Night Flight for iPhone/iPad Review

Contest Closed

Night Flight (also available for iPad) by Rebel Twins is a platformer with a cute protagonist – a teddy bear – in a not so cute environment: a dark, evil toy factory. When a quiet night provides an opportunity for the bear to escape, its up to players to pilot him to freedom.

To do so, players have to control a teddy-sized plane through 3D environments full of stars to collect, and obstacles to avoid. Each stage is constructed like a side-scrolling platformer, with players required to find a remote to open the door at the end. There is no specific time limit, but a limited amount of fuel to navigate through the level.

Right away, it becomes clear that the game’s controls take a little getting used to. Touching and holding the bottom corners of the screen control the plane’s movements left and right. It’s not as simple as it sounds, considering the physics of the plane, and it will take a few rounds of banging into the wall and flying in the wrong direction before the controls become second nature. Thankfully, the two-button controls means there is nothing else to learn but to control the plane, and allows players to focus on those mechanics.

I really enjoyed the game’s physics and colorful graphics, but the game’s camera was a little off-putting. On some levels, the camera zooms out so far it can be hard to distinguish what is on-screen, including where a player’s tiny little plane is zooming around the screen. The level designs don’t appear complicated enough for such a zoomed-out angle, so it would be nice to see things a bit closer and in more detail.

Night Flight is a nice change of pace from the typical run and jump platformer, trading in jumps and dangerous fireballs for loop-de-loops and homing missiles, definitely worth a purchase for the platforming fan.

Contest Closed