Bluetooth Biplanes
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| Bluetooth Biplanes

"I say chaps" is really all you need to utter to conjure up the world of the vintage biplane dogfight, when men sat in the open cockpits of aircraft largely composed of balsa wood and fabric, flight goggles stuck like limpets to their weatherworn faces.

It was a time when men were men and women were to be found in the kitchen under a dozen petticoats, when the moustache was the precursor to the goatee, and when many an Englishman's home really was his castle.

If you long for such an atmosphere, and have a thing for quirky little mobile games, then Bluetooth Biplanes could be just your cup of Darjeeling.

A fairly brainless approach to the shoot 'em up genre, you play here as one of six pilots, flying your biplane around the screen and shooting down your enemy, man to man.

With the aid of simple controls to accelerate, change altitude and shoot, you swoop over a small rural landscape whilst endeavouring to inflict damage on your opponent. When you go off one side of the screen, you simply reappear on the opposite side, enabling you to either escape, or sneak up behind the enemy.

Three direct shots is all it takes to gain a point by sending your enemy's plane plummeting to the ground in flames like a sack of flambéed potatoes. Make it to ten points and you'll be able to unlock a new character, as well as opening up a few new enemies for you to lock wings with.

And that's it in a nutshell – a very honourable, respectful nutshell, mind.

It sounds simple because it is, both in design and approach, and there's a very short leaning curve, enabling you to immerse yourself immediately in the action.

In fact, the only bit of Bluetooth Biplanes that's not so simple is the Bluetooth part.

Linking with another mobile gamer who already has Bluetooth Biplanes on their phone, you can engage each other in a dogfight. Not only does this add a distinctly sociable side to the game, it enhances it no end: the frustration and excitement as you trounce (or get trounced by) your buddy is so great that you'll rarely return to play it alone. It's far more successful in this respect than most other Bluetooth multiplayer phone games we've played.

The complicated bit comes in actually linking up with a friend. Due to the way that Bluetooth is implemented in different handsets, it can be difficult to actually get your phones connected in this way. It doesn't seem to work with Nokia's N-Gage QD at all, and even our attempts to pair a Nokia N70 and 6680 (which are nearly identical handsets) was unsuccessful. You appear to need to have two handsets that are exactly the same to guarantee success.

And this Bluetooth issue not the only downside. The actual gaming area is woefully limited, and although the emphasis has been put on playability and the much-acclaimed Bluetooth feature, there's simply not enough variety in any aspect of the game. The backdrop, animations and characters never really change, meaning the game's longevity has been cut from potentially weeks to probably minutes in single-player mode.

But then that's not really what Bluetooth Biplanes is about. There are hundreds of single-player shooters out there that are far better, but few (well, none, actually, that we can think of) that make it so much fun to pepper your best friends with hot lead.

You'll just have to hope that your handsets are on the same friendly terms as you and your mate.

Bluetooth Biplanes

An innovative multiplayer game, but no fun if you've got no friends or different handsets
Score