Pilot Brothers (iOs) Review

In Soviet Russia, games play you!

Not that you’d know it from the game in any way, but Pilot Brothers is an iOs game based on an old Russian cartoon (and by old, I mean like ‘80s. There. Now you feel old too. You’re welcome). It’s not really important to know that to play the game, but it would have been nice to have a bit of an introduction to the brothers, for those of us who don’t watch decades old cartoons from Russia. Just sayin’.

Pilot Brothers isn’t really a game that needs a lot of background story, as it’s a point and click type game. And that’s a good thing, because while there is a bit of a story to the game, you kind of just have to figure it out yourself. There isn’t any cut scenes or text dialogue in the game. The gist of it is that an important elephant is missing, and you and your brother need to find it.

Basically, in each level, you’ll have to somehow figure out the set of actions that will allow you to proceed. Which is pretty much what you have to do in every game, but in Pilot Brothers the set of actions generally do not follow any sort of logic, so you’ll have to really think outside the box if you want to do well. You actually play as both brothers, which could be interesting when done well. Unfortunately, the control scheme kind of makes it a frustration more than anything.

At the bottom of your screen, there is an icon for each brother, a set of hands, and whatever items are in your inventory. To move around, you click on the brother you want to move, then click on where you want to go. When you want them both to move, you’ll have to go back and forth this way, and about a fourth of the time, they’ll take off in the wrong direction, or start babbling at a tree instead of walking. If you want to use an item from your inventory, you need to select the right brother, then select the right item, and then click on where you want to use it. It gets confusing really fast, because if you forget and click in the wrong sequence, you’ll mess up all the positioning you’ve done and have to start again. Throw in the fact that sometimes it has to be a specific brother, using a specific item, in a very specific spot (and that you have to figure all that out on your own), and you end up with a rather frustrating experience.

All of that would be more of an annoyance than a frustration, *if* you did not have to get things pretty much perfect to advance. In fact, there is a two part hint system in Pilot Brothers which should make it pretty easy to get past the difficult parts. You can choose an ordinary hint for a little nudge, or if you get really stuck, there is a little movie player icon in the upper right corner that will actually play a little film of exactly what you need to do to complete the entire level, start to finish. When I first saw that, I thought it was unique, but a bit of a copout. What’s the point of playing the game if you’re going to cheat, right? Well, the mechanics are so wonky, and the solutions so out there, that I ended up having to use that, because I just couldn’t figure out the right sequence to get past the level. And guess what? Even when I saw exactly what I had to do (and it was pretty strange and quite specific), I still couldn’t get past the level right away. Everything must be precise, and in the right order – so if you’re guy walks off and babbles, or you forget you have a tool selected, you have to start the whole sequence over again. I about threw my iOs device, and I am not generally given to violence.

Final Thoughts:
Pilot Brothers is a game that has a lot going for it. The cartoony brothers are humorous and cute, the levels are colorful and quirky, and the music has a really great sound. Unfortunately, the difficult controls and completely off the wall puzzle solutions just end up causing more frustration than entertainment.