iFighter

Wow. Yet another ‘Mega game’ hits the iPhone platform. To be fair, there’s little in iFighter which hasn’t been seen before in other vertical shoot ‘em ups, but as ever it’s the implementation on the iPhone which establishes this as a top title. From graphics to gameplay, from sound to scenery, iFighter just carries on impressing. If you like blasting things, get this without even pausing for breath.

The setting’s a familiar one. World War II, in which you fly an American P-51 Mustang against all manner of bad guys: motorcycles (ha, easy to despatch), tanks (childs’ play), fighters (sitting ducks), trains (starting to get harder to destroy!), ships (ditto) and then super-sized planes and other end-of level ‘bosses’, requiring multiple hits to get past. As with other games in this genre on other platforms, the skill is in managing to kill all the bad guys and cause absolute mayhem WHILE AVOIDING INCOMING BULLETS! Every hit by a bullet knocks your plane’s health down a notch and when this hits zero then boom(!) – it’s back to the start of level 1 for you. A useful tip is to watch for the red ‘hospital’ icons – travel over these and your health is bumped upwards significantly.As with most vertical scrolling shooters, there’s an auto-fire option, which helps enormously – in fact, it’s turned on by default. As objects are destroyed, they’re replaced by stars – collect these for extra points. World War II-themed power ups include bombs, wingmen and a more powerful cannon. Ammunition is unlimited – which is just as well!iFighter seems to have the gameplay almost perfectly pitched. Make a game like this too easy and everyone complains (despite the low purchase price – currently at a dollar) – make it harder and a few will still complain but the majority will simply be challenged to high heaven and will become addicted, ignoring the fact that it’s the middle of the night in order to progress that bit further than last time. This title has that sort of effect. In the 1980s, you’d also be broke, from feeding coins into the arcade machines – here at least you’re effectively playing for free! Some have complained that iFighter errs on the side of being too hard, but I’d argue that all that’s wrong with it is that after dying you should only be put back to the start of the current level, rather than the very start of the game.As an iPhone/iPod Touch application, iFighter is almost immaculate. There’s no game saving or resuming, but apart from this flaw, the smoothness of the graphics, the excellent ‘war movie theme’ stereo soundtrack and the sound effects, all impress. Plane control is via not one, but three separate (optional) methods: an on-screen joypad (workable but a little crude), on-screen swipes (better, but your finger gets tired and often in the way) or via accelerometer. This last works superbly to allow intuitive (and sensitive) control of your plane across the full expanse of the screen. Note that this isn’t just a left/right scenario – you’re required to move up and down just as much to avoid incoming fire, and many bad guys approach from the bottom of the screen to catch you by surprise – so it helps if your plane isn’t positioned right in their path!Highly recommended for anyone with quick reactions, fast eyes and who has a lifetime or two to spare in order to master the action and make it to the end of level 4!