Furthering our tradition of putting an app from the App Store in the Spotlight every Wednesday, today we’re going to take a look at Rocking Pocket Games’s 2D game, the Blue Skies – Air Force Academy.

The game involves flying a helicopter over a a mixed terrain and your aim is too shoot down enemy planes, blowing up enemy tanks and other similar things belonging to the evil warlord leader Hans Kraven and his mercenaries—Bruno, Takeshi, and Rachel. Each one of these enemy commanders controls specific units. The enemy tanks in the game are controlled by Bruno, Takeshi controls black helicopters, and Rachel attacks with golden helicopters. 

The game makes full use of the iPhone’s accelerometer, allowing you to control the speed of the helicopter by tilting your phone forward or backward. Maneuvering the helicopter is done by tilting the phone left or right and, in general, controlling the helicopter is very exciting. The controls have been very well implemented and there is no lag or delay whatsoever. To enable you to use your weapons, the developers have made use of the tap-on-the-screen method. Air-to-air weapons are fired using the left side of the screen, while air-to-ground missiles are launched using the right. There are crosshairs provided for each weapon type. You can also collect additional money and buy more weapons from your R&D lab at the base.

Before each mission, you are briefed by your trainer on what the objective is. During the game, a little green arrow points to your base and shows you how far you are from it. At the same time, a little red arrow on the screen points to the nearest enemy and tells you how far away it is. Of course, you will be harmed by enemy attacks and prolonged flights will use up your fuel, both of which can be normalised by returning to the base. During the mission, enemy targets that you destroy will leave behind some money, health, or even fuel, which you can pick up by flying over it.

The game is really addictive and gets you hooked right away. It’s great fun maneuvering the copter through the skies at first, and doing that while shooting down enemies is even better.

What I don’t like about the game:

Yes, the game is really exciting and the gameplay does get you hooked right away but, after a while, it gets a little boring.

• All the thirty levels utilise exactly the same terrain. It becomes a little too monotonous. How hard would it be to integrate newer terrains like snow or deserts?
• The gameplay does not evolve as you progress through the stages. All the levels involve shooting down or blowing up enemies.
• I’d have liked it if they’d made landing back on the helipad a part of the mission too. Currently, all your need to do is reach the pad and tap the ‘LAND’ notification and it lands the copter automatically. Not just that, every time you return to the base, you are refitted and refueled, which kills the gameplay. I tend to return to base and come back out, alive and fresh as a dew drop, whenever I’m hit. 
• High scores are missing.