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Happy Canada Day from 3D Fireworks 2

by Eric March on July 1, 2009 at 12:38 pm

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(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)

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App Name:	3D Fireworks 2
Developer:	KDR Software	Version:	1.0
Publisher:	KDR Software	Size:	12.8 MB
Category:	Entertainment	Price:	$0.99 (Sale)

Last November, I reviewed KDR’s lite version of 3D Fireworks, and deemed it good — for what I could see of it anyway, which wasn’t much because it was hobbled from every side with a 10 firework limit, only one firework at a time and so on. Most of it I was cool with for a lite version, but the effective time limit pushed me over the edge for some reason.

But that was a lifetime ago in App Store time, and things change, including 3D Fireworks, because KDR have now upgraded it to such a marked degree that it now deserves its own sequel designation as a new app. Completely rewritten from the ground up with Unity, 3D Fireworks 2 takes the original concept and improves upon the formula, now sitting you in the center of a grassy community square surrounded by landscaping, fences and a cityscape, with the moon and moving clouds overhead. 8 different types of fireworks explode overhead (yes, including the smiley face) and they all cast realtime lighting effects on your surroundings as they burst and sparkle. There’s supposed to be a full manual mode, but danged if I can find it, so the only thing I could do was set the autopilot fire rate to low, where it launches one firework at a time. You can, however, tap on the display to launch fireworks manually.

You also have full control over the display. You can swipe left and right to rotate around the scene, and pinch to zoom in and out to get closeups on the fun. Even cooler, there’s a pause button in the lower right so you can pause the action mid-burst. You can still manipulate your view while paused. Great for pretending you’re Neo, or, say, taking screenshots. The UI is quite simple; pause on the lower left, settings on the lower right, and if left alone, the buttons will very slowly fade as you let the scene play out, so you can watch without the UI cluttering the screen. But speaking of settings, there are some nice ones here: You can toggle each of the 8 different fireworks on and off, toggle the lights on the buildings on and off, toggle sound, and even toggle the moon — in case you want a very dark scene in which to appreciate the glowy sparkle of incendiary ordnance. There’s also a UFO you can toggle, which will show up periodically in an unpredictable fashion, hover about for a few moments, then take off. A final toggle lets you turn night into dusk, for a nice, brighter, late evening setting, should that tickle your fancy.

And yes, 3D Fireworks 2 is wishing everyone a happy Canada Day, but it’s just a tad misleading as this is a hidden feature of 1.1, which has been in the approval process for over the past week and a half and Apple haven’t even touched it yet, the slackers. (I had to grab the 1.1 Canada Day screenshot from KDR just so I could add it to the review in time for our holiday.) However, version 1.0 does celebrate two other international holidays with well-wishing and a flag on the title screen: Independence Day (USA, July 4th) and Bastille Day (France, July 14th), so while us Canadians get shafted thanks to Apple’s review backlog, you other two nations can enjoy your own private, nationally patriotic firework display in the palm of your hands on your day of celebration. Canadians who wish to see it in person when the 1.1 update is finally approved can set the date on their device to retroactively view the animated flag.

3D Fireworks 2 is definitely a worthy successor to its progenitor. The fireworks are very well done and convincingly rendered, the sounds are appropriate and well implemented, and the shift to some cityscape scenery is a very welcome addition with the dynamic lighting, which just adds to the sense of immersion. In fact, I think it would be very cool if there were a small variety of scenes to choose from; just picture a lakefront display with reflections in the rippling water, or a nice park scenem or whathaveyou. That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? Just the same, 3D Fireworks 2 stands as the best fireworks display you can fit in your pocket, and it’s on sale right now from Canada Day and Independence Day for just $1, or half its regular price, so now would be the perfect time to grab it and have your own private fireworks display any time. There are two ways to enjoy a free lite version, too: You can download the lite version to your iDevice, or you can play with it on the web (Unity Web Player plugin required). Note that the lite version, as you’d expect, limits you to one firework at a time, no manual launching, and no settings to choose from. The web version has the benefit of being 1.1, so Canucks can see the flag on the title screen. You can still rotate the view around here, and use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom.

Note that, in case anyone else inadvertently discovers it, I did find a bug in version 1.0, which persists in 1.1, where your view will turn a kind of drunk portrait with the inability to look skyward if you continually swipe from the lower middle of the display to the top left or right. I’ve already informed KDR of this and they know what the problem is, so expect a 1.2 update to be submitted shortly. The bug can be reproduced in the web version, too. (It’s running the same code as the iPhone version after all.)