Review: Skyforce Reloaded (5th Edition)
Score:
83%
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An arcade game – and and ol' fashioned up-the-screen 2D shoot-em-up at that. On a touch screen. Surely this is as big a folly as “Can you fly the Spruce Goose across the Atlantic?” Not that this sort of challenge has stopped Infinite Dreams before.
So onto Skyforce Reloaded, the almost franchise-like arcade game that's on every mobile platform, and which now makes its way to S60 5th Editon. And there is one question beyond any other that you have to ask. How does it work on devices like the 5800, which have no physical keys?
Well the news is that it does work, and very well thank you. Infinite Dreams offer two control methods for you to choose from. I suspect that the majority of people will opt for the “touch” control method. Essentially your flying gun/war/space ship will follow where the cursor is on the screen. Want to go pick up something, then slide your finger (or the stylus) on the screen to where you want to go – and that's where you go.
In actual fact your craft will go to very slightly above where the cursor is being held down – which sounds wrong but in gameplay terms is perfect. It means you can see all around your ship, which is useful because bullets, enemies and obstacles are coming from all 360 degrees at you. It also means that your focus can be somewhere else on the screen and the physical relationship you have with your finger/stylus lets you just know where your ship is.
This makes for a wonderfully immersive experience, you can put the ship exactly where you want it to be, it's far easier sliding around between bullets in this way and you can pull off pixel-perfect manoeuvres. Just what you need in a smooth scrolling arcade shoot-em-up. As for firing, well, the game assumes you want the fire button mashed down all the time, which is what you'd be doing on a button version in any case, so no loss there.
The second control option is to use the accelerometer. By tilting the handset you steer your ship in that direction. What can I say... it's a nice showcase of good code, but for a fast moving arcade game it's sluggish and unresponsive. And you keep having to move the screen. There is one time it half works though, and that's when you use the TV out on devices like the N97. Then you don't have to keep watching the moving/tilting screen, but it's still sluggish.
The stylus is far better in any case.
The core gameplay is as you would expect, with ever faster and more difficult waves of enemy fighters flying regular formations, with stronger enemies between them. As you shoot them down, collect the stars to power up your super-gun (which you activate with a tap on the bottom right left of the screen). Along the way you can also collect power ups for your existing gun, and rescue stranded soldiers from the scenery by flying over them.
It's all standard fare, but you can take all those elements and still make a pretty poor game if you're not careful. Thankfully Infinite Dreams have been careful, and Skyforce Reloaded is a well balanced challenge with a good progression of difficulty as you move through the game. Not only that, but even with the relatively small graphics you can understand what's going on. Thankfully, the bullets and death dealing obstacles are just as clear.
Don't ask me to describe any of the enemies though, as they are instantly forgettable – what's not forgettable is the fast and smooth graphics, the easy gameplay, and most importantly, those little things called adrenaline and addiction. Skyforce Reloaded has it all.
-- Ewan Spence, Nov 2009.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at