Tiny Wings Review

Welcome to your new and adorable endless platforming addiction. In Tiny Wings, you control a bird that can't quite fly on his own yet, but he can drop to the ground really quickly, and use that to launch himself up using the landscape and flap his tiny wings to keep him airborne until he has to launch himself up again. The game is all about momentum and speed, as you have to keep going forward and getting as far as you can, getting as many points as possible before the sun sets. To help you out, there are coins that give you bonus points, speed coins that can help you launch higher and farther. As well, the game gives you points for keeping up your momentum by giving you points for clean launches, doubling your points when you combo clean launches, and for launching so high that you touch the clouds.

Tiny Wings is so satisfying because its gameplay is built around momentum and flow; it feels extremely satisfying to play it and succeed, and to improve at it as you figure out the perfect time to stop flying and drop to launch yourself up. The game rewards you for practicing and playing the game repeatedly: by completing objectives like collecting a certain number of coins in one game, you can unlock new nests, which increase your starting score multiplier. The game then becomes a hybrid of both high scoring and progression, and it actively rewards players for scoring high and sticking with the game. The game is aesthetically very pleasing, looking like a storybook come to life. The music is wonderful as well, fitting perfectly to the game's theme. The sound effects and animation also do a great job at providing character to Tiny Wings' protagonist and making him a cute and adorable character; your kids are going to love him.

There's not a lot to complain about with Tiny Wings. There's no Game Center support at launch, just OpenFeint; while this is great for older devices, Game Center feels like it should be a default feature of any high score focused game at this point. However, the developer claims to be adding this in the first update. As far as the level design goes, the ends of each island feature one big valley with a bunch of coins on the drop - if you're going fast, as the game seemingly intends for you to do, you will miss some of the coins, which seems counterintuitive.

Playing Tiny Wings, one just gets a feeling that this is a game that could be absolutely huge - from the ingenious unique gameplay to the charming protagonist and stunning visual style, all the elements for a smash hit are here. There's a lot to love with Tiny Wings, and plenty of reason to come back to this one. This game, a one man effort by independent developer Andreas Illiger in his App Store debut, is an absolute must-have.