Air Master 3D found its way into the App Store recently and aims to present a three-dimensional space shooter adventure.

Battle your way through seven warzones on unfamiliar plants.  Secure each world to progress to the next. This is accomplished by destroying the planet’ s Field Generators.  Meanwhile, extra terrestrial fighters and UFOs have their targets set on you.  Take them out and you’re awarded with bonuses that will boost your heath meter.  Aiding you in the fight are Allied fighters.  These remote ships battle enemy UFOs and weaken their defenses so you can finish them off. Destroying select foes offers additional bonuses in the form of rapid-fire powerups.

The game’s developer, Alex Nankervis has included the ability to create a custom level. That means in addition to the seven pre-defined levels, users can build an environment all their own.  Input the number of enemy fighters, UFOs, Filed Generators, and Allied Fighters.  Planet Type and Terrain Height can also be set.  The AppSmile Team loved this ability as it nearly makes the individual user a game creator. Hats off the Mr. Nankervis on this front.

We found the whole experience to be satisfying, although its obvious this game doesn’t derive from a big developer.  Graphics are simplistic and the terrain detail reminds us of Pangea’s initial release of Nanosaur 2 (which has since been updated to improve landscape rendering). If you’re familiar with the general flight simulator concept, Air Master 3D’s control scheme will be easily recognizable.  Simply title the iPhone to steer. Touch the right side of the screen to fire and swipe the left side to set your throttle. Actually, Air Master 3D’s entire control scheme seemed similar to Pharos IV’s  -- but better executed.

The main menu includes an options screen where the control sensitivity and calibration can be set.  This is the first place you’ll want to visit when launching the game for the first time.  If calibration is not set before you begin level 1, the entire experience will anger even the most serine gamer. No music soundtrack is included in Air Master 3D -- but the ability to play the iPod library is their.  Another subtle but endearing detail Mr. Nankervis provides is the fade in of the sound effects as one approaches the war zone.  And once in the heat of the action the sound effects really do add a thrilling level of intensity to the game.

Air Master 3D is quite a little gem hidden among the App Store clutter.  We would love to see updates to include a more handsome interface with improved touch response. We would also expect a global leader board improved graphics to be included in the near future. And, as long as we’re on the subject, how about a local wifi feature where friends can team up to take out the opposition simultaneously?

In the meantime, we’re gonna give Air Master 3D a 4-Dimple rating for clever features and nearly flawless controls.  Hoping to hear more from Alex Nankervis soon…

Air Master 3D gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: