If they do nod off they will miss out on a beautifully well-crafted game with a smooth accelerometer controlled flight engine that allows you to easily glide your protagonist Eryn over and through six ethereal islands picking up crystals in order to free herself from a “dimensional rift”. While most games are aimed at the 10-35 year-old male, Glyder takes a different approach as there are no fire-breathing dragons or flesh eating zombies to dispatch of and Eryn is not your usual supremely-endowed butt kicker. In fact, there is no dying in Glyder at all. If you crash you’re simply transported back to the last platform you were at without penalty. It’s low-pressure gaming.
The graphics are nice even though they lack a great amount of detail or texture making it somewhat easy to crash and the islands you fly to are well-designed but devoid of any life making your travels feel rather lonely and sterile. The sound reinforces this emptiness with quiet meditative music interspersed with the rustling of Eryn’s wings as she dives to pick of speed with a rush of wind. Eryn is limited to diving, climbing and turning as there is no way to invert, loop, or perform barrel rolls.
The simple challenge in Glyder comes from maneuvering Eryn down chutes, through buildings and into tunnels to find crystals and unlock certain hidden areas. To extend the game, there are a multitude of achievements and trips you can perform if you desire.
These achievements are things like reaching terminal velocity or maximum altitude or diving through a certain tunnel. The achievements don’t earn you anything special except a sense of accomplishment while the trips involve simply flying from one platform to another.
Glyer is a non-challenging 3 star game that probably won’t appeal to an action-oriented gamer. While the controls and atmosphere are exceptional, the game play feels a little lite. But if you want to kick-back and simply glide around an attractive 3D fantasy world without the fear of being shot down Glyder might float your feather especially since Glu games are currently on sale in the app store.
reviewed by goyami - Ipod touch