In a departure from their typical brand of iDevice titles, 2XL Games (makers of 2XL Supercross and 2XL ATV Offroad) have tackled the path management genre with their own unique spin in 2XL Fleet Defense, a 2D top-down aerial assault game available now from the app store.

Whereas most path management games require you to direct a multitude of incoming vehicles to specific locations on a fixed map without crashing, Fleet Defense instead puts you in control of a single vessel, an F-35 fighter jet, which must protect an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean at all costs. Jets and boats come in from all angles in an attempt to get close enough to fire a missile or torpedo in hopes of damaging the carrier to the point that it is destroyed. Your F-35 is constantly circling overhead in search of enemies. Once spotted, simply tap on an enemy to target it, and the F-35 does the rest. It’ll instantly change course and, when in range, fire a missile at the offending vehicle which will destroy it. Once you have fired a missile, you can immediately target another craft without affecting the previous shot. The carrier will inevitably take a few direct hits, though it can be repaired by landing the F-35 on its deck while not under attack. The game becomes a delicate balancing act of determining which vehicles pose the most immediate threat and which are close enough to take out while you are in the vicinity rather than turn back to protect another vulnerable angle before the enemy fires upon the ship, which it will do when it is within a certain range. Couple these decisions with trying to steal a few moments to safely land and repair your ship (tap on the carrier) and you’ve got one heck of a frantic, split-second-decisionfest of difficult choices.

At times, you will find yourself overwhelmed. For these moments, the Phalanx defense system, which the aircraft carrier is equipped with, comes in very handy. You’ll note a small dark button in the lower right corner of your screen that doesn’t seem to do anything. During the course of play, a yellow outline grows from the noon position along a clockwise pattern. Once it reaches noon again, the button will be red and will read “Fire.” A tap of this button while overwhelmed by enemies unleashes a flurry of weapon fire from four spots on the carrier which will wipe out any and all enemies within a pretty wide radius. This system takes a long time to reload, so it must be used wisely and only when necessary. Landing after using this system is often a good idea, taking advantage of the few moments of peace that it buys to repair your ship. The ship’s damage bar is in the lower left corner, giving an indication of the carrier’s health at a quick glance.

Not all of the viewable area is visible at once. Dragging your fingers around the screen will unveil the off-screen happenings in every direction. There is a terrific radar screen for locating incoming enemies. You’ll spend your time toggling back and forth between this and the game screen. Tap the button in the upper right corner to bring up the radar. Concentric green circles will indicate distances, red blips are enemies, and the white dot is the F-35. Tapping on any location on the radar screen automatically switches you back to the gameplay screen at the exact location that you tapped, so targeting enemies becomes a breeze. Your jet cannot be fired upon, nor can it crash into another jet or be shot down, so your only focus is on protecting the carrier. Once the carrier is destroyed, the game is over.

The graphics look pretty nice. Though you can tell that the vehicles are all detailed, most everything is so small that you won’t be able to appreciate it much. This is a function of needing to see as much of the surrounding area as possible to avoid overlooking an enemy. Most of the screen, therefore, is taken up by a solid mass of blue color, representing the ocean. You can pinch to zoom if you need a closer look or want to see the vehicles up close, but don’t dawdle or your carrier will be lost at sea. Destroying enemies results in mini-explosions, which are a somewhat satisfying consequence of their meddling. Fleet Defense has a nice soundtrack that enhances the feeling of the importance of your mission, as well as the epic nature of battle in general. There is support for playing music from your own library, as well. The controls, as previously explained, work flawlessly and feel very intuitive.

2XL Fleet Defense Pros:

• Unique twist on path management genre
• Terrific radar screen for locating incoming enemies
• Mission enhancing soundtrack
• Flawless and intuitive controls
• Multiple profiles
• Achievement system

2XL Fleet Defense Cons:

• Everything is so small you won’t be able to appreciate the details much
• Unclear ending of any given level

There are 5 profile slots, so multiple people can play on the same device without affecting the stats of another player. You can also set up an account with 2XL Live to maintain your records on their servers, though we were unable to connect when we tried. The Options menu also offers real stats about each of the vehicle types present in the game, as well as connects you with advertisements for places that you can go to actually fly. These are accessed only if you want to see them.

Replay value is pretty good, though the difficulty often leaves us dead by the 4th level. It is also unclear what exactly demarcates the ending of any given level. It seems that firing the Phalanx may be the trigger to start a new level, but we could not confirm. Scores are maintained on a local leaderboard (global if you join 2XL Live), and include overall score, number of each type of vehicle destroyed over the life of that profile, your current rank, total score, number of games played, and total game time. There is an achievement system with roughly 35 achievements, from amount of time played to number of kills of specific enemy types to your rank. Overall, the game is a lot of fun and we’ve enjoyed the exciting battles immensely. At $1.99, the barrier for entry is extremely low for this solid, 4-Dimple game.

2XL Fleet Defense gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: