Who here remembers Realm Of The Mad God, the free-to-play shmup MMO? Well, co-developers Spry Fox (Alphabear, Triple Town, etc) just launched their next shot at the genre – Steambirds Alliance – into open beta today, with servers running until Monday. Take your common-or-garden variety twin-stick shooter, cram sixty players into each battlefield and commence the looting and shooting. There’s some light RPG elements, but mostly a lot of bullet dodging, and perma-death for your fighter (but not pilot, who levels up) if you catch too many shots. Jump into the beta here, and see my initial thoughts (plus a trailer) below.

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