Flight Control Reviews

As posted on Hijinks Inc. Please visit our site and tell us what you think!

Publisher: Firemint
Platform: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
Cost: $0.99 [iTunes Link]
Updated: June 22nd, 2010 for iOS 4
Version Reviewed: 1.8

Before I get started, I’d like to point out that Flight Control is by no means a brand new game, I wasn’t able to find an exact release date, but it’s been out for at least a year. Although some of you may have played this game already, it’s new to me; so there you go.

This game is one of the most simple and challenging games I’ve played on the iPod touch. It’s a simple and obvious premise. There’s planes and helicopters flying around, and you are flight control, you have to find a safe way for them to land, and they must land on the correct landing strip.

The planes come in different sizes and speeds, and you are alerted of incoming aircraft by a red exclamation point on the side of the screen. After they make it onto the screen, you drag your finger on the screen in the route you want them to take. Planes come in 2 colors and have to land on the corresponding landing strip. The longer you play, the more planes you get and insanity ensues.

Before I reveal my only complaint about the game, I’d like to point out that I haven’t logged into the Crystal account in order to see how I stack up online. For no real reason really, I just have gotten in the habit of skipping that step when I play my games, and only compete with my friends and myself instead of the vast online community. Having said that, the only real complaint I have for this game is there really is no way to tell how good or bad you are until you’ve played for a bit. There’s no leveling system so that you know ‘you have to land 10 more planes to reach the 2nd level’ or anything like that. The planes just keeping coming, faster and faster, and you have to keep finding a way to land them safely.

You play each level until the inevitable crash, at which point the game tells you how you many aircraft you successfully landed. Clicking ‘more’ will tell you how this game compared to your all-time high scores across all game modes. You can then choose to replay this level and try to reach a new high score, or choose another airfield with a different set of circumstances and try again. Almost every time you start a new game, the airfield will rotate from it’s previous layout, so each time you play, the game is different, if only slightly. On one airfield, there are 2 sets of landing strips and they randomly close, alternating which strips are available to land on. On another there is a random plane that has it’s own path, and you are forced to work around it. Neither are huge changes, but it mixes things up a bit from the regular setup.

At only $0.99, this is a fun and engaging little game, easy to learn and difficult to master. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a new cheap thrill:

Learning Curve: Easy
Fun Factor: 4.5 out of 5
Replaybility: 3 out of 5