iBomber Comments

Menu:
Simple and yet adequate.

Sound:
Music is okay, add some atmosphere, but it gets repetitive very quickly. The AA sound is just bare and too simple to my taste. Some flak sound chould leave a better impression of "being there" but it is missing. Also, I find no buzz noise of bomb falling is very disappointing.

Graphics:
Adequate, not too 3D-ish like you find like AC-130. The UI layout provides all the information the player needs without obscuring the play area. However(!), some ground targets, especially the pillboxes at the bridge level, shows no visual change after being damaged.

Control:
The use of acclereometer for piloting and speed control is fine. The bad: too many a time clicking power-ups also hits the menu button. Worse you get no sound effect when you have picked up a power up, which means slight distraction to see if the power-up desperately needed has been in-store.

Moreover, the bomb reticle is not useful for most of the time and it does not change according to bomb type you are carrying. I am not asking for a Norden but there should be something to make things a bit more comfortable.

Bombs (worth special mention):
There is an unlimited supply of regular bomb and you can pick up different types of others after hitting a target. They show up randomly and the number of these special bombs you get varies with the mission you are at, except for the big bad yellow, which is always a single-shot.

Rocket bomb is the "precision" bomb of choice, same damage as the default and drops straight down. However, it is of the same speed as the other free falling bomb, strange, very strange.

Red bomb is some kind of "cluster bomb" which consists of three bombs, all with the same damage levels. The two of which spread to the front left and right of the "aim point". Not good for naval and areal enemies and works best against concentrated ground targets.

Yellow bomb is the "nuke-wannabe", it is the biggest and the baddest thing in your arsenal. However, for some reason unknown, it actually falls slower than all other bombs, making it very hard to use. Another notable thing is, if you manage to land this bada** onto land zone, the blast can damage, not only the land targets, also any ships happen to stay too close. If it lands on water, well, nothing happens (except for an extraordinary big splash). Trust me, in case this hits something "solid", mayhem ensures. I have yet to see a ship which can withstand a direct hit by it.

Game play:

A slight variation of rail shooter which you can actually navigate in a very tight game area dotted with targets. You are thrown straight into the hot zone (or target-rich area if you prefer). Since the bomb sight serves nothing but to show you where the middle of the screen is, tapping non-stop on the "bombs away" button is almost a norm.

Each stage has one or more "objectives" and the mission will abruptly ends when you satisfiy all the objectives required. So if you aim to collect medals (see below), watch your pace and some time it is not as easy as you think.

(How can I forget this?!) If you beat the mission but careless enough to choose to "retry", and you are stuck with that mission and if you quit, you cannot proceed to the next one. Possible design fault?

There are 4 sets of medals. If you can wipe out over 90% of buildings, you get a medal, ships (including planes!), you get another medal and if you gain 90% or better accuracy, you get another medal for that.

There are twelve "missions" overall which vary between "bombing everything up" or "protecting your guys by bombing everything else up". Not boring since if you are in a mood of blowing, it is actually fun. However, the hardness of the mission is not quite going in one direction. Say, I have beaten a quite hard mission is protecting my guys against naval onslaught (odd enough, the enemy manages to place nests of AAA within my force's shooting distance), the next mission is a joy ride of cleansing the map.

Baseline:
Fun and enjoyable for those who want to simply blow things up, not much replay value other than challenging yourself or entertain the wish of more blowing-ups. With the avant of so many games flooding in the Store right now, there is little or no incentive to return to it after beating.

(I am not giving any ranks to avoid the illusion of comparing apples with oranges).