over the country.

* EasyLogistics: {{Subverted|Trope}}. Though your planes have unlimited ammo and fuel, ''Survival'' notes that various facilities are being dismantled so that the Germans can't use them. Also, one mission in the iTouch/iPad version centers around you having run out of ammo in the last mission and therefore forcing you to rely solely on missiles.

* JustForPun: The second special mission involving the "Chickadee" prototype aircraft is called "Dead Turkey," a play on the phrase "Turkey Shoot."

** Actually, it's [[FridgeBrilliance almost certainly lacking in Hitler]]. The games never mention one way or another, but a history nut can tell because of one key fact: [[EvenEvilHasStandards Hitler did not approve of and never would have approved the use of poison gas on the battlefield.]] The Germans ingame... are not as principled.

* TakeThat: One of the story memos in ''Survival'' takes a potshot at British Parliament and [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets politicians in general]]: "''Parliament has been evacuated. Our politicians are saved! Hooray?''"

* GunsAreUseless: {{Inverted|Trope}}. Nothing ''but'' the gun can be absolutely trusted to reliably kill the enemy in a reasonable amount of time. Missiles can [[NiceJobBreakingItHero back]][[MisguidedMissile fire]] [[OhCrap spectacularly]] and swing around to kill you rather than an opponent (this is removed in ''Steambirds: Survival''). Poison gas ([[MST3KMantra which somehow jams a plane's guns and damages its airframe]]) can be avoided, and your other auxiliary weapon, the bomb ([[BellisariosMaxim once again, it goes unexplained how a bomb is hitting aircraft]]) depends entirely on the enemy aircraft being behind you at a specific distance to be hit.

* AmericaWonWorldWarII: {{Subverted|Trope}}. It's implied that America ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Canada]]) joins neither world war. In fact, it's implied that America [[HolyShitQuotient doesn't even care that the Germans are taking over Europe]].

In ''Steambirds: Survival'', a spin-off game, you play an EndlessGame reenactment of this world's version of the Battle of Britain (called in-universe the "Gassing of London"), where you're tasked with making a LastStand in order to [[YouShallNotPass buy time]] for escaping Londoners--ranging from [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments orphans]] to Parliament--[[TakingYouWithMe by taking as many Germans down with you as possible]]. You earn "copper," which is used to buy more advanced aircraft until you can buy the [[InsistentTerminology Allurbase]] [[BraggingRightsReward airship]].

* SteamPunk: [[CaptainObvious Duh.]]

In ''Steambirds: Survival'', a spin-off game, you play an EndlessGame reenactment of this world's version of the Battle of Britain (called in-universe the "Gassing of London"), where you're tasked with making a LastStand in order to [[YouShallNotPass buy time]] for escaping Londoners--ranging from [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming orphans]] to Parliament--[[TakingYouWithMe by taking as many Germans down with you as possible]]. You earn "copper," which is used to buy more advanced aircraft until you can buy the [[strike:[[InfinityPlusOneSword Behemoth]]]] [[InsistentTerminology Allurbase]] [[BraggingRightsReward airship]].

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: {{Subverted}}. Airships are present, but they don't carry aircraft. They do have wide gun coverage and an absurd amount of armor, but not complements of aircraft.

* AlternateHistory: in which SteamPunk jet fighters rule the skies alongside floating fortresses and [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airships]]. The timeline, AppliedPhlebotinum excepted, isn't too different until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, where it's implied that America never joined UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] never took power in Russia.

* AmericaWonWorldWarII: {{Subverted}}. It's implied that America ([[AndZoidberg and Canada]]) joins neither world war. In fact, it's implied that America [[HolyShitQuotient doesn't even care that the Germans are taking over Europe]].

* EasyLogistics: {{Subverted}}. Though your planes have unlimited ammo and fuel, ''Survival'' notes that various facilities are being dismantled so that the Germans can't use them. Also, one mission in the iTouch/iPad version centers around you having run out of ammo in the last mission and therefore forcing you to rely solely on missiles.

* ForWantOfANail: Possibly blended with a {{subversion}} of HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct. It's not unlikely, given the way the game speaks of Germany, that the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] never took power in Germany.

* GunsAreUseless: {{Inverted}}. Nothing ''but'' the gun can be absolutely trusted to reliably kill the enemy in a reasonable amount of time. Missiles can [[NiceJobBreakingItHero back]][[MisguidedMissile fire]] [[OhCrap spectacularly]] and swing around to kill you rather than an opponent (this is removed in ''Steambirds: Survival''). Poison gas ([[MST3KMantra which somehow jams a plane's guns and damages its airframe]]) can be avoided, and your other auxiliary weapon, the bomb ([[BellisariosMaxim once again, it goes unexplained how a bomb is hitting aircraft]]) depends entirely on the enemy aircraft being behind you at a specific distance to be hit.

* ItsUpToYou: In ''Survival'', the player will frequently start with [[RedShirtArmy a small squadron of attending planes]], but these have something like 1/10 of the health of the equivalent player aircraft and get shot down rapidly.

* SchizoTech: The nations of this Earth have missiles with no Identify-Friend/Foe technology, flying wings without stealth or advanced fly-by-wire technology, and [[ImprobableAimingSkills guns which can target enemy missiles mid-flight and shoot them down]]. They power all of this with [[SteamPunk steam]].

* SteamPunk: [[CaptainObvious Duh]].

** Actually, it's [[FridgeBrilliance almost certainly lacking in Hitler.]] The games never mention one way or another, but a history nut can tell because of one key fact: [[EvenEvilHasStandards Hitler did not approve of and never would have approved the use of poison gas on the battlefield.]] The Germans ingame... are not as principled.

* AlternateHistory: in which SteamPunk jet fighters rule the skies alongside floating fortresses and [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airships]]. The timeline, AppliedPhlebotinum excepted, isn't too different until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, where it's implied that America never joined UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the SovietUnion never took power in Russia.

* AlternateHistory: in which SteamPunk jet fighters rule the skies alongside floating fortresses and [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airships]]. The timeline, AppliedPhlebotinum excepted, isn't too different until WorldWarII, where it's implied that America never joined WorldWarI and the SovietUnion never took power in Russia.
* AlternateHistoryWank: Britain walks cleanly out of a WorldWarII [[DarkerAndEdgier far darker and]] [[CurbStompBattle more one-sided]] (and not in their favor) than ours while Germany ends with a defeat-in-detail worse than the RealLife WorldWarI. They also consistently defeat German forces substantially larger than their own, and by the end of the game the levels are without-exception two or three British planes versus some ten or fifteen German ones.

* CurbStompBattle: WorldWarII is this in the beginning in favor of Germany, but about midway through the game the British are typically beating large enemy squadrons with only a handful of their own planes.

* InSpiteOfANail: This timeline's world wars start right around the same time as when ours began, and their WorldWarI even ends at about the same time. Their WorldWarII diverges a lot, however.

* NukeEm: Germany's opening of WorldWarII.

* StupidJetPackHitler: Although possibly lacking in the [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] and any trace of time travel, this world's version of Axis Germany enters WorldWarII with nuclear and chemical weapons of surprising advancement, as their nuclear firepower is apparently sufficient to vaporize Paris.

A [[AlienSpaceBats zany]], addicting flash game series and iTouch app (The original can be found [[http://www.kongregate.com/games/weasello/steambirds here]] and ''Survival'' can be found [[http://www.kongregate.com/games/spryfox/steambirds-survival here]]). An AlternateHistory version of our timeline where, in 1835, "Sir Albert Pendleton" accidentally discovered [[AppliedPhlebotinum low-temperature fusion]], resulting in nuclear fusion-based [[SteamPunk steam-powered]] jet fighter analogues stylized in decidedly WorldWarII design fashion.

The story is vaguely told in the mission descriptions. As can be followed, the timeline moves forward in a very InSpiteOfANail fashion, with WorldWarI occurring in a reasonably similar fashion to our own with similar dates, albeit with heavily increased emphasis on [[DeathFromAbove air superiority]]. However, the timeline begins to diverge more in WorldWarII, which opens with the [[NukeEm nuking of Paris by Axis Germany]]. Continuing in that vein, Britain is subsequently invaded by an overwhelming German air force utilizing advanced bioweapons. Despite this, [[AlternateHistoryWank by]] [[OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow some]] [[AssPull unknown]] [[AuthorsSavingThrow providence]] [[DeusExMachina of fate]], they are able to push the Germans back and end the war in 1956.

* ConversationOfNinjutsu: Present in Survival; the player is likely to shoot down dozens of enemy planes before they are downed.

-> "''The Battle of London - October 15th, 1940. The Axis' flying armada is en route to London. The Allies are [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale outnumbered 1000 to 1]]. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption You cannot save the city]], but [[YouShallNotPass you can stall the armada long enough for London's citizens to evacuate]]. Good luck and Godspeed, pilot.''"

* AmericaWinsTheWar: {{Subverted}}. It's implied that America ([[AndZoidberg and Canada]]) joins neither world war. In fact, it's implied that America [[HolyShitQuotient doesn't even care that the Germans are taking over Europe]].

* AlienSpaceBats: The true point of divergence for the timeline is this, with a man discovering cold fusion twenty-five years before the AmericanCivilWar (the birthplace of modern warfare) even broke out and long before the nuclear weapon was ever invented in RealLife.

* StupidJetPackHitler: Although possibly lacking in the [[AdolfHitler Hitler]] and any trace of time travel, this world's version of Axis Germany enters WorldWarII with nuclear and chemical weapons of surprising advancement, as their nuclear firepower is apparently sufficient to vaporize Paris.

* JustForPun: The second special mission involving the "Chickadee" prototype aircraft is called "Dead Turkey," [[DontExplainTheJoke a play on the phrase "Turkey Shoot."]]

In ''Steambirds: Survival'', a spin-off game, you play an UnwinnableByDesign reenactment of this world's version of the Battle of Britain (called in-universe the "Gassing of London"), where you're tasked with making a LastStand in order to [[YouShallNotPass buy time]] for escaping Londoners--ranging from [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming orphans]] to Parliament--[[TakingYouWithMe by taking as many Germans down with you as possible]]. You earn "copper," which is used to buy more advanced aircraft until you can buy the [[strike:[[InfinityPlusOneSword Behemoth]]]] [[InsistentTerminology Allurbase]] [[BraggingRightsReward airship]].

* UnwinnableByDesign: ''Survival'' is this by definition; there is no end to the waves of German air craft attacking you.