Jet Run: City Defender: High-end graphics with a retro flair
Players pilot a fighter jet through a gorgeous cityscape, shooting down enemies reminiscent of the enemies in Space Invaders in Jet Run: City Defender. This endless runner sends players on an exciting ride that after five waves of enemies culminates in an epic boss battle in each run. Jet Run: City Defender is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 7.0 or later.
Jet Run: City Defender features upgradeable ship weapons and items. Items like the nuke for instance, are used to take out a large number of enemies. Other items such as shield regeneration help players by passively providing some kind of assistance. Players pick three of these items for their load-out in the game and over time, additional items are unlocked. Most of the items in Jet Run: City Defender are upgradeable. This means players can customize their load-out to reflect their personal play styles.
The controls in Jet Run: City Defender are extremely easy to pick up, just tap an enemy to shoot them. Within no time players are shooting down enemies left and right. There is one caveat to these dangerously easy controls, if players tap too much, they will overheat their shields which leaves them vulnerable to attack. This really helps keep the game exciting and moving along at a high rate of speed. The swiping to move left, right, up and down feels natural and the response time is pretty accurate. Dodging bombs and other environmental hazards is challenging and keeps players on their toes.
Competitive players will enjoy the challenge of completing missions, such as defeating a number of enemy waves without taking any damage. Jet Run: City Defender also has Game Center support, which means players can compete against their friends for the highest score. The competitive feel of the game accentuates the retro enemy type and provides a feeling of nostalgic.
One downside to Jet Run: City Defender is that sometimes when a player dies, the option to watch an ad (which normally would let you continue from that point) does not work and instead sends the player to the results screen. However, when a player dies in the next run and taps on the "watch an ad" option, they skip the ad and continue right away. This is only a minor setback as players can just restart the run but it is annoying.
Jet Run: City Defender takes place in a modern looking city and players navigate between rows of pretty nice looking buildings. There are a lot of billboards that function as ads; this is both a little annoying and also rather clever. Something about the billboards and building designs gives a sense of depth and sort of realism to the game. The particle effects are incredible and every time a player shoots down an enemy, the burst effect is just spectacular to watch. The level of detail is fascinating and together with the gameplay, make for a really enjoyable experience.
Jet Run: City Defender is free on the App Store and highly recommended for its fantastic graphics and engaging gameplay.
