Sometimes it seems like gamers and game makers are too busy focusing on graphics and features and music that they forget the most important factor: the actual entertainment value of the game. Tail Gunner is a perfect example of this- the game looks and feels very nice but I got bored playing it and simply did not have a fun time.
Tail Gunner puts you in the rear gun turret of an American B17 Bomber, as you try to gun down as many German planes as you can in the twelve missions available. The game is accelerometer based- you tilt the phone to aim your guns and tap and hold the screen to lock on to a plane and gun it down. Each mission you get a certain amount of time to take down as many planes as possible in order to get the highest score you can while avoiding being shot down by the enemy planes. The controls work pretty well and are much better than using virtual buttons.
Tail Gunner honestly is a polished game. The 3D graphics look very nice, the orchestral music is great, the sounds aren’t bad, the menus look good, effort was put into every single aspect of this game. There’s a training mission you can choose to help you to learn the game and the WWII American theme of the game is pulled off nicely all throughout the game.
Features wise, I have few complaints. Since you can get high scores on each mission, I wish the game had global leaderboards. I also think the beginning and ending scene of each mission do not look very good, and it would honestly be better if they were just gone altogether.
Overall I have to give Dreadnought Design credit for offering us a full, polished game. However, I did not find Tail Gunner very challenging and therefore it was just not entertaining to play. Maybe this kind of game just isn’t my style, so I would at least recommend checking out the lite version of the game before purchasing the full game for a dollar. I did not enjoy it very much, but Tail Gunner certainly isn’t awful, and with an update supposedly in the works it’s definitely a possibility you might find it worth your while for only a dollar.