Developer: Firemint
Category: Arcade
Released: November 2010
Usual Price: £2.99
Hours Played: 3
Controller Compatible: No
Rating: 0 Stars
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Here is a little game for those who like to keep things simple and who don't mind a lot of micro-management. It's one of those games that is learned in seconds and can be played for hours if you're that way inclined. It was originally an app for handheld devices and its drag and drop gameplay is about as straightforward as it gets.
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| Start Screen |
Menus, Progress & Stats
On launch you are shown a notebook with three tabs on the left hand page leading to basic options, a tutorial and a stats page for the currently selected airfield. You also have two labels; one leading to the leaderboards and one resetting all the stats. On the right, you have a stack of photos depicting the airfields with the currently selected one resting on the top. On clicking "Play", you're taken directly to the selected airfield and start playing. Clicking on the photo of the airfield will bring up a menu with all nine airfields in a line. In this menu you can scroll through with the arrow keys and select any one to play. They are all available to play at any time and don't need to be unlocked.
You do not really follow a path or progress through Flight Control HD
as such. You are simply given a choice of nine airfields to play,
select one, and then try to land as many aircraft as possible. At the
start-up screen you get a line-up of the airfields when you click on
them. Quite rightly, the game displays your best score underneath the
picture of each airfield and I guess progress comes in the form of
trying to beat that best score. You do also get some stats on the
start-up screen depending on which airfield is selected but they are pretty pointless.
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Gameplay
You start with an airfield made up of runways and landing pads of various colours. Three types of aircraft: jumbos, biplanes and helicopters enter the screen in a straight line. Some jumbos travel slightly faster than the rest while the helicopters travel the slowest. You left click on a chosen aircraft, then hold and drag a trail to the start of its corresponding landing place of the same colour and then release the mouse so the aircraft follows the trail to its spot. As you play, more and more aircraft appear making the whole process progressively more difficult. You get alerts when two aircraft are on a near collision course and a crash ends the game. The idea is to land as many aircraft as possible.
Slightly different mechanics get introduced in other airfields such as changing wind direction determining which end of a runway you must land at, fixed aircraft coming into land on an unchanging course, cones which you travel between for extra points and some with six different coloured aircraft! Each airfield also has a difficulty rating indicated by a string of stars shown on its picture. Gameplay is all about judging distances and speeds, mapping out clear routes on the fly, anticipating new arrivals and dealing with them quickly. It's a game that will suit certain types who can concentrate, stay alert and who have the stamina to keep at it in a firm methodical way. It just might prove a tad boring for many.
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Sound & Graphics
The soundtrack features very heavily in this game if switched on because sound-effects are few and far between with the most striking being the sound of failure at the end when two aircraft collide. You get a few pops when selecting and moving planes and a twinkle when it lands, plus a couple of other notes but that's it. Still, the actual tune is a breezy and melodic number played with saxophone and/or trumpets with a subtle plodding bass. However, apart from a new downloadable map which quickens the tempo and jazzes the tune up a bit, this is the only tune you'll hear and it can drive you a bit nuts after a while. Graphics are cartoon-like and straightforward and, not surprisingly, stable.
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Conclusion
Sometimes a simple premise is all it takes to make a great game but I don't think this is the case with Flight Control HD. There is only so much enjoyment to be had in dragging trails around a screen and not enough added extras or dynamism is injected into this game, graphic-wise or gameplay-wise, to give it that extra kick it needs to turn it into something special. It certainly supplies enough of a mild distraction to while away the odd 10 minutes here and there but it's not a stayer, can get a tad boring and not the game to rock your world on the PC.
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