Kings Can Fly: Take your airships around the world in this
lighthearted and enjoyable puzzle game.
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| Top Games android: Kings Can Fly |
We first saw the Kings Can Fly promo video a few months back and since then
we’ve been waiting for the Firedroid developers to release their game…. the wait
is now over! Check out its good points below…
Gameplay: You’re a king who has finished conquering the
kingdom and the state of peace is sending you to sleep. So what do bored rulers
do? Obviously they listen to their young and beautiful assistants who tell them
they should go on one last trip and see the world from high in the sky! Being
the almighty ruler of your domain, you set out with a convoy of airships and you
need to travel the world going through all the checkpoints. But of course you
can’t just sit and wait for the wind direction to suit you before you set off…
oh no… you’re the king… so you will create your own wind eddies! That’s right
you set out in your airship and then you strategically put down directional
fans, lift fans and whirlwinds (yes that’s not a typo!) in order to guide your
balloons to the docks. After you have all your equipment in place then you open
the gates and see if the wind currents are correct to fly you to your goal.
At this point the game probably still sounds weird because you’d think that a
civilisation which is amazing enough to make airships (which can survive
whirlwinds!) would also be clever enough to make them fly in any direction… but
nope. For some reason they were in such a rush to make these machines that they
can only travel in straight lines. This explains why they need to throw
contraptions around the map in order to redirect the balloons. Luckily for us,
this creates a very unique little puzzle game which is enjoyable and yet
challenging at the same time.
Intuitive Controls: I love developers who put time and care
into controls because it can make or break a game. In this case the Firedroid
developers have gone to town with the camera controls and they’ve given their
players all the bells and whistles: there’s basic single touch and drag for
camera panning; then there’s pinch to zoom; they’ve got multi-touch twist to
pivot the camera; and finally there’s multi-touch for camera elevation. Of
course this is just a nice to have which makes the game easier to play, but the
attention to detail has also gone into the fan placement. It’s very clear how
to put a fan down and the choice of which direction it’ll be blowing is obvious
too. I’m particularly happy that the directional fan buttons will auto-rotate
as you spin your view around.
Sweet Graphics & Sounds: This is a great little pathing
puzzle game which is put in a beautiful fully rendered 3D environment (yet
another Unity engine success!). Personally I find the model graphics to be just
right… not too detailed… but still delicate enough to be pretty. They’re also
subtly animated to bring the whole game to life. Though I must say, what really
impresses me is how the 2D graphics and the in game 3D meld together easily.
The themed stylisation has really worked some magic and the quality music really
sets the scene for a relaxing fantasy game.
Puzzle Problems: Personally I’ve found that some of the
puzzle concepts within Kings can Fly and the core methods to solve them are very
much like a Sokoban puzzle. The difference is that you tend not to go back on
your old routes and instead you’ll keep heading forwards. Using Sokoban
elimination methods will let you figure out where to place the guidance fans.
My only negative about the puzzles are that they seem either really easy or
really hard… there’s not much inbetween.
As with all puzzle games there’s the concern that one would get stuck on a
level and not be able to progress. But the developers have tackled this in
multiple ways i) there are multiple routes on the level map (which means you
don’t need to complete all the levels), ii) there’s a tips button. If you
activate the game tip within the game then flags will appear, thus telling you
where you should put your wind devices. This way you’ll never get stuck, and
you’ll always have something to play.
Full / Free: The Free version of the game has adverts
and 13 levels. [Ed: Adverts were removed from the free version!] The Full game
has 60 levels and we think its worth it if you like puzzle games. To be honest,
we’re not sure if the first 13 levels are a good reflection of how difficult the
puzzles are or of how good the game is.
Rating: 4/5 Kings Can Fly is a superb and unique puzzle game which lets you
feel the love and care of the developers. This brain taxing game will
definitely keep you occupied for a good while!
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