App Review: Paratrooper

By
Braden Faulkner
Published: January 4, 2010

Paratrooper is a recently released game for WebOS and it when we saw it, it looked promising. So; we went hands on with it to give a proper review. Our expectations were pretty well set on awesome, read after the break to see how it turned out.

Graphics

The graphics in Paratrooper is rather well done, the scenery is not at all flaky and looks exactly like it's suppose to be, except animated. It's nice because the background and the foreground sort of blend together making the game look really elegant. The backgrounds of the menus are actually really well done and the certainly contribute to the theme of the game.

Sounds

There isn't anything particularly special about the sounds in this game, when deploying "troopers" it makes the sound WebOS makes when throwing a "card" away. The game also makes some unique sounds, for instance when a parachute is opened and when a trooper falls or lands in the wrong area there are unique sounds representing the action. Other than that, there isn't much more to this games sound effects. Which, also means no game play music.

Controls

Basically, to deploy a trooper you need to tap one of the passing airplanes, each time you tap one comes out. In the higher levels, you also need to individually tap each trooper for the parachute to deploy. In order to avoid hitting objects and to successfully land on the right area, you must hold your phone vertically and tilt it left or right depending on the direction you wish to go. For the most part, these controls work flawlessly and it doesn't make it hard to see the screen. Although, be sure to keep your phone in a vertical position because it seems that the tilting to change direction doesn't work as well if it isn't.

Customizations

Paratroopers is generally not customizable, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I can't say there is a lot of possible customizations that could be added. Mostly because this game simply doesn't need them. Although, an option to calibrate the accelerometer would be welcome, its really not needed.

Nice Additions

Paratrooper includes some nice additions like the ability to view the high scores from both today and all-time and yes the scores are online, not just local. Also, the developer has included an option to replay any levels that you've beaten without having to play through the game from the start again. Also, if you're looking for support Paratrooper has both a help page, which gives detailed instructions on how to play and a support link which redirects you to a website. The developer also includes a link to a game play demo on Youtube, if you're in need of some help.

Wrap-Up

Overall, Paratrooper is one of the best games currently available in the App Catalog and for $1.99 its more than worth it. To be honest, it lived up to our expectations completely and it's safe to say that this one's a keeper.

On a scale of 1 to 10 we'd definitely give Paratrooper a 9/10.

Note:Paratrooper Mini is also available in the app catalog for free.

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