Comments on: Sky Force for Palm OS Review

PIC Reviewer Kris Keilhack brings us this in-depth game review of Sky Force for Palm OS and Windows Mobile.

From the mid 80s to the early 90s, top-down shooters reigned supreme as the twitch gamer's weapon of choice. Devoid of any storyline or in-depth gameplay, titles such as 1941, Raiden, and Raystorm all followed the same gameplay mold set by Xevious back in 1983. While the Palm has had its own mainstay of the genre for many years in Zap, there has not been much in the way of recent developments to showcase what newer Palm devices are capable of hardware-wise. Read on for the full review...

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Review Feedback

KultiVator @ 3/29/2006 4:10:08 PM #

Good review - I too agree that its nice to see something like this developed on the Palm (along with theie very fine "BoulderDash" clone called "SuperMiners".

Both games are great, but do suffer with the lowest-common-denominator effect of the WinMob 320x240 playfield.

Perhaps the developers will find a way to offer multi-platform support without limiting us to the small play area in a future revision of the game.

Thanks again for the review.

KultiVator

RE: Review Feedback

hkklife @ 3/29/2006 5:05:04 PM #

KV;

It didn't strike me that the WinMob "L-C-D factor" might be the culprit for not supporting 320*48 on POS devices. Of course, cost/apathy/technical considerations could also be reasons.

It really irks me to see developers letting the user community down time after time in one of the few areas where Palm is leaps and bounds ahead of much of the WinMob competition.

I think that as everyone migrates towards Treos, 320*320 will really become entrenched as the de facto resolution for whatever future remains for POS.

This problem is not just for Palm game titles either--I have played one or two GameBoy Advance games over the past couple years that reduced the playfield to a portion of the available screen space with a huge black border on all sides. That's just inexcusable on a dedicated games console.

Glad you liked the review. I have another one coming soon for Deluxeware's Exact II with several others in the pipeline.
Feel free to make any suggestions for overlooked entertainment titles that you'd like to see reviewed on PIC.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

RE: Review Feedback

KultiVator @ 3/30/2006 1:30:56 PM #

It is my feeling (but not necessarily a fact) that the developer has built a Virtual Machine for Palm, WinMob,etc and that the game is written for the Virtual Machine rather than for the real hardware in the Palm and WinMob handheld (a bit like a Java VM or the common code platform used by TomTom).

This allows them to write the code once and deploy it fairly painlessly on any platform where they have ported the virtual machine.

If you play a few of their games, you begin to see how this is likely to be fact rather than fantasy. Also, their rate of releasing games was rather rapid - I seem to remember three releases within a couple of weeks last year.

As a result, I wouldn't hold your breath for 320x320 or 320x480 versions, as these are not common resolutions on the other platforms that this developer targets.

KultiVator

RE: Review Feedback

ackmondual @ 4/4/2006 6:28:32 PM #

@hkklife
What GBA games are you referring to? And do u kno where they were ported from? Reminds me of the alternative like playing Jack BBQ by Industry Entertainment/Mobile Wizardry where hi-res+ is just hi-res stretched to fit the width or height of the screen that's now 160 pixels extra. On my T|T3, both look ugly, and in landscape mode, slows it down. Speaking of which, Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templar by Astraware I hear looks not as clean as its GBA version.

@KultiVator
Yeah, hi-res+ will always be a pOS gamer's reach and luxury. The only hi-res+ games early to date is the T|T3. That's it. Sure, there was also the zods, but zod users would demand full zod support (vibration, analog support, graphics acceleration) that that it would practically be like making another version right there. Even with many Clies that are hi-res+ enabled, thanks to an old time fiasco and dispute betw Palm and Sony, Clies use another engine for hi-res graphics, which usually meant yet another version was required for Sony devices. It really stinks, but I can understand that it's alot of work for the dev

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

Excellent on a Zodiac

asiayeah @ 3/29/2006 7:14:15 PM #

This game is ideal for Zodiac owners with its game hanheld form factor and a joystick!

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

Nice one!

Docta G @ 3/29/2006 7:43:22 PM #

Good review, but I disagree that it doesn't have enough replayability.

I had it on my T3 last year for quite a while, and never actually registered it as I had enough fun on the first level, changing ships and skill level, but most of all trying to get a perfect score. It was a great 2-minute burst of action.

The only reason I never registered it was because I was worried about how much time I would waste on it!!

Way too tiny

eternityblue @ 3/29/2006 9:22:43 PM #

I think it is a good game with a fatal flaw: it really is too hard to see the guys you need to rescue and all the projectiles. I'll but it when they get it running full-screen on my Palm. BTW, I think the game was geared to smartphones, not WM.

For me, I'd rather play Little John Palm with Aleste for Game Gear. That works way better for me playability-wise.

RE: Way too tiny

ackmondual @ 4/4/2006 7:29:25 PM #

People who've beaten this game say for the most part, they've memorized where the prisoners and enemies are. IIRC, hard mode requires you to rescue a percentage of the prisoners, so many of us are in trouble from the get-go

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

Great game, but my complaints....

ackmondual @ 4/4/2006 7:31:50 PM #

-prisoners and bullets (large bullets are fine, but small.... damn) are hard to see
-can't suspend and save your game. Like the old consoles, these games gotta be played through one whole sitting
-if the extra hi-res+ space isn't going towards gameplay, I'd much prefer the graffiti area to invoke screenshots or to quickly quit the game or bring up options.
-can't change settings mid-game. Would've been great to mute music/sound or to change auto-fire settings
-A prisoner counter would've been nice rather than having to memorize how many you've rescued so far
-with the autofire setting on, you can stop your fire by pressing and holding the fire button. Would've been nice if the flipside were implemented. You normally don't fire, but pressing and holding down the button is autofire

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?