A to Z Challenge: These are just some of my initial impressions on the Steam, GOG, and other online games throughout the month. It is not as much of a review as it is a summary of my feelings on the game.
In Flight Control HD, you control the flight paths at an airport. The jets, prop-planes, and helicopters are color-coded to match their respective runways, and your job is to make sure they all land without running into each other. The game doesn’t shoot for super realism; in a sense, the movements of the planes feel like toys on wheels.. For example, there’s nothing wrong with making your planes fly the wrong direction down the runway and then perform a complete 180 turn to land perfectly.
Flight Control HD is the ultimate in casual, “pass the time” games. The controls are really simple; select the plane, and then drag a line to the runway. I initially tried to adopt a strategy of moving everything clockwise, but discovered after a while that I just need to get the planes landed as quickly as possible. The rate that planes arrive on the stage constantly increases, and it has the Geometry Wars quality of not being beatable. You’ll never “win” in Flight Control HD; you’ll only get a higher score.
One thing that helped a lot was my Wacom tablet. The touch controls were much easier to use than my trackball, and my movements were much quickly. WIth that in mind, I think this would make for a great iPad or iPhone game.
If you get a chance, give it a try. You won’t regret it.