iPhone Game Reviews: Tiny Wings Review
Tiny Wings - Gameplay (4 out of 5)
It’s a bit difficult to describe what type of game Tiny Wings is. For one, it can be a rhythm-action type of game, but the game plays on horizontally scrolling levels, adorned by slopes and other forms of landscapes that will either hamper Tiny’s flight, or help it to take a leap and fly into the sky - even for just a couple of seconds before going down again. By the way, since we just mentioned - yes the main character in the game is a tiny bird with tiny wings. The game requires you to take control of this tiny bird. Well, there’s not really too much to control here since you can’t do so much to the bird when flying, and neither can you do more to the bird while it glides into the slope. You just tap on the screen when the bird approaches a downhill slope to add more weight and help it travel faster downward, and release as it approaches an uphill climb to spread his wings, hoping that the force is strong enough to send it flying.
And when you succeed in sending off the tiny bird into the sky, enjoy the moment and survey what’s on the ground because soon enough, the tiny bird will crash into the ground and move forward again. Hopefully, you’ll be able to retract the tiny wings again enough to pull him up into the ground. If you do, and the night comes in, end of the level for you. Incidentally, the night and day scenario is somewhat unique into this game which is both a negative and positive. Positive, being it makes the gameplay unique, and negative because the game doesn’t restart from where you stopped, but instead requires you to repeat the same level.
Tiny Wings - Features (4 out of 5)
Simple as Tiny Wings’ gameplay may be, it does have some nice added features that you’d normally find in similar games. You earn points by collecting gold coins, and power ups that are scattered along the way. The game also has an achievement system with your score determined by the distance you’ve traveled, the slides you pull off through a valley, whether you’ve successfully made it into the clouds, and the extra gold coins you’ve collected along the way.
The game supports OpenFeint for recording your high scores and seeing other players scores online as well.
Finally, from the main menu of the game, you’ll see some challenges that you need to fulfill in every level. Pulling off these challenges adds to your score and lets you customize the tiny bird’s nest.
Tiny Wings - Our Verdict (4 out of 5)
For all intents and purposes, Tiny Wings is really a nice, little game. With a simple gameplay combined with nice graphics and fluid gravitational physics, expect to enjoy several hours of fun while playing this game. After that, you’ll probably not pick up the game anymore. Compared with Angry Birds though, this game pales into insignificance when it comes to gameplay depth.
It’s a good thing that the game is only $0.99 and by our standards, the price you have to pay is about all the game is worth.
References
Andreas Illiger: https://www.andreasilliger.com/
Image credit: Screenshots of Tiny Wings provided by the author.
