Battle of Airway is an arcade styled space shooter for Windows Phone that has you piloting a rocket ship across worlds infested with deadly alien creatures.
Graphics are nicely drawn up in bright, colorful fashion that is somewhat reminiscent of the Beatle's Yellow Submarine styled animations (or at least to my eye). Game play has a swift pace and full of challenges. Not only do you face alien creatures and ships but you also have to dodge dangers such as giant snowballs, flamethrowers, buzz saws and more.
While Battle of Airway makes a nice first impression it has one, maybe two, strikes going against it. No trail version and no 512MB device support. Battle of Airway isn't a bad game but while 512MB support would be nice, the lack of a trial version may sink this game.
Battle Menu
Battle of Airway's menu is fairly minimal with options to jump into game play, visit the game's store, choose your language and access the game's settings. The game store has a nice assortment of rocket ships and power-ups you can buy with the peppermints you earn during game play. Game settings cover muting the sound, viewing the help screen and credits.
The back-story for the game has two brothers, Tito and Tidu, who were new in the town Battle of Airway out shopping for toothpaste. While in the shopping mall the younger brother, Tidu, gets lost and it is up to Tito to find him. His search takes Tito on an unexpected adventure fighting a wide range of monsters and bosses.
Game play is spread across five worlds with a total of 25 levels of play. Each world is progressively unlocked, each ending with a battle with one of the game's giant bosses. All totaled, Battle of Airway has fifty different enemies to fight along with several dangers to dodge.
Game Play
Game play falls in line with your typical arcade space shooter game. Your rocket ship automatically fires and is navigated by touch. The game screen has your ship's health and peppermint count in the upper left corner along with a progress meter.
A pause button sits in the upper right corner (and can be easily overlooked) with your ship's shield button in the lower right corner.
The game has you flying over a colorful world filled with monsters and enemy ships. Some monsters just sit there waiting to be destroyed while other enemies take a more aggressive stance and fire missiles at your ship. You can also have unexpected dangers such as giant snowballs and flamethrowers that you will need to maneuver around.
Scattered throughout the game are peppermints that you can collect and eventually spend in the game's store. You also have weapons boosts scattered about that look more like blobs of goo than power-ups and first aid kits that will restore some of your ship's health.
The goal of each level is to make it to the finish line, destroy as many of the alien monsters as possible and collect all the peppermints you can find. Each level is re-playable to allow you to increase your peppermint account.
Overall Impression
Battle of Airway is a nicely animated, challenging Windows Phone arcade game. Game mechanics are simple and responsive and overall Battle of Airway is a fun game to pass the time with.
It does have to issues that will likely turn some potential gamers away. For starters, there isn't a trial version. Don't shoot the messenger because it is a mystery to us too why developers do not offer a trial version to their games. It should be easy with Battle of Airway to offer the first gaming level free. This would give players just enough taste to decide if they should invest in the full game.
The second issue may not be as detrimental but with more Windows Phone users sporting low-memory devices the lack of 512MB support may hurt Battle of Airway. I would have to guess the quality of graphics and animations requires the 1GB of memory for smooth performance. Could be wrong but that's my guess.
Overall, Battle of Airway is a challenging, entertaining title and a nice addition to the Windows Phone gaming library. It is a shame the game is hindered by the lack of a trial version.
- Battle of Airway - Windows Phone 8 - 38MB - $1.99 - Store Link
