Flight Control is a Complete Joy to Play

Flight Control - There is no greater joy than playing a simple game that knows and relishes the fact that it’s a simple game. Firemint has done just that with the release of their new title, Flight Control, a game that delivers an air traffic controller experience that is tailor made for the iPhone.

Your job in Flight Control is to guide a variety of airplanes and helicopters to one of three landing sites. When each airplane or helicopter lands safely, your “aircraft landed” count builds. When aircraft continually land, the frequency of planes and helicopters increases. The main goal in Flight Control is to prevent crashes — that's the disaster which causes the game to end. There is only one map, but the goal of Flight Control is to constantly try to outdo your high score.

Flight Control's mechanics are straight forward. To set the path of your aircraft, you tap on the plane/helicopter of choice and drag a line (representing approach) to its respective destination. To manage this aspect, aircraft and landing pads are color coded which makes it easy to identify where aircraft go. What keeps things interesting is that planes come out of nowhere causing you to adjust directions and paths quite frequently. When you get to a dozen different airplanes or helicopters all over the map, it gets challenging in a hurry trying to prevent a crash.

Flight Control has a ton of charm baked into its package. The art style and music in Flight Control has a retro look and feel that conjures images of poodle skirts and chocolate shakes. It’s very well done and it should put a smile on your face. If you don’t like the music (but you will!), Firemint was kind enough to build in support that allows you to play music from your iPod library in the background. More developers should take notice.

Granted Flight Control doesn’t have all the usual features we’d associate with depth (i.e. multiple maps, levels, multiplayer , etc.), it’s a fine game for the thrifty price of a buck. Flight Control comes through with providing an addictive pick up and play experience that is a prototypical example of an iPhone optimized experience. Well done!