This fourth of July, we here at AAR decided to join in on the festive mood. What better way to celebrate our country's birthday on your phone than to shoot fireworks from it? No, we're not suggesting you strap handful of bottle rockets to your Android phone and set it up with the kickstand and the camera rolling. That would be funny though.
Today we bring you a review on one of the best live wallpapers on the market. 3D Skyrocket. For those of you unfamiliar with the wallpaper, it's a live wallpaper that brightens up your homescreens with colored fireworks.
3D Skyrocket stands out from other fireworks wallpapers because is uses Open GL for the visuals. For those of you unfamiliar with Open GL, it is a toolkit that mobile gamers have been moving toward for the last couple years. It's main purpose is to bring apps and games to life using 3D engines. What does this mean for you and this app? It means 3D skyrocket is one of the most (if not THE most) realistic fireworks wallpapers out there. And if you look around, there are quite a few of them.
First of all, if you're going to do something like fireworks, you had better "go big, or go home". There are too many other fireworks wallpapers out there to just make a crappy fireworks wallpaper and expect it to get popular. The Go Wallpaper Dev Team saw this, noticed that there was already a flood of these wallpapers, and boy did they go big. When I first saw this app, I thought, "Great, another fireworks wallpaper." But just for kicks, I clicked on it, and the pictures looked pretty good. The Market reviews were nice also so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I wasn't disappointed, as neither should you be.
Today we bring you a review on one of the best live wallpapers on the market. 3D Skyrocket. For those of you unfamiliar with the wallpaper, it's a live wallpaper that brightens up your homescreens with colored fireworks.
3D Skyrocket stands out from other fireworks wallpapers because is uses Open GL for the visuals. For those of you unfamiliar with Open GL, it is a toolkit that mobile gamers have been moving toward for the last couple years. It's main purpose is to bring apps and games to life using 3D engines. What does this mean for you and this app? It means 3D skyrocket is one of the most (if not THE most) realistic fireworks wallpapers out there. And if you look around, there are quite a few of them.
First of all, if you're going to do something like fireworks, you had better "go big, or go home". There are too many other fireworks wallpapers out there to just make a crappy fireworks wallpaper and expect it to get popular. The Go Wallpaper Dev Team saw this, noticed that there was already a flood of these wallpapers, and boy did they go big. When I first saw this app, I thought, "Great, another fireworks wallpaper." But just for kicks, I clicked on it, and the pictures looked pretty good. The Market reviews were nice also so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I wasn't disappointed, as neither should you be.
What I Like About This App
This wallpaper is amazing for many reasons. First, the point of view of the fireworks is constantly changing. This is what makes it 3D. The camera is always panning and zooming, giving you a real-time view of the fireworks from all angles. You can actually see the stream of smoke trailing the firework as it climbs high into the sky.
Many fireworks wallpapers have just one type of firework; The basic sphere shaped burst, and it usually is only in solid colors. Not 3D Skyrocket. This thing shoots all the different types out there. You've got the standard fireworks along with the two-color bursts, supernovas, halos, sparkling fountains and much more. Skyrocket also shows cloud levels as well as the stars, which really makes it look as real as it gets.
What Could Be Better
While Skyrocket is one of the most visually appealing live wallpapers out there, it lacks somewhat in customization. Most other fireworks wallpapers allow the colors and frequencies to be adjusted. While this is a minor gripe, it still would be nice to set the frequency to "super-ridiculous-overload-your-graphics-processor" high and watch the grand finale shine so bright you have to turn your phone's brightness down. Also, while I didn't experience it much, there have been multiple complaints from paying customers that the full version has some performance issues. The most common complaints were freezing or blank screen issues. Hopefully the Go Wallpaper Dev Team is working on this.
Overall
Even with its minor flaws, 3D Skyrocket is easily the best fireworks wallpaper on the Android Market. It is beautiful, innovative and captivating. While a wallpaper like this can drain your battery quickly, it is to be expected considering it is a live wallpaper as well as one that features some of the best graphics to date.