Game Reviews

Flight Control

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Flight Control

Anyone who regularly goes abroad for their holidays will likely know all about delays. You spend months looking forward to getting away only to find your enthusiasm dampened by the additional hours spent in a depressing departures lounge.

“This has completely spoiled my holiday,” you think to yourself. Then your plane arrives, you get on board, and you forget all about any grievances you might have had.

That's Flight Control on Android in a nutshell. It may have turned up a scandalous two years(ish) after the original iPhone version, and behind both the Java and Windows Phone 7 iterations, but now that it's here it's hard to remain angry.

Late arrival

That's because it's still a really good mobile game. The premise of shunting planes around a 2D top-down area of airspace may have grown a little over-familiar, but the excellent mechanics at its core certainly haven't.

Red planes must be diverted to the red runways, yellow to yellow, and blue helicopters to blue helipads. Doing so is as simple as sketching out a route for them, but you must be sure to avoid any game-ending collisions.

It's this multitasking juggling act that lies at the heart of Flight Control, as well as the split-second calculations required when two different types of aircraft are headed to the same airfield. Which is closer? Which is faster? Take too long to decide and you'll likely miss the mid-air collision occurring over the other side of the screen.

Smooth landing

Nothing new has been added to the Android version, but you do at least benefit from all the additions and improvements made to the iPhone original over the years. Most noticeably, the game now includes five airfields, each with a new element that presents a subtle change to the gameplay.

Still, each level is inherently similar, so don't come here expecting a great deal of variety. If you're not particularly taken with the first airfield, it's unlikely that any of the others will float your boat (or fly your plane) either.

That's unlikely, though. Flight Control is the same addictive casual gem as it's ever been. Its flight to Android might have been delayed, but this is unlikely to spoil the subsequent experience.

Flight Control

It may have landed well past its expected arrival time, but Flight Control on Android is the same intoxicating mix of multitasking and line-drawing as it's ever been
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Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.