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Classic iPhone Game 'Tiny Wings' Launches on Apple Arcade This Friday

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Over a decade after being released on the App Store, the classic hit iPhone game Tiny Wings is coming to Apple Arcade this Friday.

tiny-wings-plus.jpeg

Tiny Wings is a casual game that involves tapping and holding the screen to control a bird whose wings are too tiny to fly. The game tasks players with outrunning the sun as they fly a bird across procedurally generated islands. Players must tap on the screen at the perfect moment so that the bird slides down hills and gains enough momentum to reach the next island before the sun sets, while aiming to complete tricks for score multipliers.

Tiny Wings, created by Andreas Illiger, was first released on the App Store in 2011 and remains one of the most popular paid games in the casual category. On Apple Arcade, the game will be titled Tiny Wings+ and it will be available for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Like all Apple Arcade titles, the game does not have any in-app purchases or ads.

Other games coming to Apple Arcade include NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition on October 19 and Kingdom Rush Frontiers, which doesn't have a release date yet.

Priced at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, Apple Arcade is a subscription-based service that provides access to a catalog of over 200 games across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, with additional titles added periodically.

Article Link: Classic iPhone Game 'Tiny Wings' Launches on Apple Arcade This Friday
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/12/tiny-wings-apple-arcade/
Like all Apple Arcade titles, the game does not have any in-app purchases or ads.
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Where does this claim come from? I won't profess to be an expert on Apple Arcade games, but absolutely some of them have those garbage ads in them, same as other freemium apps that aren't on Arcade.
 
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redscull said:
Where does this claim come from? I won't profess to be an expert on Apple Arcade games, but absolutely some of them have those garbage ads in them, same as other freemium apps that aren't on Arcade.
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If you can provide samples of any of these, I expect it'd make front-page news here on MacRumors, since that's one of the key defining features of Arcade (games with no ads, no microtransactions, everything for one monthly price).
 
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redscull said:
Where does this claim come from? I won't profess to be an expert on Apple Arcade games, but absolutely some of them have those garbage ads in them, same as other freemium apps that aren't on Arcade.
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Apple dot com

www.apple.com

Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade is a game subscription service that anyone can enjoy, with 200+ incredibly fun games — all without ads or in-app purchases.
www.apple.com
 
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The state of gaming on iOS is really disappointing. For 12 years I've believed that the iPhone had the potential to be the best gaming platform, bar none, but it seems like developers stopped trying a decade ago.

As an example, where's Undertale? That seems like an easy GOTY that would work pretty perfectly on a touch screen. Instead, I search for Undertale on the App Store and I see a clone of the final boss fight - a clear copyright violation that Apple should have rejected both for low quality and for the copyright issue.

Apple is probably responsible for all of this via the App Store. They accidentally built a store for scammers, and their only concern is maximizing profits by cutting expenses and doing shoddier reviews rather than actually fixing the store into something where legitimate developers would actually want to sell stuff.
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
The state of gaming on iOS is really disappointing. For 12 years I've believed that the iPhone had the potential to be the best gaming platform, bar none, but it seems like developers stopped trying a decade ago.

As an example, where's Undertale? That seems like an easy GOTY that would work pretty perfectly on a touch screen. Instead, I search for Undertale on the App Store and I see a clone of the final boss fight - a clear copyright violation that Apple should have rejected both for low quality and for the copyright issue.
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mobile gaming makes more than all platform gaming combined. (PS, xbox, Nintendo, etc).

Mobile gaming is exceeding the developers wildest expectations.

Most basically create a gambling app disguised as a game and then it’s just pure profit.

unfortunately people’s reluctance to PAY for mobile games created this hellscape that is known as mobile gaming. This won’t change but you will likely see more and more of this bleed into console and pc gaming.

That said on topic. Tiny wings was and still is a masterpiece in all aspects of game development imo.
 
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Steller game 10 years ago. I tried to get into it again a few years ago and it didn't age well. Not a game for 2021. It needs a proper sequel. The one it got didn't do it justice.
 
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All right, cool! I much more prefer this game over let’s say Battlefield or Team Fortress on Arcade anyway
 
TouchMint.com said:
1 - mobile gaming makes more than all platform gaming combined. (PS, xbox, Nintendo, etc).

2 - Mobile gaming is exceeding the developers wildest expectations.

3 - Most basically create a gambling app disguised as a game and then it’s just pure profit.

4 - unfortunately people’s reluctance to PAY for mobile games created this hellscape that is known as mobile gaming. This won’t change but you will likely see more and more of this bleed into console and pc gaming.

5 - That said on topic. Tiny wings was and still is a masterpiece in all aspects of game development imo.
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1 - Profits don't mean quality is there.

2 - Legitimate game developers mostly stopped targeting iOS. I remember in the early days that everyone was trying. Few were getting it quite right, but a lot of people tried.

3 - See what I said about #1. Gambling disguised as a game risks giving us another video game crash like we had after ET on the Atari. Regulators will swoop in, overreach, and shut down all video games. See, IE, China's massive overreactions. Fortunately, China wasn't a major video game market (because regulations basically banned it) and so everyone is well positioned to survive losing revenue from China. This wouldn't be the case if the EU or US did something like that.

4 - Eh, no. Is Steam a hellscape? Steam is great to compare the App Store to. Nobody is forced to use Steam. Where are all great games? They're pretty much all on Steam and nobody has a problem finding them. Devs don't have to put their games on Steam - they choose to. On iOS, devs don't want to put their games on the App Store. They have to. The only alternative is to just not put a game on iOS at all. The App Store is so bad that that's what developers do now - they just don't bother coming to iOS at all.

5 - I don't remember Tiny Wings in particular, but I assume it's comparable to the other "good games" from the early days of iOS. An OK arcade game or minigame, but not a real, full game.
 
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CLICK BAIT!

The hit classic game that nobody has heard of?

You've toned down the rhetoric but come on.... is your site called Mac rumours or pay me money and I'll promote your app or is this just an ad revenue play?
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
The state of gaming on iOS is really disappointing. For 12 years I've believed that the iPhone had the potential to be the best gaming platform, bar none, but it seems like developers stopped trying a decade ago.

As an example, where's Undertale? That seems like an easy GOTY that would work pretty perfectly on a touch screen. Instead, I search for Undertale on the App Store and I see a clone of the final boss fight - a clear copyright violation that Apple should have rejected both for low quality and for the copyright issue.

Apple is probably responsible for all of this via the App Store. They accidentally built a store for scammers, and their only concern is maximizing profits by cutting expenses and doing shoddier reviews rather than actually fixing the store into something where legitimate developers would actually want to sell stuff.
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It really could've been a "gaming paradise". However, I'm not surprised Apple went the way they did... it's much lower effort on their part to rake in much more money. Apple just isn't really a gaming platform. They definitely have games, but they're more of a "iOS platform for phones and tablets that happens to have a library of games". Some of them are great, but they're far and few. You're in a marketplace where consumers expect AAA level assets, but expect to pay no more than a $5 one-time payment. They also expect free but fixes and content for life. Something had to give. :(

As others have mentioned, for gaming, go with Steam for indie titles and beyond, Switch for portability AND playing docked mode seamlessly, or a PS4/5 and/or Xbox One/Series S or X for the high powered stuff.

And yeah, I'm aware that iOS users tend to pay more money for stuff (vs. Android in particular), but there's still a good amount of piracy on iOS. A podcast I listened to about 4 years back had one guest saying he's of the opinion that on the iOS App Store, is to either charge premium pricing (so whatever we had back then, charge 5x to 10x as much. So we're talking about the return of the $20 to $50 app), or charge a subscription. There's generally a culture of not paying for things even on the iOS App Store. It became a "race to the bottom" where 84% of the money makers is in the "free to play" model. Switch, Steam, and other consoles may charge much more for games, but doing away with "freemium" has been well worth the money.
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
The state of gaming on iOS is really disappointing. For 12 years I've believed that the iPhone had the potential to be the best gaming platform, bar none, but it seems like developers stopped trying a decade ago.

As an example, where's Undertale? That seems like an easy GOTY that would work pretty perfectly on a touch screen. Instead, I search for Undertale on the App Store and I see a clone of the final boss fight - a clear copyright violation that Apple should have rejected both for low quality and for the copyright issue.

Apple is probably responsible for all of this via the App Store. They accidentally built a store for scammers, and their only concern is maximizing profits by cutting expenses and doing shoddier reviews rather than actually fixing the store into something where legitimate developers would actually want to sell stuff.
Click to expand...
I stopped trying new iOS games when the majority of them simultaneously decided that in-game music was optional.
 
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Johnny907 said:
Tiny wings? Try “Flappy Bird.”
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desslr said:
For those with long memories, it was called Flappy Bird
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I thought the same, but Tiny Wings predates Flappy Bird by about 2 years.

It has a mention on the Flappy Bird Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flappy_Bird#Cult_status

On further inspection, Flappy Bird is another game within the genre of side scrolling games like Jetpack Joyride, Tiny Wings etc. except it has achieved cult status despite its very humble origins.
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Hah, both my wife and I were addicted to this game a decade ago. It was good simple fun. But then the diminishing returns on the high scores began to take a toll and it was lost to time. Perhaps I will secretly load it onto her home screen and we can relive the past for a while. I never game on iPhone anymore. Some on iPad and Apple TV now that it can use console controllers. Mostly on my Series X, PS5 and Switch. Xbox Game Pass is a great deal. My kids mainly use Apple Arcade. There was just something about the early App Store that was absolutely killed when they added IAP and that started bleeding the fun out of everything. I’d read Touch Arcade all the time to get the latest recommendations. So many amazing games back then.

Make iOS games fun again. Keep it simple.
 
wow, tiny wings. that takes me back to playing it in high school on my iphone 3GS.
 
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