AR Plane Crazy: Fun Joyride is an augmented reality (uses Apple’s ARKit) iOS game where you control the altitude of an airplane which you need to guide through floating rings. The game was designed with simple single-touch control. All you need to do is to tap and hold to lower the plane and release to make it go back to its default height.
Each time you complete a level, which is usually after passing through two or more rings, you are rewarded with coins. You can later use those coins to unlock different types of aircrafts. The game is challenging and requires concentration and getting familiar with the physics in order to progress. There are tall towers circulating the city, which you have to pay attention to. Your plane can fly above them, but once you descend to pass through a ring, you need to quickly ascend to avoid getting crashed into one of them. It definitely takes some practice until you get used to the physics and able to play consecutively without crashing every few seconds.
AR Plane Craze immediately reminded of another similar game called ARcade Plane, which I’ve already reviewed in November. I found ARcade Plane to be addicting and fun but it became tedious after a short time.
I first thought that the two games were released by the same developer with some small tweaks, but they are definitely not. ARcade Plane was developed by Digital Melody Games and AR Plane Craze was developed by The Game Storm Studios (PvT) Ltd.
In ARcade Plane you need to collect stars, whether in AR Plane Craze you need to pass through hoops. This is the same exact idea just with a different type of targets.
Let’s take a look at some gameplay before we move in.
The thing that I liked about AR Plane Craze that ARcade Plane lacks is that the other aircrafts like the helicopter have different physics than the airplanes. In ARcade Plane the physics is the same for all aircrafts. Furthermore, if you are not careful, you can make the plane go vertical and make it crash. I don’t know if that was a physics glitch, but it happened to me two times already (I think it was a physics glitch).
ARcade Plane is the better game of the two
Other than that, I preferred ARcade Plane way better. First of all, the map is smaller, so I was able to play it on the table of the living room, whether with AR Plane Craze I had no choice to move to the floor because the map was too big for the table.
Second, the map in AR Plane looks almost flat, the buildings are very small. In ARcade Plane the buildings are tall and impressive, which makes it more fun and immersive in Augmented Reality.
Third, the visuals in ARcade Plane look fancier with a nice color palette, whether the overall level design of AR Plane Craze looks dull and very much lacking. Same goes for the UI, it looks better and it’s more informative. In ARcade Plane there is also a time limit, that keeps you on your toes the whole time—in ARcade Plane you don’t have that, so it doesn’t feel as thrilling as ARcade Plane gameplay.
I also found the music and sound effects to be better in ARcade Plane.
Conclusion
Although some things are going in favor of AR Plane Craze, I found the overall gameplay and AR experience as well as the design to be quite lacking. I can’t like, part of it was fun and addictive but as a player, I see no reason to pick up this game where you got an almost exact copy of the game that does a better job.
The game’s description on the App Store is very exaggerated: “Best airplane flying action simulator” or “Amazing animations and HD graphics”—nothing that I personally find to stand in line with what I have personally experienced and seen.
For me, the AR experience plays a significant role and I found the game to feel awkward to play in AR. Reducing the map size and following the design line of ARcade Plane could have made a much better impact. Two similar games, one does it well, the other fails to impress.
It’s a nice game, but there is already a similar and better alternative. I personally would recommend skipping it.
You can download the game from the App Store here.