Fly By!: A Choppy Ride
Fly By! is an endless runner where players take the role of a fly. Players navigate a perilous environment of thorns and killer plants while collecting nectar. There are a variety of enemies in Fly By! that players have to be on the look out for, as just one hit from these enemies is certain death. Fly By! is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 6.0 or later.
While collecting nectar in Fly By!, players have to be aware of numerous enemies and environmental hazards. The enemies in Fly By! provide some nice variety as players don't know which enemy or collection of enemies will appear. Players could be facing plants that expel a green splat on the screen which temporarily blocks your view, huge biting plants, or even plants on the sides that spit out a green dagger of goop. This causes players to be prepared for anything, especially when the environment is just as deadly as the enemies. The environment is filled with thorns and it is easy to get stuck in the twisting branches.
Besides the base bug character, there are others to unlock and play as, some with special bonuses like a percentage to revive. Although, it is rather hard to collect enough nectar to afford unlocking more characters. Players can unlock the Toasty character which is a very happy toast in a red cape, but he has the same qualities as the base character.
There are a few problems with Fly By!, a weird seemingly misplaced UI button, ads, and a frame rate problem on certain devices. The biggest problem is that occasionally, when playing on the iPhone 5S, there is a big frame rate drop where the animation stops for a few seconds and then picks up again. On the iPhone 6, this doesn't seem to be a problem though.
The second problem is that there is a full screen ad when the game launches, a banner ad at the bottom of the screen that stays there for about five seconds into the game. The third problem is that there is an odd grayish circle in the top left corner of the screen that doesn't seem to do anything in the game.
Fly By! is free on the App Store and although the gameplay is fun, the ads and frame rate issue don't help it stand out from the other endless runner games on the market.
