There are some movies that should receive awards not for the actual film, but for the quality of their trailers. A well made trailer can make the most tedious and uneventful film look exciting and action packed. The trailer has turned into something of an art form.
When it comes to games, selecting exactly the right screenshots is equally important - and can be equally misleading.
VyFight looks outstanding from its promotional material, which, to be fair, is taken directly from within the game; but once it’s in your hands, much of the lustre is lost in a mire of awkward and stilted gameplay.
VyFight demonstrates a clumsy and unrefined use of the accelerometer, which brings the game to its knees. Tilting left and right allows you to steer, whereas tipping your handset up or down takes care of altitude.
Alone, both of these axes appear to work quite well, and as long as you don’t stray much from a steady alignment you can cruise quite comfortably. But you're not playing to cruise around at a leisurely pace.
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When it comes to aerial acrobatics, such as sharp banking dives, the controls fail. Once the ship has turned, climbing and driving becomes unresponsive, the ship veering awkwardly as it attempts to right itself and fights against your control. It makes aiming and shooting with any accuracy a frustrating affair.
But you don't only fight against the control system: you also fight against the game itself. The regularity with which
VyFight crashes is tremendous.
Sometimes it’d be the (French) menu system that causes it to sit down and at other times it’d be a level's conclusion or a high point of action. The only reliable thing is its unreliability.
Neither does it fare particularly well in terms of presentation. The level design, ships and enemy vehicles are excellent, but navigating through the menus is dreadful. It took fully five minutes to figure out that only one of the six ships - separated into three pairs - was actually accessible to begin with, and finding the starting button was problematic.
Selecting a ship first, then finding a way to start the game is the solution, as it turns out, though there’s little indication as to whether or not you’ve done either.
The ‘back’ button points downwards, and it’s wearisome trying to fathom whether you’re continuing a game or quitting to the main menu.
There are several different modes of play. Since the campaign is infuriating due to the ship’s inability to fly and fire in the direction you’d like, playing the racing and driving modes lightens the mood quite a bit.
These are standard offerings: circling unlocked levels and flying through rings or collecting as many objects as possible within a time limit. Mildly enjoyable, but very constrained.
After all’s said and done, it’s not entirely fair to label
VyFight as a failure. It plays like an Alpha version of a game that could, with significant development and improved stability, really start to shine.
If the developer could capture some of the surface glamour and promise of exhilaration that it’s imbued its trailer with, this could be a real thrill ride of a game. Until then, it’s a false reflection.
