New Version of Flight Control Adds Even More Fun!

Firemint have sold over one and a half million copies of Flight Control, making it one of the best selling Apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Although at first glance it may seem odd that such a simple game has become so popular, anyone who actually plays, understands the appeal at once. Simple, but both maddeningly addictive and frustrating. The gameplay is tuned to perfection - difficult, but not so difficult as to prevent you from going back for "just one more game".

For anyone who hasn't played Flight Control, you are an air traffic controller who must guide a variety of different planes onto appropriate runways. Big jets to the main runway, light aircraft to a smaller runway and helicopters to a landing pad. The control method utilises the touch capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch perfectly. You simply touch the plane and drag your finger along the required flight path to the runway. The plane then follows your line until it lands safely. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, it is simple for the first couple of planes. Pretty soon though, the panes are coming thick and fast, from all sides of the screen, and their flight paths form a jumble, like a plate of spaghetti. By the time you have 10+ planes on the screen at once you know you are in trouble and sooner or later you get to hear a crashing sound as two of your aircraft cross flight paths and smash into each other, ending the game. The brilliance of the gameplay design though, is how every time you crash you kick yourself for not having seen the impending collision.

With such perfectly balanced gameplay, you always have to feel nervous about an update that may change that, but as with previous updates, Firemint have only added to the fun with a brand new airfield and a new twist. The new airfield is set in Firemint's home territory - the Australian Outback. Everything you would expect is in place, two runways and a heli-pad. But as soon as gameplay starts, you know something new is up. The first plane on screen is announced with a siren and a badge. This is no regular flight control plane, this is a plane from the Royal Australian Flying Doctor Service. It flashes blue and it knows exactly where it wants to land and what flight path it wants to take, and nothing had better be in it's way, as you have no way to change it's flight path. Planes and helicopters come on screen the same way as with the other airfields but every 10 or 20 planes, a flying doctor comes along and you have to quickly move all your other air traffic out of it's way. Despite this added challenge, the difficulty level isn't too high, certainly not as tricky as the insanely difficult Aircraft Carrier airfield added in a previous update.

The update also includes a couple of extra nice features - you can play your own music whilst you play the game and you can transfer your profile to a new iPhone or iPod Touch.

If you don't have Flight Control then for only 99 cents you should really rectify the situation. If you do have it then fire up the update and see if you can't beat my new high score of 398! I'm off for "just one more game" to see if I can't top that!