Click here to read some of the App Store reviews

Fact Sheet

Price: Free (with no ads or micro-transactions)

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id346305597

Size: 8.3 MB

Compatibility:  iOS 8.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, including older & newest devices.

Release dates: v1.0, Dec 22nd 2009 / v2.0, Oct 28th 2018

Developer: Michael Howard

Contact: retroflightgame@gmail.com

Social: Website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TouchArcade

Description

Retro Flight is a retro-themed 3D shooter for iOS. Play 1- or 2- player, deathmatch or sandbox, in choppers, jets, biplanes, tanks, boats, subs, cars, trams, horses, birds & UFOs!

You start as a cold war chopper pilot caught in a proxy war between a democratic city state & an Orwellian police state. Later you get to fight in tanks, subs, jet fighters, WW1 biplanes, aircraft carriers and the occasional flying saucer. There's a tutorial plus options for autopilot, target practice, Cyberspace, Xmas, 2-player with WiFi or Bluetooth, and sandbox, where everything comes to life and you can drive & ride everything that moves.

    This game is a challenge, but once you're up to speed and deep into the high-octane madness it's the most exciting adrenaline rush on the app store. While everyone else is staring at their phones in a vacant trance, this will have you punching the air and screaming out loud.

Features

Vehicles

There are 4 types of helicopter and 12 types of plane (including the biplanes, triplanes & propellor monoplanes in sandbox), all with different abilities and handling. The bomber & striker planes are built to be easy to fly, but the fighter planes are meant to fly realistically and support 360-degree roll & pitch for aerobatic stunts. In sandbox there are also tanks (with directional damage), cars, boats, trams, birds, horses, a submarine, an aircraft carrier, and occasionally a flying saucer. Most are alive in sandbox, and all can be driven by the player.

AI

The helicopter AI is remarkably advanced, but has just enough reaction time delay and occasional "mistakes" (dependent on the current level) coded in to make it look natural, so it can feel like you're fighting other players. As well as several different hunting and killing tactics it understands taking velocity and acceleration into account, how to get the right pickups, navigating the complex 3D environment, not shooting through allies, how to avoid missiles fired from different angles when various obstacles are in the way, and weigh all these decisions against each-other while up to 15 other aircraft are moving & fighting quickly in the same airspace, using the same controls the player uses. While it may sometimes get temporarily confused by complex edge cases, it knows how to recover and avoid falling into patterns that would enable easy player exploits.

The AI for the other vehicles is... a work in progress, but certainly entertaining!

Maps

Different battle locations are available. The South city is a procedurally generated metropolis, different each game, and provides lots of cover and complex environment to fight in. The North city has less distracting detail and is similar in each game, for players that prefer a familiar environment. There's also an airstrip with much less obstacles in the way, and a tiny, simple map for the minimalists.

Much of the scenery is different from game to game, and all can get wrecked during play. If you play a long game in a city, it will look very different by the end. Cyberspace & Xmas graphics options add to the variety.

The game can also load custom maps that players may wish to write themselves in JSON script.

Tutorials

To help with the learning curve there's a set of Flight School missions to get the player up to speed & practiced with how the game & controls work. You can also play "Target Practice", where nothing shoots back, or "Autopilot" where the AI plays for you while you watch from it's perspective.

Deathmatch

Scores and experience are earned via five deathmatch levels, from novice to elite, where up to 15 AI helicopters will fight with or against the player. The scoring system and indeed the whole game is tightly engineered to maximize fun and excitement, encouraging the player to race against the clock, fight at the edge of their abilities and push their emotions to the limit. Players can compare scores on Game Center leaderboards, or play each-other over WiFi or Bluetooth.

Sandbox

More creative and adventurous in nature than the frantic deathmatch, here the player is free to explore by air, land and sea, with danger never far behind. They can climb buildings, lead a tank invasion, shoot down some planes, or just go boating & hope nothing explosive comes after them. There are six starting points, two for each main map.

Compatibility

With a draw detail slider in the options and support going back to iOS12, Retro Flight can run well on old devices too. It's also optimized for the screen size and capabilities of the latest iPhone devices.

Videos

The first is a pre-release trailer. The second is 3 minutes of continuous play.

Screenshots

Full resolution screenshots (2208 × 1242, from an iPhone 8+) are here.

There are screenshots of older versions of the game here and on the Facebook page, but if you use those please make it clear that they're from a previous version! The same goes for any older fan-made vids you may find.

Reviews

There are no professional reviews yet, which is entirely my fault as I'd attempted no real publicity till now (November 2018). I always felt there was more I needed to improve before exposing the game to a wider audience.

But Retro Flight has had 336 five star reviews on the App Store from players around the world (out of 423 total reviews). Here are quotes from just a few of them. (Please excuse spelling, I wanted to keep the original text!)

"Don’t think I’ve been more happy to see an old app come back"

"This game is greatly underrated. It requires to people to actually dig in and look for it. For those who do, congratulations because you just hit jackpot. This game is crazily good."

"It runs on literally any iOS, and runs FAST even on older devices. Honestly I’ve looked all over the App Store and couldn’t find a better flight sim game. This game has everything you need to entertain yourself for hours. Been playing for 4 years and will play for 4 more!"

"I spent 2 hours scrolling thru apps looking for this, I love it, it's amazing, the simplicity is the best, and I have loved this game for ever!!!"

"Fantastic Game ... I love just goofing around shooting buildings and flying UFOs! ... Not sure I'll ever delete it. :)"

"ok so i was on the city map and i got on the big ship and drove it onto the little ramp at the corner of the city in the water and it makes the ship fly it is awesome dont fix please"

"I love this game! It's best mode is on sandbox you can drive any vehicle you see!"

"If you haven't at least downloaded and tried this game, you are depriving yourself of The best hidden gem on the App Store."

"Two words : superultramegalegitawesomecool game"

"Yes... Yes. Yes! YYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSS!"

"This update takes this already amazing game to a whole new level!"

"Best game for free I've ever played"

"Best game ever"

"Like a few other people, I'm VERY surprised that this game isn't on the "featured" page."

"Best 3D dogfighting game I've ever played on my iPad! Great for playing with a friend. Fun graphics. Cool noises. No charge. What's not to like? It also has a complexity that some similar games lack. With lots of helicopter choices game modes and textures. I'm surprised this game isn't on apple featured page!"

"Best game that I played on my iPhone"

"This is so freaking fun! I can't believe it was free, it is good for people who like retro or modern style games. Seriously you HAVE to get it. So fun!"

"Totally Amazing!!!"

"Best game on the I pod!"

"This game should be $4.00 or more!!!!!!! I would rate it 100 stars if I could!!"

"Will blow you away! I love this game! No matter how many times you play it, it never gets old! I just love the thrill of trying to shoot as many down as I can on elite difficulty!"

"BEST GAME EVER BEST PART IS IT'S FREEEEEEEEEE"

"This is the coolest game ever I was trying to find a good game and I founded best game ever"

"This game is the best!!!!"

"The best game ever"

"Awesome in every way... This is by far one of the best shoot em ups I've ever played."

"This app is the best"

"Can't put it down! ...LOVE THIS APP"

"This is the best game out there. I think this should be in the top 25 games!"

"This game is absolutely the best game ever!! Its ridiculously funny too! I'm surprised it can run on the iPod touch...I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!! IT IS VERY ADDICTING!!!"

"Best game ever! Everyone should download it awesome :D xD"

"Awesome!!!! The best game ever!!!"

"Best game in the world"

"If you haven't played this one yet give it a shot and if you've already played it give it another shot! There's a lot more to this game than you may have noticed on a cursory play through. The controls are very tight once you get a feel for them and the depth of the tactics you can develop against the AI enemies is pretty much limitless. Single player mode is the same kind of addictive "casual gaming" that is selling millions of units elsewhere on the App Store. The slightly higher learning curve is very much offset by the thrill of high score chasing once you reach a certain proficiency. Add into this local multiplayer, the ambitious TODO list the developer has in the works, and the price tag (FREE) and you get a very impressive game."

"This is the best game in iTunes"

"Amazing ... Like TRON with helicopters"

"I don't know what to say, it's just so awesome that the creator of this game will be sued for drug dealing, cuz this is a drug, defiantly."

"Unbelievably good. I haven't a clue as to why more people aren't talking about it."

"Awesome... The best app I have!"

"Once you start playing you won't be able to stop. This is a polished game that is fun fun fun!!!"

"Best gave ever... I just started playing this game like 10 minuets ago and I love it!!! I am loving the old school graphics it is amazing if this was a 10 dollar app I would still get it! This should be on top of the top 25 free apps list. I usually never ever comment on games but this one was worth it, and AND IT WAS FREE!!!"

"This game is the best game on the app store by far"

"AWESOME!!!!!!!! This is the best free app I have! ... Best app EVER."

"Best game ever total recommend it and it's free"

"This game is awesome, how is it not in the top 25?!?!?!"

"Complicated enough that you can spend hours on it, but quick enough that it can just as easily fill five minute gaps. Perfect."

"Love it. It is the best game ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"This game is just great fun. It dosnt focus on graphics or nice spot on presentation (which doesnt really matter) but instead It focuses on fun. The controls are really great and it feels awesome to blow other aircrafts out of the air wit rockets. And its free. With no ads or anything. I hope that many people will support this game so the devs can keep updating it with more maps, game modes, and so they can add online play."

"Played it for 5 minutes and already hooked!!"

"Awesome game and you can play it for hours and not get bored also the best part it free, I mean really you guys should take a little bit of time just to play this I mean PLEASE try it you wont regret it"

"The best game I've ever played!!"

"OMG THIS GAME IS A DRUG LITERALLY"

"I just bought this game, and already it is the Number One app on my iPod. It's simplicity is great for long stretches of play time (no extravagant 3D models to make your eyes water) and the great imagination and thinking that went into this makes it a gem."

"The best game i have played yet"

"This game is the best for playing with friends!"

"Hey, that is the BEST free app I have ever got. I love the retro graphics and it's really fun."

"Best multiplayer flight app I've played!"

"This is the best game ever, it is easily worth £1.18, but actually..... It's free! Really get this."

History

It started as a silly Xmas shooter called "Snowball Flight" written in my spare time to learn iPhone development. The first version was released on Dec 22, 2009. With more updates it got popular, with very positive reviews and 220,000 downloads without any marketing. I took it down on October 2015 as I couldn't maintain it at that time.

On October 28, 2018 version 2.0 was released, and I'm finally happy enough with it to try marketing it.

Media Policy

Video content creators, YouTubers, twitchers and streamers, I would love you to cover this game! I hope this info will help answer any questions regarding video creation rights.

I hereby give permission for you to monetize videos of you playing Retro Flight. You may create, publish, and stream videos of Retro Flight, either free or ad-supported. You do not need to request written permission to create such content.

You are welcome use the pictures & videos on this site too, or your own screenshots of the game. Editing this media, for example to play cool music behind game videos or make memes out of game screenshots, is positively encouraged.

Please note that I reserve the right to update this policy without notice or liability.