Fly Boy a Hectic, Bright and Fun-filled Arcade Shoot-em-up
by Paul Wilks
Jul 4, 2011 7:50 AM –
Install
Fly Boy is a hectic, bright and fun-filled arcade shoot-em-up where you fly a small aero-plane shooting bullets, dropping bombs and firing missiles. Collects coins and a variety of power boosts as you take to the skies with this challenging arcade-style shooter.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Cool graphics- not quite of the standard as say, AirAttack HD, and in comparison a little cartoony, but the graphics are sharp and responsive.
- Plenty of bonuses and coins to collect.
- Cool sounds.
- Addictive gameplay.
- Achievements to complete.
- The skies bustle with enemies and the created jeopardy is brilliant fun to play through.
Cons
- Let down by force closures when you crash.
- Controls could be a bit tighter.
Features:
Fly Boy puts you in the cockpit of a little fighter plane as it soars through the skies taking on a variety of enemies on land and in the air. Collect coins and boosts- typically- health, better firepower, more missiles, etc. and take on Airship bosses. The game has quite a retro feel to it and most users will probably be familiar with gameplay.
You control your aircraft by sliding your finger in the direction you want the plane to go- targeting baddies and avoiding their shots. Collect the boosts and you will simultaneously be firing and dropping bombs on the land-based baddies. You also have a powerful missile launcher which takes out most enemies on the screen. As you progress the sky gets absolutely frantic with shots, bombs, missiles and mortars making the game a genuine challenge.
You have 19 achievements to complete which includes destroying a certain number of tanks or planes and these are quite challenging.
Thankfully, there is a variety of boosts to help you destroy everything that moves. These include: bombs, scatterload (which increases attacking scope by firing bullets across a wider spectrum), speed up fire, increase bullet amount and missiles. The missiles send a curtain of powerful fire across the whole screen wiping most things out, really useful when things get crazy.
Unfortunately the game is let down horrifically by force closes. Oddly this seems to be related not to normal gameplay but to particular in-game scenarios. So, when you crash (ie. run out of HP) so does the game! 
On the menu screen there is a tab called ‘Gamebox’. I haven’t a clue what this is as whenever I touch it the game crashes. This is a huge disappointment to an otherwise very satisfactory game. The only other issue is the controls. Using your finger to move the plane and simultaneously fire bullets and bombs it is perhaps not quite as responsive as the game requires for you to be in control properly. This probably just requires some tweaking to get right and is not a major problem unlike the force closing.
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Fly Boy – Red botton is number of missile strikes you have.
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Fly Boy – Enemies attack you from above and below.
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Fly Boy – Collect extra points and avoid bullets and bombs.
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Fly Boy – Take to the skies, collect bonuses and fight planes.
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Fly Boy – Take too many hits and you are going down!
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Fly Boy – Gameplay gets very frantic.
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Fly Boy – Main menu
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Fly Boy – Guidance
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Fly Boy – Pause Screen
Fun Factor:
Heaps of fun can be had flying around and destroying everything you can. You have to build up your score and collect all the achievements and this can be a real challenge.
Addictive:
Despite the force closures I keep going back to the game over and over again, its lots of fun and addictive. I just wish they would sort the problems with the game out and it would be fantastic.
Graphics:
Graphics are pretty good. Cartoony but sharp and full of little details such as your plane looking more and more beat up depending on your HP. There is a real retro feel to the graphics and for this kind of shooter this isn’t a bad thing.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
Sound is faultless to be honest. Lots of thumping music, sound effects, explosions. Oddly there is a grimacing grunt noise whenever you get him- like you’d get in a boxing simulator but this noise is distinctive over the hubbub of bangs, explosions and sonic sounds the game has. All those sounds you made as a child as you spread your arms, called yourself an aeroplane and flew round the garden are here!