Sky Force, which has been developed in Poland by only four people, is basically a port of a not quite new mobile game, beefed up with an additional level following up the original final level. Due to its origins, Sky Force isn't exactly the most technically proficient game around, but it makes up for it by cleverly working inside its boundaries. The graphics are a mix of 2D and 3D which often ends up looking awful, but in this case the 3D is mostly just used to convey depth when passing by towers, hills and other high landmarks. Everything is bright and easily distinguishable, making the visuals both pleasant and functional, if a little unremarkable. The sound consists of various bleeps, seemingly taken straight from the C64. While this clashes with the rest of the game, it at least doesn't offend and it's rather good taken on its own merits. Plus, it allows for the app to only use 3.9mb. Considering this consists of eight stages that take well up to 45 minutes, this is a nice treat.

Sky Force's environments consist of lush jungles, surrounding hills and valleys, oceans and the occasional enemy base. Since there are eight levels, the game might need some more variety here, but again, that's probably thanks to its origins on older mobile phones and PDAs. As you steer your plane (chosen from the typical array of planes) using either tilt controls or perfectly suited touch controls you not only have to survive and reach the end of a level. Each level asks you to dispose of a certain percentage of enemies depending on your difficulty level, with bigger adversaries fortunately being worth more than standard popcorn enemies. If the quota is not met by the end of a level you are sent back to the beginning of said stage for a chance to try it again. While rewarding players for taking down lots of enemies is a good way of motivating them, FORCING them to do so only does the opposite. Most of the time this shouldn't be an issue anyway, but the final stage pits you against to old bosses at the end, which is a nice challenge in itself, though it requires you to quickly destroy most of them as not to fail the quota.

The rest of the game fares a lot better. The scoring system is extremely basic, yet engaging. Defeated enemies leave behind stars for you to pick up, there are various optional targets like lighthouses and crates that can be destroyed, consecutively destroying more and more whole squadrons of enemies increases a multiplier (that will even announce Unreal Tournament's catchphrase "godlike" after a while) and you better keep your eyes peeled for those tiny hostages on the ground awaiting their rescue. The only enemies are planes, tanks, helicopters, boats and turrets, hence as boring as can be, but they tend to provide more and more of a challenge with quite a curtain of bullets and laser streams filling the screen in later stages, so you hardly get to mourn the lack of design creativity. A nice change of pace is stage 6, where for some reason all enemies are declared indestructible, forcing you to dodge everything rather than shooting.

The weapon system is extremely simple, yet functional. Over the course of the game you pick up enough power-ups for your weapon to turn from a single peashooter to a stronger peashooter, to a weak dual shot and finally to a destructive dual shot, accompanied by homing missiles. In addition there is a laser at your disposal, that can be activated whenever you have stored enough energy for it. While the laser is difficult to aim given its lack of breadth, it turns most boss parts into scrap metal within moments. Possibly the coolest way of delivering destruction though would have to be the nuclear reactors found in two stages. Once destroyed they emit a growing wave of fire up the screen that nothing can withstand. Sky Force is a neat little title perfectly suited for a boring bus trip. Just don't expect it to be anything special in this day and age.

Sky Force Reloaded is probably the best name Infinite Dreams could have chosen for this pseudo-sequel. Although it is a new game with eight new stages, there hardly is anything new to be found within them. The graphics engine, the general music style, gameplay, enemies – it's all pretty much just a big casserole with last week's leftovers. The biggest addition is a three-way shot following suite to the dual shot, which goes a long way of saying "we ran out of ideas".

Other than that, the nuclear reactors and all water areas were unfortunately cut out, with at least two new helicopter enemies having been added. The bosses are all taken from the original or at least are based on the old ones. Even the final showdown in stage eight once again pits you against a tank and a helicopter. Most changes are extremely minor for all intents and purposes, with two exceptions: The old school chiptunes sound even more out of place here with their upbeat melodies and the journey now takes you through deserts and canyons instead of jungles and across oceans, rendering the visuals rather drab, further worsened by a few stages taking place at night or in the rain. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether you are flying across a desert at night or potentially a glacial area until you stumble upon some oil pipe lines.

Sky Force Reloaded might be a tad weaker than the original game, yet it's still an enjoyable old-school romp and fans of the original yearning for more would be well-advised to get this one as well.

Roswell Fighter gets credit for its uncommon setting, putting you in the shoes of a female bi-plane pilot in the US of the 1950s as aliens start an invasion that doesn't shy away from any cliché of that period's sci-fi flicks. The first mission already begins with crop circles, alien crafts are your typical flying saucers, the intruders have taken over the army's machineries and turned them against you. The tutorial even uses a graphical filter that makes it appear like it was running on a really old TV set. Arguably best of all, however, is the music. While it consists of only a single track (apart from boss fights), it fits the setting extremely nice, combining classic rock sounds with sprinkles of blues.

The visuals are also top-notch with tons of neat little details, although they are a bit lacking in terms of fancy effects. Especially explosions are a bit pale compared to the competition, but this doesn't detract from the overall great graphics. The controls also leave little to be desired. While tilt controls are available, touch controls (direct touch only) are once again the way to go, with a simple tap on a button in the lower right temporarily activating the might lightning gun, and a quick shake of the device triggering one of the rare smart bombs.

Gameplay-wise there isn't a whole lot to say about Roswell Fighter. You battle all kinds of human planes, tanks, turrets and airships, as well as alien technology, and increase your score and improve your arsenal by picking up stars or other items, respectively. At the end of a stage awaits a big boss with a couple of weak spots, and the action is occasionally interspersed with little reflex tests, which the game refers to "mini-games". In the first stage, for example, you have to make a huge UFO crash by tapping two specific spots on its outer hull, rewarding you with a pop-up window of the explosion.

Generally spoken, Roswell Fighter is simply a well-executed shooter further benefitting from a great setting. The one aggravating element that holds it back from ranking up higher in this article is that the playing field doesn't entirely fit onto the the width of the screen, forcing you to scroll left and right. Given that most of the playing field fits onto the screen, it's questionable as to why it was even necessary to have some of it protrude to the sides in the first place. This doesn't really offer additional flexibility as much as it simply confuses and makes moving feel a tad choppy. Once you get used to this and try to stay away from the sides, however, Roswell Fighter is a really enjoyable romp through sci-fi theme park.

Hopelessly awkward title aside, Chinese shooter HotField is a more than just decent blend of assets taken from various games, crossing a bridge between old-school shooters and more recent design philosophy.

Visually, HF is roughly on a 32-bit level of quality. Apart from a handful of ugly 3D-objects (e.g. tall cranes) everything is strictly low-res 2D. Enemies and bosses such as tanks, jets and turrets are reminiscent of classics such as Donpachi and Strikers 1945. Backgrounds like a desert or a lava cave bring back memories of Strikers 1945 and GigaWing, respectively, spinning, golden objects dropped by enemies look a bit too similar to those found in Mars Matrix. Bullet patterns also apparently stem straight from the period of transition from 16-bit style shooters to danmakus, as you'll encounter a wild mix of small bullet bursts aimed directly at you, attacks spreading in all directions, and the occasional bullet curtain.

Developer C2Matrix went the extra mile, implementing four different control schemes to please just about anybody. Accelerometer controls are here, as well as touch controls and a virtual pad. The latter even flips the screen by 90 degrees, in order to place the pad and buttons on black borders to the left and right of the playing field. As in most cases, however, touch controls mode is probably most people's option of choice, displaying the action in full-screen tate, working reliably and avoiding the danger of getting your finger obscure your view, by the simple inclusion of a status bar at the bottom of the screen that detects finger inputs just like the rest of the screen. Using touch controls, your ship (the three crafts differ in damage output and spreading capabilities, similar to most Cave titles) automatically fires its rapid fire, while letting a second finger join the action triggers the laser (think Cave again) and double-tapping activates bullet time (think Cave's ESPGaluda)...or "bullets time" as they call it here.

Compared to Cave games, the laser plays a far less significant role in HF, since it comes in very limited quantities, mostly serving as a rare chance to avoid a hit (you are invincible as it powers up) and dish out considerable damage for a few brief moments. Slowing down enemies and bullets also comes as more of a neat little gimmick than being an integral part of the game's mechanics, as it doesn't last long and unlike ESPGaluda you won't find any intricate scoring system building upon its mastery. C2Matrix even found enough room to squeeze in Psyvariar's and Shikigami no Shiro's grazing system: Getting close to enemy bullets increases both your fire power and it replenishes your laser. To make a long story short, HF feels like more of a relic than a newly developed title from 2009. It appears to be experimenting with various types of bullet patterns, graphics and gameplay mechanics without being entirely sure as to what to focus on or how to properly intertwine all of them. This isn't as much haphazard as it is charming, though.

The four different difficulty settings ought to be enough to appeal to all types of players, from absolute beginners, enjoying a near-endless life bar and lots of extra lives, to seasoned veterans carefully dodging the more convoluted attack patterns. Shooter pros will also be glad to know there's a replay function, allowing to record your every action and watch the videos again to analyze enemy locations or mistakes that lead to your demise.

A great advantage HF has over many (iOS) competitors lies in its varied level design. While many a shooter on i-devices completely neglect ground targets or only intersperse a bunch of uninspired turrets, HF throws multi-segmented trains, flamethrower turrets, tall buildings and rows of tanks at you. Again, HF doesn't feel like an iOS shooter from 2009, but more like a forgotten PSX title, and once again it's for the better.