When Turtles Fly

There are countless mobile games that has players try to jump or fly as high as they can. Turtle Fly does that, but there’s a twist. A really interesting one.

When I first started up Turtle Fly, I almost immediately turned it off, put the game down, and walked. The story, if you can call it that, makes absolutely no sense! There’s a professor who thinks that if humans can fly so can turtles. The in-game wording: “If turtle can fly, so does human.” Bwah?

There are a bunch of title screens to toggle through when the game first boots up—pretty annoying. And when I started, the controls were spaghetti, and it wasn’t very fun.

You control a rocket-powered turtle. There is a button on the bottom right to fire the rocket. You only have a certain amount of rocket fuel, so you must try to gauge it. There are right and left arrows on the bottom left, which allow you to move the turtle to the right and left.

But I stuck it out, and the more you play the game, the more interesting it gets.

See Turtle Fly isn’t just Doodle Jump with rockets. You must level up your turtle by earning in-game cash with each rocket flight. Cash you earn is spent buying a new engine, boosters, an upgraded fuel tank, and more. You can even upgrade how the rocket controls, making movements more precise.

The leveling up aspect is what made the game for me, and as I leveled up, I liked how much I tuned and improved my turtle—the same reason why anyone likes leveling up in a role-playing game.

There are obstacles in your flight path, such as blimps and airplanes, but one neat aspect was when you get higher, the changing wind direction becomes a factor. It gives the game two levels of play—literally.

You can collect diamonds in the sky to earn extra cash. There are hearts for health and fuel cans for extra fuel.

Each level has a list of achievements, such as flying at a certain speech or reaching a specific height. They motivated me to keep at it, trying to buy more upgrades in the in-game shop.

Turtle Fly currently seems to be free on the iTunes App Store. I haven’t unlocked all the levels yet, so I don’t know if you’ll be stuck with a pay-to-play tab (I don’t think so). What I have played so far, I’ve enjoyed. For all its faults, Turtle Fly shines where it counts.

Turtle Fly for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad [iTunes]