In 2009, we dipped and soared with the Glyder series of games from Glu Mobile. At the time, we raved about how the iPhone’s tilt controls and 3D graphics made for a sublime flying experience, but Glyder 1 and 2 are no longer available on the App Store. Fortunately, Chillingo and N-Fusion’s Air Mail fills that gap perfectly, and for the first time in years, we felt the joy of flight on iOS.
There have been other successful flying games on iOS, such as the dogfighting sim Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, but nothing available today matches the charm of Air Mail. Air Mail is inspired by classic anime like Porco Rosso, combining colorful characters and environments with iconic early 20th-century technology such as biplanes and zeppelins.
In Air Mail, you play as a young boy or girl who gets a job delivering mail by seaplane, but very few of the game’s levels actually involve picking up and dropping off letters. Instead, you quickly move on to a series of short missions (most lasting around two minutes) that have you chasing pigeons from rooftops, harvesting fish from the sea, and igniting fireworks to lift the town’s spirits.
Then, war is declared. Rather than mounting machine guns on your plane like most flight sims, Air Mail takes a refreshingly different approach to combat. You sabotage the enemy fleet and assist the resistance by stealing ammo from flight decks or clipping the cables holding their airships together. Without firing a single bullet, you become a war hero purely through your flying skills.
None of this would work without a sensible control scheme, and Air Mail offers three options. You can use a virtual joystick, tilt the device, or try a more complex “advanced” mode that allows extra maneuvers like barrel rolls. We preferred the basic tilt mode and had no trouble guiding our creaky plane through narrow alleyways and under rocky bridges.
Air Mail is also a pleasure to see and hear. The colorful visuals perfectly match the anime films that inspired it, and the music feels on par with professional film or TV scores. Some of the voice acting can be grating, especially the wizened Japanese sensei, who occasionally sounds like a caricature, but several supporting characters sound genuinely enthusiastic when you perform well during missions.
Beyond the main story mode, which is punctuated by windowed and somewhat stiffly animated cutscenes, Air Mail includes a few enjoyable extras. There’s an exploration mode that removes time limits and lets you hunt for collectibles, along with delivery missions you can replay for high scores. Story missions can also be replayed for five-star ratings, though there is no multiplayer mode.
Despite a few minor issues—mainly the cutscenes and parts of the voice acting—we loved this bright and beautiful flying game. It tells a charming story, even if it isn’t always perfectly delivered, and the gameplay delivers exactly what you want from a casual flight sim. Whether you’re lighting celebratory fireworks, defending your town, or flying through a giant dragon skeleton, Air Mail is full of moments that are sure to put a smile on your face.