Exclusion Zone: Anti-Air Warfare
Exclusion Zone: Anti-Air Warfare screenshots. (Click to enlarge)
Exclusion Zone: Anti-Air Warfare from Appular is one of these games where you draw paths on the screen with your finger. But unlike games like Harbor Master where you’re trying to guide the ships to particular locations while avoiding collisions, in X Zone you’re trying to shoot down the aircraft before it lands. You draw paths from the missile silos to their targets.
What makes this game different (and challenging) is that, unlike the other draw-a-path games, you can’t change the missile’s path once it’s in motion—it follows the path until it hits a target or gets to the end of the line you drew, and then continues until it goes off the screen. What’s more, that silo can’t fire again until the missile is gone, so a miss can cost you precious time waiting for the silo to reload. Since you’re aiming for moving targets, you have to figure out the lead time so the missile actually intersects the path of the aircraft.
Oh, and there’s one more thing: the aircraft can change directions. It’s not random, but you have to plan for it. There are planes marked with green or red wings, and two types of helicopters. The planes will aim for the ends of the runways, and the helicopters will target the H landing pads. When an aircraft comes within a certain range of a landing zone and there are no others coming in for a landing on that spot, it will change direction and make a straight-line path there. Otherwise, it will just travel in a straight line to the edge of the screen, then turn and continue in a new direction.
You do get a few special weapons—if you shoot down the weapons plane you’ll get either a few homing missiles or an EMP that will knock out all the aircraft currently on the screen. The EMP can be a lifesaver when the screen is filled with planes and helicopters and you can’t get a straight shot on the ones that are actually landing.
So far there are five levels to play with varying difficulty. The aircraft carrier (seen in the photo) has two silos on the left side of the screen, but two of the landing zones are on the far right, which means if you don’t plan ahead it’s easy for a helicopter to sneak in and touch down before you even fire off a shot. One level has three silos, but the spacing of the landing sites makes it a challenge to juggle all three.
The animation and graphics are fine but not spectacular, but the gameplay is addicting—this has been the game most likely to eat up an hour at a time lately—so be forewarned. It’s available for $.99.
Wired: Draw paths to guide your missiles; hitting a moving target is a real challenge. Five different levels to master.
Tired: Why are the missiles so slow?
