Somewhere along the way games of the 'endless' variety started the lose their way, opting to focus on short, repetitive runs that often feature missions to offset the lack of actual gameplay and, at times, luck required to advance. Tiny Plane by PowPowGames and Chillingo harkens back to a simpler time when endless games played fair by quickly adjusting its challenge to the individual player.

Whether you're collecting fruit or coins, in Tiny Plane your objective is to not run out of fuel or crash for as long as possible. Along the way you'll have the opportunity to run in to various bonuses, including the ability to switch to a new plane, while also needing to hazards including not only lightning-filled clouds and mines, but also anvils and balloons.

The last two are a surprisingly clever addition as they disable one of the controls temporarily (down and up for the balloon and anvil respectively). This presents an obvious hazard when faced with walls of mines to avoid, but a far more subtle one when bonuses you want float by and you instinctively attempt to fly towards them... only to smack in to another hazard you would have otherwise avoided.

Fuel also presents another interesting modifier to the gameplay as you'll slowly run out over time, but if you time your decent just right you can refill at an air-strip on the ground. Squeezing every last chunk of fruit or coin in order to boost your score means you may miss out and plummet to the ground.

In a last surprising twist, despite featuring an in-game currency to purchase new planes there are no In-App Purchases to top-up your coffers - everything has to be earned the old-fashioned way.

There's something about Tiny Plane's simplicity and honesty that makes it appealing - the fun and colorful vibe is infectious and despite crashing and burning it's easy to hit replay over and over. Of course the usual longevity problems associated with repetitive play apply, but Tiny Plane proves to be a great replacement for any other distracting game you might be playing right now.