Price: $0.99 Score: 9/10 Category: Games
Medal of Gunner, developed by PictoSoft, may be one of the most enjoyable shoot-’em-up WWII flight sims we’ve played through in quite some time.
Despite the somewhat steep learning curve caused by a dense amount of text and instructions to comprehend, this immersive little iPhone game is still great fun.
We tested the game on an iPhone 4S, which showed no slowdowns in terms of frame rate or animation: nothing but smooth sailing here. That’s a must for such a fast-paced, frenetic kind of shooter.
Not so smooth? Our early attempts at mastering the controls. And yet, that’s part of the fun. Combined with the immersive, constant sounds of engines and propeller blades, the somewhat tricky controls make the 40s era tech seem all the more challenging, making us want to practice more and master the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the game.
Unlike so many easy time-waster games for iOS devices, we prize Medal of Gunner for being so hard to get a grip on.
Unless you’re a die-hard WWII expert, you’re likely to find the environments and items in the game to be a perfect fit for the era. The visuals are solid, though not as clean and detailed as we would have liked. But they are still very good.
Thankfully, even once you master the tricky controls, you won’t run the risk of getting bored. There are tons of different enemies and different formations, ensuring that you’ll always be satisfied with the level of difficulty.
And if you’re the sort of player who has no problem with tons of micro-transactions showing up on your accounting statements, then you’ll love all the extra goodies you can grab from the in-app marketplace (although we’re still at a loss to explain why the pin-up girl upgrade isn’t the most popular in-game purchase.)
Medal of Gunner is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.