Blue Skies

Blue Skies is a top-down helicopter shooter from Rocking Pocket Games. Blue Skies brings back NES memories for me. The game it most reminds me of is Guerilla War for NES which was a top-down shooter as well, minus the helicopter.

I am very satisfied with Blue Skies but there are a few drawbacks to the game. One drawback is the way the bombs are handled, I wish they dropped straight down instead of forward, then down. This would make it easier to position a tank under you and drop bombs on it. Another drawback to the game is the repetitiveness. I was only about 4 levels in when I realized that the gameplay has been exactly the same, shoot either tanks or other planes. I haven’t played far enough to see if they switch it up a bit but I can’t see how they would really go about that from what I’ve played.

Overall the game is great, it’s perfect for the iPhone, it controls great and it’s a lot of fun. I hope to see more games like this for iPhone soon.

I purchased Blue Skies at the original price of $9.99 but it is now available for $5.99. It’s a hefty 84mb so you may want to download it through the iTunes appstore instead of the iPhone’s.

Chopper

I had first experienced Chopper when I downloaded the demo for my Mac. It was fun but you could tell it was cheaply made. After reading some reviews of the iPhone app which were generally favorable I decided to give it a try.

Chopper is one of those games you would think was made specifically for the iPhone. The controls are perfect. You control the helicopter by tilting the iPhone. Tilt it away from you to go up and towards you to go down. It takes a little time to get used to the machine gun which you control by touching the machine gun icon in the top right corner. You have to make sure your chopper is pointing down to make the best use of that weapon. Another option is to use the bombs that are provided. These drop straight down. Both of these weapons are unlimited so there is no rationing here. Again, it looks like the developer is making sure the user has fun and isn’t frustrated. The main goal of Chopper is to get to the civilians, drop down and pick them up and bring them back to base alive. Along the way you will encounter tanks and men with rocket launchers. Some of the environments include snow, desert, night time, and rainy weather. The graphics look really good on the iPhone’s small screen. I was very impressed.

I would have to say Chopper is probably the funnest game I have played on iPhone thus far. With 60 levels spanning three difficulties it will definitely keep you busy for a while.