My Paper Plane

Summary

Paper airplanes... Those were the days! I spent hours folding one after the other and comparing their trajectories. I think back to those days fondly, so when I found My Paper Plane on the Android Market, I downloaded it in a heartbeat. The app is a 3D paper airplane simulator; you’ll find our whether it’s worth checking out in this test review.

A paper airplane – nothing more and nothing less – plays the leading role in My Paper Plane, and it is this plane that you’ll have to fly through a small-scale 3D landscape.

There are several different levels you have to get through, the first being relatively easy to tackle. From level 3 and up the game gets trickier, though—and you need to keep cool and think fast to make it past level 7.

The goal of the game is to collect as many blue boxes as possible, because they allow your plane to become more buoyant, and the only thing that can fight gravity is buoyancy. After you’ve started the game, the plane loses ascending force within a matter of seconds. In the easier levels, you receive a few boosts to help you keep afloat, even though these boosts are numbered, forcing you to ration them.

The higher levels become more challenging, seeing as the blue boxes are no longer simply floating in the air, but mounted high up on the peaks of towers, and are thus more difficult to obtain. It becomes even trickier when the towers start moving, forcing you to strategically plan your route before making a beeline for one of the boxes, otherwise you risk crashing into one of the towers.

You can decide which level you want to start with. To do so, just press the menu button and choose a level—easy! You can also switch the sound on or off via the menu button… but that’s about it as far as setting options go.

You have to use the 3 lives you receive very wisely, because once they’re all gone you have to start again from the very beginning, i.e. level 1. In case you manage to complete a level without the help of any boosts, you get awarded an extra life.

My Paper Plane calculates your score after every completed level.

Bottom line:
My Paper Plane has a lot of potential—which means the app still has a long way to go before we can award it four stars. Here’s what’s still missing, in my opinion: more options, a better gameplay, and more detailed graphics. It’s okay if you’re looking to spend a few minutes playing, but not (yet) worth spending more time on the game.

You are, of course, the one who's in control of controls, and these, it has to be said, aren’t bad at all! You maneuver the plane by tilting your phone to the left or right.

In the lower right half of the screen you’ll find a small button marked “RESET ACCEL”. This button is for calibrating the steering function. If you choose to make use of it, you should hold your phone horizontally; this is the only way the calibration of the steering mode can be activated properly.

You can activate a boost by clicking on the boost icon. As I said, this app is still missing a few features which could be useful; deciding how high of a percentage of a boost you’d like to use is one of them. That way, you can use what you need, without using up all the available boosts at once.

This app resembles a first generation Playstation: it’s lacking in details and design. That’s a shame, as it’s definitely fun to play this game.
 

I experienced no problems whilst testing My Paper Plane on an HTC Desire. However, reading comments in the Market have led me to understand that it can get a bit bumpy when playing this game on a first generation phone (even though it can’t be said that the graphics are particularly sophisticated and hence demanding).

You can download My Paper Plane for free from the Market.