The Story

Ranked alongside the likes of Angry Birds, Flight Control is considered a bonafide casual gaming classic, shifting over three million on the Apple iPhone. There have been plenty of copy cat titles on Android but it’s only now, after a long wait, the original has landed on our Google OS powered smartphones. If you’re playing catch-up the Flight Control premise is straightforward: use your pinkie to trace a flight path to land planes safely on a designated runway, avoiding fatal mid-air fender-benders in the process.

the experience

Flight Control’s success on the iOS platform is down to its rudimentary gameplay and simply drawn graphics. Nothing has changed for the Android version with players presented with five different airfields to negotiate and 10 aircrafts, including helicopters, military aircraft and jumbo jets, to land. There are no difficulty levels to choose from but certain landing strips do throw up some challenges.

For example, the emergency plane in the Australian outback level is set on its own flight trajectory but needs a clear path to land while wind speed on the ski airfield can force same facing runways to close. These little obstacles keep you on your toes but you’re multi-tasking skills need to be razor sharp because juggling so many planes at once can be a bewildering task; just one mid-air collision and the game is over.

If the gameplay gets too slow and you’re itching to land the planes quickly just tap on a double speed icon to accelerate the pace while there are achievements to reach throughout the game – successfully land 200 planes and you earn your Wings – the ultimate accolade for any pilot!

Flight Control is a great game for stealing five or 10 minutes here but a word of caution; it proved so addictive at times those couple of minutes extended to 30 minute stints and beyond on several occasions. Surely proof that Flight Control is a top notch casual game.

However, there have been issues involving the pricing of Flight Control. Apple iPhone users have been paying just 59p for the game. When it launched on the Android Market recently it cost £3.08. We imagine this massive price hike is the result of original developers Firemint teaming up with big gaming publishers Namco Bandai to bring it to the Google Platform. Whether it’s the reaction of Droid fan grievances the price has since be reduced to £1.84. But even without the new cheaper price tag Life of Android would still recommend downloading Flight Control without hesitation.

The bottom line

Every Android user should have this classic game on their phone. Download now.

Additional Info

Version reviewed 3.0

Requires Android 1.6 or above