Today is the day Apple’s editorial team gets to cherry-pick a new iOS app to feature as the App Store’s Free App of the Week. Are you ready for something completely different this time around? Good, because this week’s gem of a game is 8bit Doves (regularly $2.99).
The charming retro title incorporates a Gameboy like color scheme and pixelated graphics which evokes pleasant memories of the golden age of 8-bit gaming.
Spread across three worlds (Sweet Dreams, Deep Sleep and Nightmare), 8bit Doves employs simple mechanics in the form of an intuitive two button gameplay. Your goal is simple: you must fly through each stage and reach the exit. Those who manage to get doves to follow them along the way will earn some extra bonus bragging rights on Game Center.
In 8bit Doves, the player basically lives through a vintage game where they must fly around as a human/bird hybrid, searching for a way out of a neverending maze.
The challenges that await you in 8bit Doves are typical of games from the 1980s and include a bunch of traps like moving walls, speed boost zones, growing walls and more.
“Doves have taken roost in your prison and though you don’t know it they are the key to your survival,” says the blurb. “The Doves subconsciously inspire dreams of flight, so take to the skies through the mazes of your imagination and find the exit.”
Check out the official trailer below.
As you can see for yourself, the game is big on pixel graphics in just four colors (and no, they are not primary). Folks who’ve been on the lookout for a chance to take a break from flashy games in millions of colors shouldn’t pass on 8bit Doves.
“Complete with crunchy retro music and Game Boy-inspired visuals, 8bit Doves takes you on a lo-fi trip through the surreal corridors of a sleeping man’s dreams,” Apple’s editors note.
“The engaging two-button gameplay and dastardly difficulty form a perfect one-two punch, and collecting the birds scattered about each level is immensely gratifying,” Apple continues.
The game is free of in-game ads and In-App Purchases.
Highlights:
- Expanded from the hit #Nitromejam game.
- 3 level packs each with a different dream theme! (Sweet Dreams, Deep Sleep & Nightmare).
- A unique world realised in 4 Colours! (Great for that Game boy nostalgia fix).
- Don’t worry parents this game contains no In app purchases.
- Stunning pixel art from the award winning Nitrome studio.
- Simple two button gameplay, perfect for a touch screen.
The 37.1-megabyte app requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 4.3 or later. 8bit Doves debuted in the App Store in August of 2014 and has never gone free up until today.
If you’d rather play an action-packed game that pushes the envelope in terms of graphics, check out Sky Gamblers: Cold War, which IGN last week named its latest Free Game of the Month