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The PocketPC has been very lucky to see many top-down shooters lately. From the frantic action of Darklaga to the relatively unknown GikaDiver, these games have been the sole carriers of the genre--until now. Sky Force came out of the gate with a pretty strong start and with impressive initial screenshots. It's usually a pretty tough task finding a good shooter amidst the majority. So, the odds were looking somewhat grim for a company that has come out of nowhere. With a bevy of unique features, Sky Force certainly puts up a good showing against the competition, but is it worth your hard-earned money? 
It's not apparent from the screenshots, but the graphics in Sky Force are actually quite complex. The usual effects are seen--scrolling alpha-blended clouds, water, terrain, smoothly animated planes, ships, and anything else that comes your way. You'll also spot shadows from planes and clouds. This goes a long way to breaking up the monotony in otherwise tedious scenery. The above features alone are nothing special; they've been done in just about every game before. What Sky Force adds to the mix is a voxel-based 3D engine. Lighthouses rise up out of the ground and smash up your plane if you wander too close. Canyons and islands are scattered about the land--all with realistic perspective. It's a real shame that this wasn't used more in the game though. There's also a particle engine in place that's used to accent a few of the graphical effects; you can see this with the chunks of wreckage from damaged planes. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to add any slowdown in action-packed scenes. 
Weather effects are touted in the description, but in reality they are really nothing more than simple rain (which seems to cause slowdowns on all but the fastest of the fast devices). This really is the only major downside to Sky Force's graphics--although normally it plays fantastic on an A620BT. I can see some slower devices choking on certain sections of this game. So, you'll definitely want to check out the demo first. The overall presentation of Sky Force's UI is simple and clean. The militaristic theme is kept throughout the menus, and adjusting the few settings is easy (volume, autofire, and controls are the extent of that). 
The music is pretty well written in Sky Force. The game is filled with a bassy soundtrack consisting of quite a few tunes--although all of them stick to the same trance genre. It may be hard to tell some of the tracks apart, so some may grow tired of the soundtrack quicker than others. The sound effects could be better; the gun sounds don't change even when your bullet grows three or four times its original size. There's very little sound feedback for getting hit or from enemy fire, so you better keep a close eye on your ship. There simply isn't much to say about the sounds in Sky Force. However, this is neither a good or bad thing in itself. 
Sky Force is definitely not suited for a quick pickup. Expect to devote a good 20 minutes to playing through until your game is over. This is especially true since there is no way to save the game in progress! Even an alert from the OS will kill the game. So, you better make sure your batteries are charged, and anything that can cause interruption is disabled. Otherwise, you might be on the verge of victory, only to be interrupted by such annoyances like responsibility. Sky Force doesn't deviate much from the standard shooter formula. Anyone who's looking for a revolutionary change in gameplay should turn back now. You'll be getting just what you see: a solid shooter that you'll hopefully be pouring hours into training. The pen control does give you an advantage over the arcades and consoles. Just choose your ship carefully as you have to make a tradeoff between shields and speed. I've found that the slow, heavily armoured ship fared much better in the actual game, but something like that may vary based on playing style. Still, it seems the fast ship is rather unbalanced. More variation between ships is needed, as right now they barely differ at all. Ship sizes and weapons are exactly the same through all three. A few of the elements feel like they were added at the last second. Rescuing people, for example, has no benefit besides score. Only one shot will kill them anyway. This means you'll end up blowing some poor guy to bits trying to save your own. The kill quota is also an awful addition that serves as nothing more than artificially pumping up the difficulty. One of the levels has you facing an entirely indestructible enemy--an unneeded gameplay quirk. As is the custom with these types of games, you're expected to go up against hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies by the time you're done. These are split up into planes, ships, and turrets, and there are about 4-5 types of each with differing skill. There's enough variety in the upper levels to keep things interesting. Some of the maps end with boss battles, which are intuitive, but still remain tough. Nothing too extravagant: just a big bomber, a helicopter, and other large hunks of metal intent on vaporizing you. 
Usually, I can get a good idea of whether I'll be writing a good or bad review pretty quickly. Sky Force was oddly absent from this preliminary judgment; it's a game you have to play for a while. This is not to say Sky Force is a bad game. However, with the recent wave of these shooters, it's difficult to say how it'll hold up against the competition. Perhaps it's just bad timing on their part. Whatever it is, it's certainly good for us gamers. Without a doubt, Sky Force is recommended for anyone looking for a fast paced game to fill their time with. Just be careful of the issues with OS notifications.
Pros:
- Graphics mix 2D and 3D elements beautifully
- Great mix of enemy and boss formations
- Simple controls
- Good balancing of difficulties
Cons:
- Some gimmicky game designs
- Crashes on notifications
- Weak sound effects
Rating: 
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