Review: Paper Plane

Score:
58%

Author: Luna Games

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First up, this isn't the Status Quo single (which is a shame, because I really like that track) but a reworking of what, to me, is a classic game. Known to me as SF Cave, this is an endlessly scrolling, side view arcade game where you're asked to get as far as possible.

The vehicle? A paper plane. The controls? Just one. Touch the screen. That boosts your paper plane higher into the sky. If you need to drop down, just release your finger from the screen and you'll start to descend. Well, almost. Because you need to take into account the momentum of the paper plane, and the fact that the thrust is very weak - it takes time to negate a steep downward trajectory and to lift the plane back in to the air and over an obstacle.

And don't bother about trying to stop the forward progress, the scrolling is relentless, with no way to stop it. All you need to know is that you need to keep flying to score as much as you can. While the speed stays constant, you'll have a narrower and narrower tunnel to fly through as the balloons on the edge will creep towards each other. If that's not enough, you have birds flying towards you inside the balloon tunnel. Naturally, touch the balloons or the birds and the paper plane will tumble out of the sky and it's game over.

The key is in predicting where you want your paper plane to be in the future, and to balance the thrust and coast options with short rapid taps to try and stay level, or trace some graceful curves through the air as you coast, tap and hold for a bit, coast, tap, and so on.

There's no doubt that Paper Plane could have been an excellent game, but the key word is 'could'. A simple fact holds back Paper Plane. It's not fast enough. Perhaps the developer wanted to avoid the "action" style of game and go for a laid back approach - if so, it has gone too far. There's an argument for a slow version of this genre, but if that's the case then Paper Plane fails because of another issue... it's boring.

And that's the worst emotion that any game can create.

Crank the speed up and you'd have something to captivate the audience. Alter the graphics for a better size and you might have a game whose slow pace is reflected on screen. But right now this is little more than a game that is in need of some tender loving care from the public, because the idea it is based on works when treated well. 

So maybe it's a bit like Status Quo after all.

-- Ewan Spence, May 2011.

Reviewed by Ewan Spence at 21:40 UTC, May 4th 2011