Before I start with Nineoverten.com’s latest review, let it be known that I do not have a problem with every individual’s right to make money. So here’s a question to all you smartphone gamers out there: What happens when an indie developer gets exceedingly greedy? You get a game like iFighter 2.
For those unfamiliar with the game, it’s a shmup along the lines of Capcom’s retro classic 1942. Now everyone knows that kinda game should be a fun romp through the skies but what got me mad about iFighter 2 was how it hard sells IAPs (in-app purchases). How the developer went about doing this was pretty dumb.
Firstly, the game was exceedingly difficult. I was playing the game in the post office (there was really this long queue and it’s a habit of mine to review games in such a situation) and I was surprised at getting pawned by this iOS shmup in a very short period of time. I discovered that you’ll need to use power-ups to help defend your hapless World War II era fighter plane.
These power-ups are finite and need to be pre-purchased before you start the game. To purchase these power-ups you go to a store front to buy them using coins, which to be fair to the developer, can be obtained from playing the game. But then again, these power-ups are freaking expensive…and in the end of the day you need to spend cold, hard cash doing IAPs to purchase more coins.
For once I agree with one of the reviews left on the iTunes App Store for iFighter 2. It’s daylight robbery and it’s absurd, and it looks to be ON PURPOSE. It’s just too bad the game has all the ingredients to be a great game (the graphics are beautiful, and the controls pretty solid).
Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates iFighter 2 at a 3 out of 5. The game is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 0.99: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ifighter-2-pacific-1942-by/id492017447?mt=8. A review code was provided to Nine Over Ten 9/10 for the purpose of this review.
