Written by JM Nuqui
Game Title: Sky Force Anniversary
Genre: Shmup
Developer: Infinite Dreams
Publisher: Infinite Dreams
Link: Download Here
It's been a decade since the original Sky Force was release for Symbian phones. I remember playing it on my N-Gage (The gaming phone way back 2004). It has superb graphics and clearly the best shooter for Symbian phones during that period. Fast forward 2016, they are now releasing the game to home consoles (PS4,PS3, and PSVITA).
It's also on Android and IOS BUT…
I remembered installing the Anniversary edition on my Android phone way back. I reinstalled it and check if it’s the same and yeah. It is the same. It's available for free but the catch is it has in game purchase and not buying one will delay your power ups as you need hours for big pow ups to finish. Anyway, the console version is better and for only $9.99, its cross buy which mean if you own the 3 consoles, you can install it to all those machine.
Graphics is still stunning
I'm reviewing the Vita version btw and it is still stunning. The difference when you play the Smartphone version is that you play that version in Portrait(You need to move left and right Farther to show some parts of the map) and touch screen, whereas on the console version you have the analog and D-PAD plus you play it on Landscape mode and you can see everything on the screen.
Not your typical 1945 Arcade shooter
Unlike other top head shooters, You need to upgrade your plane in Sky Force. Even though you get power ups if you don’t upgrade the parts in the Hangar, The power ups you get will just boost the fire rate and power but it will not add additional beams or projectiles. You only get to use one plane here and then upgrade to have the ultimate war machine.
You use stars, you get those every time you kill an enemy, to upgrade you aircraft. There are only 10 stages in Sky Force, but the developers made sure you'd not finish the game in one sitting as you need to gather medals in order for you to get to the next stage. Medals are in the form of A. Finish the stage with 70% enemies defeated, B. Finish the stage with 100% enemies defeated, C. Rescue all allies, D. Finish the stage without damage. With your entry level aircraft, you won't even get an A on one go (well if your skillful enough maybe you will) which mean you need to replay each stage over and over, upgrade your aircraft, and then try your luck again to get that medal. If you get all four medals, you'll unlock another difficulty for that level and you'll get another 4 sets of medals to gather plus the stage will have more enemies meaning you'd be able to get more stars to upgrade your aircraft.
So its repetitive, yeah. But its addicting I tell you. Took me two hours to put it down, every time I finish a stage I'd say,"hmm one more", then,"hmm another one", then boom it took me two hours to put it down after I said that hmm one more". It's addicting because the difficulty is just right. It's not punishing the players. Just a feel good game.
Buggy and some Rants
The review version I get has this annoying sound bug. Which is really a pain in the ears. Sometimes you wait on an infinite loop of the sky before the mission starts. Annoying yes, especially when you need to restart the mission because you got hit by an enemy while pursuing for a medal.
The developers could have added a restart option instead of just retiring from the mission then trying again. Getting those medals is a bit of a challenge and in case you did not meet the requirements you need to restart or finish the stage without the medal.
Overall, I enjoyed the game. It’s the same addicting game that I have played during symbian days. :) Nostalgic.
Pros:
Great Graphics
Addicting Gameplay
Cons:
Annoying bugs
No Restart
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