As the tech-world shifts away from the Palm and Windows Mobile OS, more and more of their games are becoming available for the iPhone. The latest is a title all too familiar with PDA toting gamers -- Sky Force Reloaded. Originally released in 2006, Infinite Dreams has ported this vertical shooter over to the iPhone OS with minimal changes -- smart move by the developers due to the game’s proven success on other platforms.
No real back-story exists for Sky Force Reloaded but once immersed in the game you find your mind purely focused on attack and survival. All the original star craft choices remain. We appreciate that Infinite Dreams has specifically engineered each ship with noticeable strengths and weaknesses. As you progress in each of the eight stages, power-ups can be collected as enemies are destroyed. Upgrades consist of lasers, missiles, shield and shot boosts. Our team was amazed at watching our firepower increase to gargantuan levels – a huge plus in the fun-factor category.
Enemies appear in various forms from tiny retro airplanes to screen-filling choppers of doom. Defeating foes results in intriguing explosions and audio delights. Adding to the list of appealing factors, Sky Forces keeps itself engaging by presenting numerous mini-goals such as star collection, target accuracy, and rescuing humans. In the long run, each stage has a minimum percentage of destroyed objects that needs to be met in order to level up. Points are awarded based on performance in several categories: stars gathered, accuracy, objects destroyed, humans rescued, and extra points.
As an arcade-style vertical shooter, the game performs strikingly well with the iPhone’s touch interface. Your ship follows the path of your finger -- accuracy and speed depends on the ship selected. Colors are vivid and defined making it possible to focus despite tons of action happening all around you. The game music is absolutely riveting and sports an obvious arcade influence. The music adapts as you work your way through Sky Force. Bosses at the end of each stage initiate an altered musical accompaniment. Unfortunately, Infinite Dreams did not include the capacity to play iPod music simultaneously. The graphics bring nothing new to the table, but we have no complaints either. Actually we were thrilled by the life-like 3D landscape effects and active weather patterns. Menu interface is straightforward giving you the choice of three difficulty levels based on destruction percentage requiring completion. The expected sound effect and music volume adjustments are found under the Options menu.
Spending time with Sky Force Reloaded reminded us how addictive the vertical shooter genre really is. It generates loads of nonstop action right up to the end of each stage. With its recent introduction into the App Store, Sky Force Reloaded (or perhaps re-Reloaded) is a title no arcade junkie should miss.
Favorite Features:
- Brilliant colors and environment detail
- Hours of game play through eight energetic stages
- Polished user interface
- A proven title with years of exposure and experience
- The reminder of how awesome vertical shooters can be
Recommended Improvements:
- Not much different from the previous Palm and Windows Mobile versions
- Give us more ship choices
- Shake to drop bombs
- iPod music incorporation please
Sky Force Reloaded gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
