Sky Rush Review – A highly engaging shoot’em up
App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: Adam Walker Studio
Version #: 1.0.3
Date Released: 2011-11-19
Developer: Adam Walker Studio
Price: 0.99
User Rating:
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The iPhone 4 brought with it, among other things, enhanced graphics, high-resolution camera, and a huge pile of augmented reality apps. Augmented reality is a term used to describe apps that show the view through your camera, and then superimpose data on top based on the image in view. Great examples of this are apps that will show you restaurant locations while you are walking around, or on screen routing to where you want to go. The game industry has also pick up on this with many games that allow you to play within your own world.
Sky Rush is just one such game. In it you will find yourself facing a variety of opponents in a dogfight style combat. Where Sky Rush differs itself from the competition is that you are shooting these enemies with the background of your room, your office, or the park. Sky Rush is also controlled completely with the gyroscope so be prepared to move in 360° at any time in order to face your target. In actuality, there is a pair of arrow buttons on the screen that lets you rotate in large increments which helps when you are sittings at an office and are unable to stand up and spin around like a fool.
There are seven different challenge levels to accomplish, and each one much be completed to advance to the next. You must complete them all to unlock all the available upgrades to your ship. This includes weapons as well as drones that collect money for you, or fly as your wingman. Once you have mastered the game you can play the endless survival mode and compare your score with others via GameCenter. There is also an arcade mode that is great for times when you really can’t be moving your iPhone at all. You instead are given a swipe control which is an effective control method that makes me wish it was available in the other two modes.
As I slowly came to understand the game I did find Sky Rush to be a fun shooter with a variety of enemies and weapons. As I learned the weaknesses of my opponents I found myself switching between weapons quickly in the survival game. Sky Rush does have a few rough edges, but as a whole it is an engaging shoot’em up that is well worth the current $.99 price point.
Giveaway! Win a promo code for Sky Rush!
Quick Take
Value:High.
Would I Buy Again:Yes.
Learning Curve:moderately difficult
Who Is It For:Fans of dogfighting.
What I Like:Nice variety of enemies and weapons.
What I Don't Like:The tutorial wasn't the easier to follow.
Final Statement:Take to the skys of your home or office with Sky Rush.
AR The madcap critters from the animated film "Arcade Trap" have figured out how to fly, and now it is up to you to stop their aerial antics.
Use your device (iPhone4S, iPhone4, iPod Touch 4th gen, iPad2) to fight back the critter hoard. Whether you're inside or outside use the camera to locate and eradicate the aerial Critter menace. Build drones to harvest the valuable anti-grav crystals or defend against the pesky critters.
Watch the teaser trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbM1O65Y6sg
Game features include:
- Lots of weapons types and upgrades, ranging from lasers to the awesome dual mini-guns,
- Diverse range of enemies, each with unique gameplay traits and personality, ranging from the sneaky mine-laying JetPack critter to the slow but tough Concrete critter blimp,
- Build drones to help fight the critter hoard, "trace" a blueprint to construct these mechanical sidekicks,
- Multiple game modes (Challenge mode to unlock power-ups and achievements, Survival mode allows you to access all unlocked tech and fight back the critter menace, and Arcade mode designed specifically for non-AR control so it can be played on the bus/train/plane/car/bed(...?)... how long can you last?),
- Augmented reality (AR) gameplay, literally turn around to see the critter behind you,
- Alternate touch control featuring intuitive and easy to use aiming multi-touch controls,
- Game Center Achievements and Leaderboards
- A simple but rewarding combination of FPS, RTS and tower defence gameplay.
Coming soon:
- New weapons (including the awesome guided missile launcher and chainsaw),
- New critter enemies (including the fiendish Alchemist),
- New Drone types (including the awesome Temporal Distorter),
- Additional Challenge games.
The game will also work on older devices (iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd gen, iPad) using touch control rather than the augmented reality control. The game is not designed to work on 1st and 2nd gen devices (original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 1st & 2nd gen) - so don't even try it!
Screenshots
Article By Nathan Kline
Nathan has been an avid Apple user and advocate since the days of the Apple ][. He has always sought to find new ways to make use of technology to assist his daily life. As a paramedic in southern California Nathan brings his familiarity with technology to the field, and at whatsoniphone.com he brings his critical thinking to he analysis of apps and news. You has also written app reviews for the mobile app site Smokinapps.com.
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