Not so much a game as an experience, Wings is pitched, appropriately, as more of a relaxation tool than a flight simulator. Imagine casting aside the stresses of work and home and floating free high above the world, with no worries whatsoever and with soothing music to fit your mood.
That’s the pitch of Wings and it largely does what it says. The mountain landscapes over which you soar are all fractally generated, meaning that they look realistic and that you can go on forever – or at least until your iPhone’s battery runs out. It’s a bit disconcerting seeing the mountains constructed before your eyes, but you do get used to it and perhaps the algorithms can be tweaked for a future version in such a way that the ‘construction’ effect can be minimised.
The effect of flying (or ‘floating’, if you want an even simpler experience) is fairly realistic, responding to the iPhone’s accelerometer in much the same way as real flight simulators like X-Plane. You can swoop and climb, enjoying the scenery and 360 degree backdrop, without worrying about crashing, running out of fuel or being attacked by enemy fighters(!) If you do happen to collide with the ground, you’re simply and gently set back on course, at ground level with none of that nasty crashing, burning and dying…
Musically, the developers have composed three pieces of gentle rhythmical electronica, each of which can be chosen to accompany flights over four different colourations of mountain range. Three isn’t a lot and we’re guessing that an update will bring more mountain and terrain types and a wider variety of music.
Part game, part novelty, part relaxation therapy, Wings is hard to categorise. Maybe this is the way ‘Top Guns’ relax?
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