App Review: Atlantis Sky Patrol HD 5

You rmission, should you choose to accept it to save the world be defusing doomsday devices discovered in cities around the globe. You're the best pilot in the Air Force, you know it, the General knows it, and the President knows it. You are the leader of the elite Atlantis Sky Patrol, and your course of action is to match moving balls and solve puzzles.

Atlatnis Sky Patrol, by Big Fish Studios, provides a twist on the classic match-three type of game, and not just in gameplay. The entire game is decked out with out of this world artwork and a delightful storyline (weven if it doesn't have much effect on how the game is played). The visual style is a sort of retro futuristic, reminiscent of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but with a better plot, acting, and portability.

If Atlantis Sky Patrol looks more complicated to you, don't stress - it looks harder than it actually is. It's sort of two games in one - a moving match-three puzzle and stationary puzzles. Thus you have two objectives - the first being to match sets of three or more colorful balls as the roll around the snake-like trough on the screen, the second to eliminate the balls from the stationary puzzle. What makes it interesting is the interaction between the two - once you eliminate a color from the stationary puzzle, no more balls of that color will be added to the moving puzzle. And, of course, you'll want to clear out the trough of rolling balls before they get to the end, lest they get there and the doomsday device go off, thus ending the world.

Along the way you can catch power ups and coins. There is a swap mode to let you use a second finger or shake; and you can control the intensity of the game. As your score goes up, you attain treasures like gold coins to purchase permanent upgrades to your tools; and you can increase their strength to help you destroy the devices and puzzle pieces. You can upgrade everything from the speed you shoot at to the disrupter that delays the release of new waves of the colored puzzle detonators.

With great visuals and entertaining gameplay good for short bursts or long sessions, Atlantis Sky Patrol HD is one of our favorite games for the HP TouchPad. There's a free version available in the App Catalog, or you can fork over $4.99 for the full version. The former includes in-app purchases to upgrade to the full version without having to worry about losing your progress.