Two games were featured in the recent Apple keynote, and as of a few moments ago, one of them is now available. We’re still on the lookout for Infinity Blade: Dungeons, but right now Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy [$4.99] is a quick mash of the “Buy App" button away from being in your hot little hands.
We’re downloading it now, but I feel like for the true experience we’re going to have to wait for FedEx to drop off our new iPads tomorrow. I’ve already bartered a deal with my FedEx delivery dude, and I should have mine bright and early.
If you want to chat Sky Gamblers on our forums, guess what, we’ve got a thread for that.
Thanks for a great review of what looks like a potentially great game. Equal thanks for a thorough and fair assessment of the IAP portion of the game, and for knocking a couple of stars off the final rating because of it. I was really looking forward to this game, but I think I'll take a pass - I like my games polished and professional, not acting like street beggars looking to save enough money for the next bottle of malt liquor. It is too bad such a fine game from such a fine development team had to be sullied by the Big Bad Corporation that purchased them. It's so cliche and stereotype it shouldn't be real, but here we are.
I am enjoying the game, but agree the iap is annoying. I certainly dont plan on spending any money just for some stupid bonus robots. and it annoys me that those who do shell out the cash will have an advantage in the leaderboards. Sure, you can earn the money over time, but it takes way too long to work well imo.
Also, i didnt see you mentioned the fact that all said and done, this game really only has one map. There are two modes, and each mode basically uses the same map. Based on my experience with the first Flight Control, i was expecting at least a handful of maps for my $.99. But nope, just one.
My guess is we will see new maps added for iap in the future.
All that said I am still enjoying the game enough to keep playing it, but it really is a shame that this title does not have what i would typically expect from a firemint game.
I disagree completely about the IAP implementation. The game is very playable and purchase prices are reasonable without buying a single coin with real money.
If you've been playing Flight Control, it's manageable to bank 1k or more coins in a good game in Infinity mode. That means after 5-10 games of Infinity mode you can unlock Odyssey mode, where thanks to the bonus rounds I've been averaging 5-10k coins per game after picking up the "More Coins" bot after my first Odyssey round (where I only banked 4.5k, nearly making up for the unlock price in a single round).
If I could buy every purchase in the game during my first few days of playing, I'd feel like the upgrades weren't well thought-out, so I don't see the problem with the expensive bots sitting there luring me to play more. Just because you CAN buy coins with real money to take a shortcut to the big bonus upgrades doesn't mean you have to.
In addition to the poor IAP implementation, I think the art style is a lot less appealing than the original. This looks sort of generic whereas the Flight Control did something really unique with the graphics/music.
I warned you guys about the effect of EA imposing IAP junk on Firemint's once-great games. Turns out I was right.
The sad thing is that it doesn't really matter what Firemint would have done, people will always say, "See! I told you! EA ruined everything!!!" EA aside, this kind of stuff is par for the course now. It'd actually be pretty strange in my book if this game DIDN'T have some kind of IAP mechanic... But, don't let Occam's Razor get in the way of any EA rage outs. :)
I do agree that it is par for the course, but I do think EA had something to do with the degree of IAPs the game has and how the various parts function. The most apparent example of this is probably the limited use of the bots where you have to either wait a certain number of minutes for them to recharge or buy a battery.
True enough. Games now make a great deal more money from IAPs than initial sales, evidenced by the fact that so-called (I hate this damn word…) "freemium" games dominate the "Top Grossing" listing in the App Store. Despite the large number of us who hate IAPs (at least, the kind that just buys some disposable currency or items in a game…i.e. the kind where you have to keep paying, as opposed to IAPs for new content, which is what IAPs were intended for), that's where the money is.
I think EA's influence is pretty obvious here though. Look at the way PopCap's games have become similarly "scammier" since the EA acquisition. The button to buy expensive rare gem bonuses in Bejeweled Blitz is deliberately placed right where you're expecting the 'play' button to be, and the screen appears randomly (so you can't see it coming) to maximize the likelihood of tapping that button accidentally. And of course, there's no 'undo' if you happen to accidentally waste 75,000 coins on a one-time Phoenix upgrade you didn't want.
But hey, no worries…you can just buy more coins…with real money! (Or…*snicker*…try to earn them back at a rate of ~600 coins per game played.)
Admittedly the IAP stuff in Flight Control Rocket isn't quite as predatory, but the way it's now built-in as a "continue" — the 'default' behavior' (instead of just a bonus 'rewind' like it was when IAPs were retroactively grafted onto the original Flight Control) — is not a good sign, IMO.
It's got to the stage now when I see IAP for a game I have to think hard about buying it. I would much rather buy $3-5 on a game and get the full product than keep paying $1 every couple of weeks.
might be the only one, but i think the line drawing flying games are a little iphone1 if you ask me.
I agree 100% with the review. But all those nice new ships and robots can't hide the fact that (apparently) there's only *one single map* to play with. The game soon gets quite boring, IMHO.
EA is a wrecking ball. Devs, please stay independent. For yourselves and for your customers/fans.