Could Tiny Wings be the Angry Birds of 2011?

SMALL TALK…

Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger

Type: Arcade

Size: 10.5 MB

Price/cost: £0.59

Updated: 25 March 2011

Official Site: www.andreasilliger.com

"You have always dreamed of flying - but your wings are tiny. Luckily the world is full of beautiful hills. Use the hills as jumps - slide down, flap your wings and fly! At least for a moment - until this annoying gravity brings you back down to earth. But the next hill is waiting for you already. Watch out for the night and fly as fast as you can. Otherwise flying will only be a dream once again."

BACKGROUND INFORMATION…

As I am in writing (date is 11/03/2011) Tiny Wings 
app is currently sitting first place in most popular top paid app knocking Angry Birds and many other popular apps out of the top nest spot. Also ranked second for top grossing app (just behind Tap Zoo) I decided to give it a download to see what all the fuss was about. I had the misconception (at first) that it was going to be very much similar to that of Angry Birds, and reading several articles beforehand found that there were many more people that had paid admission and were part of this boat. It was only until I glanced quickly through the description page that I found my misconceptions to be stupidly wrong. Blame it on the cartoon bird theme I reckon! But yes, back on topic; at only £0.59 what was the most I could possibly lose, £0.59; so I went ahead and gave Tiny Wings a shot. Could this be another one of those addictive games that you pull out every time you get five minutes spare with nothing to do, could this be the Angry Birds of 2011? Let’s find out!

MY ADVENTURES…

The human race is by far the very best at jumping into just anything without reading the damn instructions; especially the male side of the populace without trying to make too much of a sexist remark. Even though Tiny Wings does offer expert help and a whole tutorial level for beginners, I decided to jump right in the deep end and just play! I was taken to an opening screen where a small bird (which I assume to be Tiny Wings himself*) quietly snores away in his nest waiting for the morning sun to rise. With one godly touch on the screen the sun rises, Tiny Wings awakes feeling all invigorated and I am off! The game mechanics are rather simple and it’s essentially a test of timing which the game is revolved around that will obviously depict whether the player will score high or not. When holding down on the screen, the bird stops flapping his dubiously small wings dropping from the sky like a much larger piece of lead. The secret to ones success in this game is to drop perfectly on the downward slope of each hill (by pressing the screen as mentioned) to gather momentum. Letting go of the screen on the upward slope of each hill propels Tiny Wings into the clouds, space and beyond! This technique is repeated on each hill Tiny Wings encounters; with every accurate drop raking in more points and possibly activating a fever mode which in turn gives the user an increased score multiplier. This technique needs to then be adapted to all sorts of different shaped hills and its quick decisions and expert timing that are going to win the day. Nightfall is your only enemy, as that becomes ever closer with every bad mistake that is made. There are objectives in Tiny Wings which gave me a sense of direction and purpose with nest upgrades (with extra score multipliers) up for grabs as resultant reward for the successor. I am currently on my eighth nest (with a score multiplier of 24) but frustratingly stuck on a hard objective that requires me to ‘Be in fever mode for 34 seconds’. Help!

MY THOUGHTS…

So, what do I think of Tiny Wings… It’s a great arcade app and deserves to be top paid app for such a genius concept! I definitely recommend it for only £0.59, you can't really go wrong at such a cheap price! Countless times has it saved me from the depths of boredom and took me to a more happier, exciting place. It reminds me of the old Mario games where you had to race the screen, in both cases time is your worst enemy. Tiny Wings and Angry Birds are both great apps by their own right, one arcade the other puzzle. Is Tiny Wings the Angry Birds of 2011? No. Angry Birds has so much more to offer in the form of playability and support (hundreds of new levels and themes being added all the time) I still think Angry Birds is top of my charts. If I had to choose only one of the two apps mentioned for a four hour plane journey, Angry Birds would be the one hand down! If I found myself with a couple of minutes to spare on the other-hand, Tiny Wings would definitely be a consideration. 

Score: 4/5

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT…

Do you think Tiny Wings deserves to be a top paid app, do you agree with my personal review of the game? Drop App Advisor a comment, we want to know!