Game Reviews

Air Mail

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iOS
| Air Mail
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Air Mail
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iOS
| Air Mail

Old-fashioned planes are indubitably more dashing than anything modern minds can come up with. It's probably something to do with the fact they're more likely to burst into flames or plunge headlong into the floor.

The creator of Air Mail understands this rationale, so rather than throwing you into the snug, technologically advanced cockpit of a jet fighter, N-Fusion Interactive hands you control of a battered old biplane that's held together with bits of string and gaffer tape.

Special delivery

In Air Mail, you play as Scoop, a plucky young lad who sneaks into a small aircraft hanger, and ends up becoming the greatest pilot of his age. During the course of the game, you'll guide Scoop on perilous adventures through a gorgeously realised steampunk-lite world.

As you might imagine, some missions involve picking up and dropping off packages, but there's a wealth of other content to explore, too. You'll fly through rings to prove your aerobatic skills to the other pilots, collect crystals, drop pesticides, and run dangerous sorties through tight canyons.

Express Delivery mode lets you fly different challenges, trying to set high scores, while Explore mode lets you discover the world you're flying in, seeking out hidden treasures as you do.

There are three different control methods - tilt, touchscreen, and advanced - and three difficulty settings available to choose from. Playing with the advanced controls on the hardest difficulty setting poses a challenge far tougher than the game's cute graphics would suggest, but on the other settings, everything is just a little too simple.

Plane sailing

Soaring through the sky in your rattling contraption is a joy, and the beautifully rendered world that you're flying through only adds to the pleasure. That said, a better radar system would come in handy, and you'll sometimes find yourself flying around without a clear idea of where to go next.

Occasionally, it's actually worth getting lost, just so you can find some previously hidden part of the islands you're flying over, or can catch a glimpse of one of the game's wonderful visual effects.

Air Mail is a lovely game - one that sparkles with charm and ingenuity. It's not the most challenging of titles, though, and after a while the mission structure becomes a little repetitive. But, when it's on song, you can't help but feel like you're a magnificent man in a flying machine.

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Air Mail

An impressive game with a gorgeous world you'll want to explore, Air Mail is only let down by its lack of challenge
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.