I fell in love with Skyforce 2014.
iDreams made a top down shooter that I actually enjoyed. With beautiful graphics, engaging gameplay that didn’t feel prolonged with in app purchases, and quirky characters, I felt right at home in a genre that always ends up alienating me.
So when I heard that Skyforce Reloaded hit the Play Store (and iTunes), I fell in love all over again.
The Pros
My favorite part about Skyforce is the aesthetics. This game is beautiful. Once you master a course, you start to see all the detail in the ground and environment and it just adds a whole nother level to the gameplay. You start to notice all the planes hitting the ground and boxes to shoot for more points. I’m still convinced there are things I’m missing, even in levels I’ve played dozens of times.
My next favorite thing is the soundtrack. The music and sounds are on point. They keep the game rooted in its arcade roots with just a touch of modernity to earn that “Reloaded” name. I actually find it a completely different experience to play the game on mute then with the sounds on. I think you’ll find that to be true as well.
The last and, perhaps, most important thing I want to touch on is the gameplay. The first level serves you up as a powerful fighter with almost all the perks unlocked. You quickly descend back into serfdom after that brief tutorial. To build your aircraft back to its former glory, you must collect stars as you destroy your enemies and progress through the levels. Each level has four tokens you must unlock to progress to more difficult levels: 70% enemies destroyed, 100% enemies destroyed, rescue all people, and remain untouched. Once all four tokens have been unlocked, it opens up a more difficult round of the same level, as well as works toward unlocking other levels further down the story path. You control your ship with your finger, dragging it around your screen. You can unlock different special weapons with the stars you collect, as well as various ship upgrades. Probably one of the coolest things for me is also one of the smallest things. If you’re in the heat of battle and need a breather, simply lift your finger off screen, and the battle will slow to an almost-halt giving you a second to wipe your sweaty finger and dive back in. It truly is something you have to experience for yourself.
The Cons
The cons are very few. It is a free to play game, but it does have in app purchases for various things such as more stars, multipliers, and the like. Because of that, I think it does slow down once your upgrades cost more stars. It takes longer for fewer upgrades due to the increased cost. But really, that’s in any game, and for a freemium type of game, it really is not obtrusive as most of its kind.
The Conclusion
Pros
- Beautiful aesthetics
- Great sounds
- Strong, captivating gameplay
Cons
- Freemium style game leaves something to be desired
Eric Dye says
Okay! I’ll check it out… ;P