Air Master 3D Review

By , on July 1, 2009


Air Master 3D
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Custom control options.
  • Customisable levels.

CONS

  • Obscured visuals.
  • Limited repetitive sound effects.

VERDICT

Even after you manage to learn how to fly your craft with ease you're still going to have to deal with the poor visuals, odd AI behaviour and the inevitability of needing to replay a level over and over to get it right. Air Master 3D is less of a game and more of a personal challenge to enjoy.


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Flight sims on the iPhone have been a somewhat risky proposition because they live or die by their ability to control an aircraft fluidly while still being able to let a gamer see what's happening. Air Master 3D by Alex Nankervis doesn't manage to make the cut as a flight sim shoot-em-up for this reason even if there is a nugget of gold hidden within.

Players will find themselves tilting their craft around their island zone, though despite some thorough customisation options for these controls you'll often find yourself either tipping the screen out of view or flying around uncontrollably. A lot of finesse required to get comfortable with the controls, though the accelerator and fire zones are easy and responsive to taps.

There's not a lot to get excited about with the graphics in Air Master 3D as the game uses rudimentary texture shading which does nothing to hide the basic models used on each map. The special effects are actually quite spectacular to behold, though it's unlikely you'll see them very often as targets are highlighted permanently, leaving the screen awash in green moving triangles.

For every positive aspect of Air Master there's an equal or even greater negative to behold; the arcade feel of the game matches well with the rudimentary graphics of the game, though the inability to see what's happening either by obscured visuals or tilting too far make this hard to recommend. This one's definitely only for fans of the genre hard pressed for new games.

Screenshots

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