Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps, Features, Appidemic
Say hello to the happy little hero of Tiny Wings, a sleek standout game from Andreas Illiger that?s garnered a lot of attention lately, so it had to make the Appidemic list.
What is it?
Here?s the premise: Your little bird wants to take off, but he?s a bit stout and his wings are, well…tiny. He needs to pick up some momentum rolling along the ever changing Technicolor hills that make up his simple world. But it?s not just to fulfill his cloud chasing dreams—if night catches up with you, game over, you?ve gotta head back to the nest. Racing the sun adds a thrill to this hypnotic little game, and with Open Feint enabled you can also pick up achievements for additional challenges. You?ve got different stages to conquer, traveling from island to island rather than level to level—stage changes are signaled by crossing the ocean to a new island.
How does it work?
This is a one touch wonder, with your taps and releases interacting with the game?s intuitive physics. Make your little guy heavy by tapping to drop down to the ground again to pick up suns (or coins—whatever he?s gobbling up) or to pick up speed rolling downhill, and release in order to let him take off when he reaches the summit.
This game is mesmerizing. The graphics, the flawless mechanics, and that happy little bird all work together with a beautifully designed overall rhythm to make this game incredibly hard to put down. I do have a couple of issues, though. One, it?s hard to collect enough coins to save your game, at least it has been so far for me, and starting over again from the beginning gets frustrating. Granted, the game changes daily thanks to some special algorithm, but don?t design a game I want to play for an hour or more at a time and make it nearly impossible to save my progression at first.
Two, the music, which I?ll get to next.
Now, sound and sight?that music. It?s actually well suited to the game, unless you?re playing over and over, which you will be. I ended up turning it off because the soothing electronic sounds started to grate on me. I do like the bird?s little exclamations, though.
The graphics, however, are awesome. Tiny Wings takes a risk by moving away from the 2D, flat color PopCap reminiscent graphics we keep seeing (and generally liking) everywhere for a more 3D artistic background, and it works beautifully. The striped, gentle hued hills and the rolling motion and rhythm of the game complement each other well. I couldn?t stand to listen to the game for half an hour, but I can look at it all day.
Is it contagious?
$0.99 for this game is so worth it I almost feel guilty not paying more. Tiny Wings is a truly lovely little time sink; you?ll regret only your loss of productivity.
Category: Games
Developer: Andreas Illiger
Cost: $0.99
Download: Tiny Wings
Full Story » | Written by J. Magers for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
PROGRESS SOFTWARE PLANAR SYSTEMS PEROT SYSTEMS PALM OSI SYSTEMS
No comments:
Post a Comment