Tag: Flyer »

NuOxygen has just released "The Racing 3D Flight Simulator," Ikaro Racing HD for iOS devices, and it's looking pretty neat. Players will race through a diverse set of environments (and 22 tracks), from sprawling cities to winding canyons, jockeying for first place. It won't be easy, but it makes winning that much more satisfying.

The game is designed to steadily increase in difficulty, so that players adjust naturally to the curve. It's meant to be more pleasant than panic-inducing, with cameras that highlight the beauty of the landscape or the details of the planes so that the visuals can truly be appreciated. Of course, spending too much time drinking in the details are a good way to end up face-planting into an obstacle. A danger that becomes even more real when the dynamic weather system opts to replace those clears skies with a thunderstorm.

Ikaro Racing HD was designed with the iPad 2 in mind, but it's also available for most other iOS devices. It just requires some tweaking in the options menu first. Aspiring air jockeys can grab it off of the App Store right now for free.

Games involving flying down narrow corridors using only a single button for lift have been around almost as long as video tennis. Some of these iterations get around the stigma associated with "classic" formulas by using attention-grabbing visuals or funky music. Still others just go nuts and see what sticks.

Doodle Plane, from the minds over at Chitralekha Productions, mostly follows the example of the former. It's pretty much flying through narrow spaces and tapping a button to climb, but the colorful chalkboard graphics (and "sketchy" animations) make it a bit more interesting visually. The addition of a throttle, however, adds a (basic) new dimension to the idea. Having to carefully monitor height and speed make the levels a bit more frantic, and it's all too easy to accidentally fly past a parachuting office worker (?) when not being careful. If nothing else, it certainly ups the challenge.

It's also interesting how Doodle Plane forgoes the typical endless corridor design of most similar titles and instead uses stages with a definitive start and finish. Shortly after taking off the levels fall into the expected "one wrong move and BOOM" pattern, but after a bit players will reach an actual end and have to ever-so-delicately try to land their scribbly aeronautical nightmare. It's not as tough as it sounds, but as with the hapless skydivers it can be easy to overshoot the target when not paying attention.

I doubt anyone who doesn't enjoy these kinds of games will jump at the chance to play Doodle Plane, but I imagine genre fans will have a good amount of fun with it. Especially as the addition of take-off and landing segments, as well as mid-air rescues, make it more than just a simple re-skinning of a classic.