Tiny Wings

Tiny Wings

Version: 1.1.0

Compatible: iPhone, iPod, iPad - iOS 3.1

Price: $1

There’s something about iOS gaming and birds that have flooded the market like high tide on shallow isle where the moon hangs just right to drown out any other games without West Nile. Whether or not Angry Birds started the trend or if others are all big, unoriginal copies are closed off from these procedings so I can sing and dance the praises of Tiny Wings.

Tiny Wings is the tale of a delightful land-penguin-like bird with the inability to fly in the old fashioned sense. Instead it takes to the air ramping off of conveniently placed hills. The objective is to get as far as possible before the sun goes down, reaching the end of each island stage bides you more time. The better you time your slides, the farther and higher you go meaning more time and a higher score. There is only one power-up in the form of speedcoins which provides strong boosts which come in handy frequently.

Controls are as simple as any, one button makes the bird dip whether in the sky or land to maximise the jump. It all depends on correct timing. The graphics and sounds are all sickeningly adorable and that’s all I’m going to say. Pleasant towards all the senses I’ll summarize. 

For the games sense of progression, there are three objectives tied to nests. Complete the three and you progress to the next nest in a COD ranking system all wrapped into a surprisingly rewarding and encouraging experience. Needless to say what I’ve seen, played and the fact that this game has stolen from me the greater part of a fortnight must be saying volumes. It must be perfect, right? Close.

There aren’t additional game modes beyond the one. There’s no survival mode, coin mode, see how high you can go mode or even a zen endless mode. Sad but it’s what stops this game short of perfect. But that’s just picking straws from the dollar well spent.