Dogfight

Anyone mistaking this game for a pitbull scrapping simulator, thanks to the confusing lack of the ‘er’ at the end of the title, is going to be really disappointed.

Mind you, those looking for the Android version of Crimson Skies are going to walk away with a touch of the blues too, as this minimal, dreary-looking effort at a WWI multiplayer air combat game never really takes off.

Although it’s free to download, you’ll need to either spend hour upon hour grinding away to afford anything better than the default Sopwith Camel to fly with or hand over nearly £3 if you want to spare yourself the pain and fly a half decent bird.

Before you hit the skies for real, it’s best to take a tour of the game’s quite lengthy tutorial. It covers everything from take offs and basic flying to the titular dogfights and bombing raids that you’ll need to get to grips with - though the lack of checkpointing means you might have to, somewhat annoyingly, replay missions from scratch if you blunder near the end.

Still, training is good opportunity to test out whether tilt or virtual joystick controls work better for you. Sadly, both are sluggish and unreliable in the heat of battle, while the lack of sensitivity options means you’re generally stuck crawling around the skies.

Of course, once you’re involved in multiplayer scuffles with real world pilots, a lot of these concerns drift away as rival teams race to complete objectives (airport bombing and, downing blimps the highpoints).

Combat is unsurprisingly weighted in favour of those with better planes, but it’s still possible to shoot down a few enemies and revel in picking off their parachuting pilots before they hit the ground.

Dogfight is fun for a while, and fairly popular when we were online, but the drab, featureless landscapes soon blur into one another.

The cracks then start to show, such as annoying graphical glitches (disappearing clouds; downed enemies stuck flaming on the scenery; a tiny, useless map), while the occasional lag on wi-fi can make accurate aiming particularly tricky.

Still, Dogfight is being patched regularly, so fans of old skool air combat might want to wait for a more stable version to launch before hopping aboard.