Review: Making Paper Airplanes 3D Pro
Score:
80%
Something for the weekend, sir? How about a Windows Phone game/app that shows you in gory animated detail how to make dozens of surprisingly realistic aircraft designs out of a sheet of paper? As someone who has a bit of the child in me still, and who sometimes has to entertain small relatives, this mobile app turns out to be a star turn.
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
It's true that the cumbersomely named Making Paper Airplanes 3D Pro isn't new, it's a Windows Phone application, probably Silverlight-based, but it runs just fine on all newer devices and I wanted to give it a shout out on AAWP - the designs and presentation are really rather spectacular.
The structure of the app is unambitious, but it does exactly what it claims to do: present animated step-by-step instructions for making 30 different paper planes.
In each case, you step through, one instruction at a time, with an animation showing what you need to do and how the paper should end up. You'll probably need to watch some instructions animate more than once, which is why there's a 'refresh' control at the bottom of the UI.
The number of steps/instructions varies according to the plane chosen, but the average is around twelve, and with the finished designs looking surprisingly authentic. In fact, should you or a child fancy going further then there's scope here for painting and colouring, as the developer has indicated at the end of several of the design sequences.
The really clever bit about all this in terms of the designs is that they all start with a single sheet of standard A4/Letter paper. Which means that nothing fancy is needed. No glue, no scissors. OK, so you need your Windows Phone, but hey... That so many different paper masterpieces can be created from the same plan paper form factor is impressive. And yes, they fly, too!
See what you think. Will this help you be a hit at the next party? Or just help you unwind at home, creating your own paper airforce?
PS. There's also a free ad-supported version, but I wouldn't recommend it - the ads are very intrusive. Just pay the £1/$1 and be done. Really.
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at