iPhone Review: Copter Kid

Developer/Publisher: FIPLAB
Genre: Arcade/Copter game
Price: $0.99
Verdict: A solid, fun time-waster for your iPhone.
Pros: Challenging game design improves the game’s repeatability and portability; online leaderboards; charming design
Cons: That crunching sound when you hit objects. I shudder every time.

Probably everyone with a computer and internet access in the year 2000 (IN THE YEAR 2000!) remembers playing that addictive time waster Fly the Copter. If you don’t remember it, it was what you were doing when you should have been doing something far more important. FIPLAB hope to rekindle that old gem with Copter Kid, and dare I say, it’s as addicting, and as infuriating, as ever.

Copter Kid’s got a surprisingly fleshed out story for a simple game like it – the short version is that you’re a kid who found a propeller hat that can actually fly, but now you have “aliens in UFOs and scientists in zeppelins” chasing after you. Yes. Aliens and mad scientists in zeppelins. Awesome. Apparently, Plutonians and those mad scientists were making flying hats for evil purposes. I don’t know how exactly you make evil propeller hats, but your goal is to avoid them. Oh, and the big Loch Ness Monster that shows up occasionally. He’s bad news, man.

The game itself is simple – you press on the screen to fly up and let go to drop down in order to avoid oncoming obstacles, just like the classic “Fly the Copter” flash game. The first thing you will notice when playing this game is that you will die very quickly. The developers have made the game very challenging from the outset so that the high score lists don’t just become who can sit there and play for hours on end. As such, the game will be frustrating, but as you get used to the physics and start to go on longer and longer runs, you’ll start to enjoy the game more and more. The other benefit to the game’s difficulty is that your playtimes are usually short, so the game is highly repeatable and it doesn’t take that much time to complete a run of the game, so an improved score is never that far out of your grasp. There’s also an online leaderboard so you can see just how well you’re doing versus the world.

Copter Kid is certainly a very fun addicting little pick up and play game for your iPhone. My only recommendation would be to play the game on mute – this isn’t because the music is bad (although it may get repetitive after a while), it’s the crunching sound effect that your character makes when they hit an object. It’s just nasty. Like you imagine your little copter kid breaking every bone in their body when they crash into a zeppelin BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T SAVE THEM, YOU AWFUL PERSON. Beyond that, FIPLAB has created a fun little time-waster for your iPhone that’s worth checking out as a fun casual game.