Blimp - The Flying Adventures
by Jamin Smith on Wednesday 10th Jun 2009

If you're going to play Blimp, don't forget to pop your headphones in. It makes all the difference.

From the moment your finger taps the beautiful icon on the home screen of your iDevice, Craneballs Studios Blimp – The Flying Adventures provides a constant output of interactive elegance. From the developer and menu screens alone, Blimp lets you know you’re in for a treat from the word go. Everything about the game drips with a high quality polish, from the gorgeous hand drawn visuals to the absorbing soundtrack, but as many games before Blimp have proven, presentation alone doesn’t make a great game. Thankfully Blimp provides in the gameplay department too. In buckets.

Set on the planet Solbot, the game pops you in the cockpit of a blimp (FYI, an airship without an internal supporting framework or keel,) where it’s your duty as the pilot to undertake a variety of missions for numerous clients. This could involve the retrieval of uranium boxes from the toxic lands of SO-ERR, or the transportation of miners in IRG. Each area has its own distinct art style (all of which are beautiful) and accompanying clients and narrative. Although you play as a retired war veteran looking for the easy life, you soon find yourself drawn into a narrative concerning the fate of the world.

As with all great iPhone games, the gameplay premise is simple: guide a blimp around a 2D level, collecting and dropping off passengers whilst avoiding enemy aircrafts and avoiding crashing into things. A health bar in the top-right keeps track of just how many hits you’ve taken, and should it reach zero, it’s game over. Initially this health bar may seem overly generous, and you’ll laugh in the face of danger, the game quickly ramps up in difficulty however, and you’ll be forced to adopt a more conservative style of play.

Each level is filled with numbered platforms where passengers must be collected and dropped off. The game rather helpfully provides a pointer to your next destination at all times, so you should always know where you’re going. All passengers in a level must be dropped off (and all required items collected) within a certain time frame, adding an element of panic to each level. The faster you try and drop off passengers however, the more likely you are to drive your poor little Blimp into the wall. Items dotted around the levels attempt to make things easier for you, taking the time to collect these can increase your score, health and time. Juggling these three attributes successfully is the key to a good score.

From a control perspective, Blimp offers one of the most intuitive and sublime uses of the iPhone technology yet seen in a game. Tapping the gas icon in the bottom –right corner of the screen will cause your Blimp to ascend, as soon as you let go however, it’ll begin its descent. Knowing when to apply the gas and when to let go is vital in navigating the 20 levels the game has on offer. On the left hand side of the screen is your bomb button, and should you have any to drop, you can take out any enemy tanks and blimps that happen to be in your way. With your Blimp airborne, tilting your iDevice will move it in the corresponding direction.  It’s a little tricky to get to grips with at first, but once you’re familiar with the sensitivity, controlling the Blimp becomes second nature, and you’ll wonder how you ever struggled in the first place.

It would be a crime to finish this review without giving mention to the graphics. Although not the most technically impressive the iPhone has to offer (Real Racing, Need for Speed: Undercover and Terminator Salvation can battle it out for that prize), I’d be tempted to put forward the argument that Blimp is one the best looking overall. The hand drawn levels are for lack of a better word, beautiful; many of my deaths in the game can be attributed to staring mindlessly at the scenery as my Blimp collided with a wall. Assuming you have the sound turned up, or you have your headphones wedged firmly in your ears (as the game should be played), Blimp offers one of the most absorbing and genuinely likeable soundtracks I’ve had the pleasure of listening to in an iPhone game. From an aesthetic perspective at least, the game reminded me of Jonathan Blow’s indie classic, Braid. Visuals and audio in combination grant the game an air of elegance, which is rare on any platform, let alone an iPhone.

If you’ve read the past three reviews I’ve written, you may be under the impression that I’m handing out high scores willy-nilly. The truth is, the last three games I’ve played for review have all been of exceptional quality – and Blimp is no exception. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here; Blimp is one of the finest games currently available on the App Store. Through the originality of its gameplay and its beautiful presentation, Blimp should reside on the home screen of any discerning iGamer.