Review: Blue Skies

Overview You're the pilot of an attack helicopter determined to defend your land against encroaching enemies, by ground and by air. By tilting your iPhone, you navigate across the 2-D landscape in a ferocious attempt to destroy all enemies before they destroy you.

Gameplay

Graphics are pretty decent in this resurrection of the old helicopter arcade game. Instead of a joystick that allows you to fly all over, hunting down enemies, you've got your iPhone and its ability to detect movement. Tapping on the left side of the screen releases missiles for enemies on the ground, and tapping on the right side of the screen shoots your guns for attacking in-air enemies. Upon launch, the game starts you off slowly, introducing you to enemies a few at a time, first on the ground and then after clearing them out, in the air. There is a red triangular guide that appears on the screen in early levels, showing you where your next enemy is to be found. Flying in that direction soon uncovers a bundle of hostility (and in later levels, bunches of bundles) waiting to blow you out of the sky. As you destroy enemies, either fuel, ammo, or energy pops up in little icons that will gas up your copter to continue flying or restore ammunition or repair the damage incurred so far. You'll have to be a quick tilter and shaker to keep up with the game. Occasionally, you'll have to navigate back to your base (indicated by a directional green triangle) to refuel if you haven't been able to find fuel during the game. Double-tapping over the base allows you to land.

You can watch a video of gameplay provided by the folks at Rocking Pocket Games on Youtube:

Review

Blue Skies is a huge game - 84mb - on of the largest I've downloaded to date. It took quite a while on the App Store. That's because it's an immense game - with 30 levels. I initially enjoyed the game, but after 7 levels or so, I just started getting bored. Sure the enemies started coming fast and furious, but it was just same-old, same-old, it seemed. On top of that, my hands starting getting sweaty from the furious tilting, jilting and twisting of the game. I began to get worried I was going to spin the iPhone across the room in a desperate maneuver to avoid a tank cluster. If playing, perhaps you need to invest in an iPhone tether much like the Wii controller strap? Overall gameplay was extremely smooth I found. There were only a couple of hiccups as the scrolling landscape beneath my copter seemed to "jump" a little as it loaded the next section of terrain. This did not interrupt play at all and is very minor. The terrain graphics left a lot to be desired. They're, well, very 80s arcade-looking. And if that's the effect the authors intended, then they were successful at it. Another thing I thought was rather ridiculous was the pop-up dialogue. It was reminiscent of the "all your base are belong to us" genre.

Summary

Blue Skies is another one of those amazing iPhone games that show you just how deep and fun a game experience can be with the phone. However, for me, it just didn't leave me flying high. Others may enjoy the overall game experience, but I disliked having to navigate, twirl and spin the phone at times to get my bearings. Perhaps with more practice, I'd be better. However, it's off to the next game! I'd encourage you to try Blue Skies and drop a line and let us know what you think!

Related articles