Last updated on January 28th, 2026 at 11:00 am
Star Command – Simulation Game Review
Star Command is a Simulation/Strategy game from Star Command, LLC, first launched in 2nd May 2013.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 895+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Star Command Stand Out
Build and command your own starship, hire your crew, and explore the universe, and defend against alien civilizations!
Star Command™ Game Features –
• Universal App – iPad and iPhone included.
• Premium game – No In-App Purchase (IAP) roadblocks.
• HD support for retina pixel goodness.
• Level your crew members up and earn new skills.
• Build a ship in your own image!
• Four distinct ship hulls to choose from.
• Focus on tactical, science or engineering.
• Amazing soundtrack intensifies the action and exploration.
• Over 10 alien species to discover.
Brought to you in beautiful HD pixelated glory, Star Command™ brings to life the challenges and joys of managing a starship. Upgrade your ship, get out into the unknown and watch your crew die grizzly deaths all at your command. Strange and annoying alien civilizations await you at every turn. Manage each of your ships roles, focusing on science skills, tactical combat and ship engineering. Prevent alien invaders from taking over your ship and causing massive amounts of damage with sentry guns. Revive dying crew members with new rooms! And don’t forget that your decisions matter – an enemy made early could come back to haunt you later.
If you're a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek, or if you enjoy games like XCOM, Clash of Clans, FTL, or Pixel Starships, you'll love Star Command!
Featured Reviews –
"…equal parts challenging and clever, making it a must-play for sci-fi strategy fans." – Maclife
"A great mobile space romp which adopts a great theme, great gameplay and will keep you busy for quite a few hours…" – AndroidSpin
"With hilarious, self-aware satire and surprisingly deep tactical gameplay, this long-awaited adventure is a must-play for any sci-fi fan and a love letter to all things Star Trek." – Editors' Choice
"If you're looking for a strategy title on the iOS that will keep you on your toes, Star Command should more than suffice." – Appspy
"Should you dive in immediately? Absolutely." – TouchArcade
Star Command © 2011 Warballoon, LLC (formerly Star Command, LLC).
STAR COMMAND and related marks and logos are trademarks of Warballoon, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: https://www.starcommandgame.com/privacy-apple.html
This Simulation game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Star Command is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 17th September 2025
Recent improvements include:
- Added HD Location Backgrounds
- Minor fixes and support latest iOS
Download & Availability
Star Command is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Had to write this one! Best game ever made seriously. Even if ya dont like star wars or star trek ya dont have to. Its simply just intricate and fun. We need a new game, Maybe with PVP, Alliances, Etc. Turf wars for galaxies like for territory against other alliances. So mych potential. Please give this game a try.
Update – problem has been fixed. The latest update killed the game. We can no longer get past the load screen. Please fix. Im on iPhone 16 with latest iOS 18.whatver.
Its just a lot of busywork with no real challenge.
Are yall adding more updates? We just saw the latest update notes :v.
StarCommand is easily one of the best games you can STILL get on mobile. It has a great story, lots of drama in the battles, and interesting game mechanics. One thing to note at the beginning: you have to build out your rooms. The game doesnt explain that you click on a room and then spend tokens to build/upgrade.
We bought this game a long time ago. But we still redownload it and replay it. After going through the story so many times theres not much of the game to surprise us. But we will say it is just fun. There plenty going on. The upgrades are rewarding. The mini games built in to combat are fun. The art style is well done. The controls are intuitive. Its just a well done little game. We appreciate seeing the dev still tending it and keeping it working and available in the App Store. We heard rumor there was going to be a second one some day. Maybe its too late to hope for that, but we still appreciate this one and consider ourselves a loyal fan. If youre thinking of buying this game, we say do it. We are so glad we did.
Its great to see that this game has been updated and hasnt died out. Im coming back to it just for the nostalgia, we really wish they would make a part two or add to the existing story.
The game is better than we expected. Im hooked. After the iOS 18 update, though, it doesnt play sound on iPads. The sounds and music are a big part of the game, so that definitely needs worked out.
The game mechanics and scenarios you face are fun. But we were expecting a little more story and depth to the game. There are no playable large ships, and the story just repeats itself over and over. We were expecting a little more depth from this game.
Its far from perfect but its fun, after you beat all the missions all you can do is restart. Its as abandoned as our dad leaving but its till fun.
And who did the music for it? Did you guy make any other games recently.
Even though its been a while this game is still amazing even though its not running perfectly smooth we still love it as well as the new ship designs this will always be our most favorite game And we are glad that we got the chance to play it although it will eventually be removed.
We just came back to this game after a bit of a hiatus, and it still holds up. Not only is it a rock solid game that you can play over and over, but once you buy it, you get the whole game! No DLC or micro-transaction nonsense! This is highly worth the couple of bucks door fee to get in. Our only complaint is sometimes in the heat of a crazy battle, trying to pinpoint select a crew member or block for them to move can be wonky if not zoomed in all the way, but such is the life of a touch screen. Otherwise, solid overall, worthy of the 5 stars.
Cant believe we waited so long to get this game. FTL meets Trek. Fun, challenging, and good writing. Hoping they make another one.
This game is amazing, because we love space and spa ships and things. But we would love for you to have an update that is a lot like Star Command Galaxies because that game seems to be a lot more detailed and interesting than this one. Still five star though for how amazing the game is, not in comparison to Star Command Galaxies. If it were in comparison, Id probably give it a 3 star. So if you can make more planets in the galaxies, teleport to a planet and an enemy ship and Trade Stations. It would be amazing to have this game molded into something like Star Command Galaxies, but this game is amazing we would of course recommend it because its fun, (short), and action packed. We recommend starting on normal then when you beat it go on to hard, because hard is probably the most realistic since your shield breaks easier and enemies can invade. We love this game, so please listen to our review. Thank you for an amazing time and an amazing journey through the universe.
Good game but theres a bug or glitch where we crash after the Neptune mission. Cant get past it. Very frustrating but otherwise solid game to buy. EDIT: What was mentioned above was simply our stupidity on not knowing what to click. Great game with a good story. Nice mechanics. We would like the ability to board enemy ships or land on planets maybe but other than that its worth the 2.99! Would definitely recommend for anyone who likes RPG, RTS, and sci-fi games.
Amazing game, they have a sequel to this that gets way more in depth on pc under the same name. We had no idea about this and we figured somebody might care.
The game is amazing, but we do think there should be a choice to join admiral Midcari, and maybe making some of the other species passive instead of just the midorians and Horus and dunt. We also just wanted to know what that contraband feature was because we thought it sounded cool. But other than those things the game was absolutely amazing.
Thanks star ship engineers keep those tubular tubes and motivation (torture) machines going!(:.
More ships more missions and more rooms.
What would be really cool is if you could choose wether to join the Antorians or the Humans when you (spoiler) decide to either give the princess to them or protect her yourself. So then youll be fighting the Midorians instead. Also this game is fantastic and so much fun but the stories needs to be finished, and any criticism about how its hard to make your crew do what you want and how the ship texture looks bad and upgrades stick out of it and make it look is completely bull crap. All takes to order a crew member to do something is to tap them and tap what you want them to do and theyll get right to it. And texture problems have never happened ever in all the time Ive beat every mode in this game (trying out every ship to.) So really all you guys that say that are just trash that hate for what ever dumb reason you have and shouldnt because this game is awesome.
This game is by far the best starship commanding game in the App Store, the devs did an amazing job organizing and creating this game. But we feel this game is missing something from it, it needs diplomacy because every alien race you meet just attacks you no matter what you say and this game should be more like a sandbox game with a campaign to give the player more freedom. Overall though this game is amazing and has a tone of potential.
We think you should have the choice to play as an alien like the green people or something. Add some more systems and aliens so we can have a great starship experience but a great game and we think Ill love it more if you added these things. PS not many games let you play as an alien so it would make it unique.
Love this game, happy to see new updates. However, theres a new bug where you cant hire the folks on Norfoo. You start to add gems and it just wont let you add more than one gem.
Will you, please add new content??? Bring Star Command Galaxies, to IOS. PLEASE.
Ive played this game a lot and am just now getting back into it. The only reason Im rating it with a 4 instead of five is because the pc version is more expanded. Given that phones games now in this era leave much to be desired, Im sure they can now port the pc version to the cell phone. Or even give us that sequel that has been in development like forever. But more on the serious note thanks for creating such a great game that we can still come back to and enjoy like new every time. Most cell phone games today are throw away games. You pick them up, you play them for a little bit, then you delete them to try something else.. Games like Star Command you can always come back to later and still really get back into it.
Loved this game! Hope yall make a pt 2. We love how you can move around inside the ship! Thats the part of the most and upgrading your ship and different parts and assignments for the characters. Yall should make a pt2.
Great game, fun mechanics, good story. Just not enough of it. We finished all of it within an hour or two of play.
Honestly our biggest complaint with the game is that theres not more content. We played through it twice and had a lot of fun with it but the Devs never finished some of their promised aspects and thats a bummer, we would like more of this.
But it has so much potential thats left unused. The story doesnt have options that affect game play, theres no way to leave a battle youre losing, the special abilities arent explained, etc… The major issues we have are How ship personnel are deployed, if we have extra crew why cant we assign them to patrol or serve as security outside of a room.
This is a simple space command simulator but all the missions are fighting a ship and the story is just jumbled up then theres not that much missions as well as the variation of crew styles/ ships are bad wouldnt recommend buying if you wanted a good space simulator.
The base game is truly very good, but has so little content that its actually sad, the devs never delivered on any of the promised features and updates. It is incomplete to say the least, it has the potential to become a true titan of mobile games since the base game is good. But the devs just cannot be bothered to work on it at all. Fun for a two (short) playthroughs but after youve played with both a small and large ship theres nothing new to see.
Since we supported this game on kick starter, there doesnt seem to be much added content since then. Theres still no bonus ships or new ships since the starter set. You can 100% the game in under 4 hours.
UPDATE3: 4 years later Star Command to live on after iOS 11! But what happened to this game?? Had great promise but, it got abandoned :( …so much disappointment, and we were rooting for you! Would have rated to 2 stars but, thanks for the iOS 11 compatibility update… Le sigh… UPDATE2: Star Trek has released their official app! Your move, Star Command, please don't let us down… UPDATE1: A lot of the 1star reviews have No idea about the game. They're not making any sense. Are they reviewing This game? And for the record, FTL and StarCommand we're both developed exactly around the same time.. The story is enjoyable. The gameplay is challenging. The music in the first few levels reminds us of Mass Effect =D Would recommend to the dev to allow us to use our own background music No in-app purchases? No complaints there!! Though we would buy more episodes! This was an insta-buy and easily a five star review. Can't wait for further development and depth from The devs. The "coming soon" section seems like they're planning on releasing more than "30%" of the game. Great jobs, devs! We hope you have a huge turn out.
We have to say Im very disappointed here. Very simplistic, short, and lackluster. -1 star for bad UI and micromanagement -1 star for lack of variety and selection -1 star for the constant stale humor -2 stars for just lame gameplay +2 stars because at least it works and is pretty polished for $3, not worth it tho.
This game wound up being a money grab. STAY AWAY.
Boring over simplified. Upgrades dont go far at all, nothing to unlock. Nothin to look forward to for grinding. There are far better more fleshed out games for free.
This is a glitchy slow terrible app How it got good reviews is a insane Honestly we want our money back.
Im on our first battle in game and we cant even press the button to fire. First battle!!! We were honestly looking forward to playing this, but we guess we cant, Ill keep the app on our device, but until that is fixed, we cant use it.
We really do appreciate all the updates fixing major bugs but there is one bug in particular that is a major problem. During battle, all our weapons and options are greatly shifted to the right of the screen. We know this because we can only see one weapon option thats usually on the bottom left of our screen. Help please! Thank you for all you guys do.
When we first downloaded this game, we couldnt see our ships shield or health bar, and some quest choices broke our game. Those were fixed, but now, one of the most important part of the game, the combat, is broken. We cant see any of our abilities, they are all off screen. So basically the game is unplayable for us currently. Waste of money.
Unsure about the game. Seems good. We get stuck on the first encounter because our ship actions are halfway off the screen, all the way to the right, and we cant press them.
The buttons are off the screen on our iPhone 6+. Im unable to use the weapons or maneuvers in combat.
It keeps crashing when we try to negotiate with the first encounter of aliens at mercury, basically the first mission. Not sure why.
We love the game when it works. Sadly its not complete and after a few hours of play we hit a wall trying to get through a battle without a crash. Others worked on the second try but we gave up on this one after 4 reloads. Scared to invest more time considering.. Hope they dont give up either on this game or try building a fresh new one that works before release. The game introduces such an addictive system of play with incredible potential for new content. It would be a shame to die out, and we are aware of the developer and kickstarter history. We still hope they try.
Cant finish the tutorial. Crashes when we select to hail the antorian ship.
We love this game so much and we're so glad it's being updated to be compatible with IOS 11. Overall great starship game, maybe in the future we could see some more missions PLEASE and some new starships PLEASE AGAIN.
We're eager to see what they have in store for us since the game has been in the shadows for years. We love this game and hope to see it grow.
It's a good game but when we beat the human capital ship after the antorian battleship it doesn't load and we can fire our weapons but we can't move to another galaxy or planet.(this is the first battle in the third galaxy) we also think big rooms should be able to have 3 or 4 people.
Its an ok game at best. Very short, not particularly challenging. Its basically a worse version of FTL in every possible way. Not worth the $3 unless you are bored and need a game to occupy you for a few hours. Also, the last mission was bugged for us and impossible to complete.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.3.5
- Size: 100.84 MB
- iOS: 15.6 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
- Developer: Star Command, LLC
Last updated: 17th September 2025 | Genre: Simulation, Strategy | Developer: Star Command, LLC