Pigeon Wings
Only bird brains won’t buy this
$1.99 From Ignacio Schiefelbein, pigeonwingsgame.com Made for iPad, iPhone, Apple TV Needs iOS 8.0 or later Another rich, evil dude has decided to destroy East Megalopolis, and only Pigeon can stop him. Yes, you read that right: in this deranged, high-speed racer, a bird you thought spent its life making a mess of city squares is the true hero. Take that, ungrateful humans!
Across 50 levels, you zoom along in a tiny pigeon plane, swooping and diving through the city, racing other pigeons. The prize in every tenth level is taking on flying dreadnoughts aiming to instantly turn you into pigeon pie. These sections are brief and intense, and a nice diversion from the long and intense racing bits.
Visually, it’s all quite simple, but super-smooth as the pigeons belt along, only occasionally being obliterated by flying mines some idiot has left floating about. Also, humor is laced throughout, notably when the villain taunts the pigeon, who doesn’t respond — due to the fact that it’s a pigeon.
But the slickest bit is arguably the controls. One button accelerates and the other boosts or shoots your weapons, depending on whether you’re battling a boss; your altitude, though, is controlled by tilting your device forward and back. This feels superb, enabling you to quickly react to a wall that’s about to slam into your beak, and you’ll miss this control system when returning to games with more traditional setups. Not that you’ll do so until you’ve cracked the 50th level of this superb high-octane racer.
the bottom line. Perfectly marries the intensity of Alone and the frantic racing of Mario Kart. Craig Grannell Excellent