Fly the friendly skies in Flight Control (review)
Test your air-traffic control mettle in Flight Control, a terrific little 99-cent game.
(Credit: Rick Broida)At first blush, an air-traffic control simulator sounds about as much as fun as a podiatry theme park. But Flight Control is an absolute gem of a game, a perfect five-minute diversion that's perfectly priced at 99 cents.
The gameplay unfolds on a single screen containing two runways and a helipad. As aircraft appear from the periphery, you must guide each one in for a landing while avoiding mid-air collisions. It's pushing tin, iPhone-style.
To steer an aircraft, you just tap it and drag a flight path with your finger. Jets go to the red runway, prop planes to the yellow one, and helicopters to the smaller blue pad.
Things start off easy enough, but before long you're having to finger-juggle as many as 10 aircraft at a time. (Now I see why real ATCs are so stressed out!) Ultimately, your goal is to land as many planes as possible before the inevitable crash. (My top score to date: 31. Can you beat it?)
Flight Control features a jazzy little soundtrack, but you can listen to your own tunes if you prefer.
The game suffers from two minor annoyances. First, there's no "resume" option, so if you exit a game in progress, you'll have to start over next time. Second, there's no level structure to the gameplay; it just keeps getting tougher and tougher until eventually you lose--meaning that eventually you'll lose interest.
Even so, Flight Control is so cute, clever, and temporarily addictive, I consider it a must-have addition to any game lover's arsenal.
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog.
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By the way, my top score is a 93. But my dad used to be a pilot so maybe I have some genetic thing going on.
Here's a tip: at least two aircraft can on each runway at the same time, they just need to come in at different enough angles. Takes a little practice.
My personal best - 95, but have played so many ATC sims over the years. :-)
The game generally goes in waves..gets increasingly hectic every 20 landed or so.
In general, try to go directly to the landing spot.
Use the same patterns for each type of aircraft, that come from the same general direction - that way, you'll know what pattern to put them as soon as they come on. You'll also know when things might intersect.
Try to use the first in, first landed scenario, but, in general, I like to let the Jumbo jets in first and send the small commercial planes in loops like Rick has illustrated above.
Helicopters - straight in, and move everything else around them. You want them landed ASAP....sooo slow.
Bi-planes - from the left I use a smile pattern into the runway, but not to close to the bottom. From the right - directly in. From the top - a sharp swoop to the right and then straight down to the runway on the left side of the helipad.
Small planes - from the bottom, in a 'S' pattern to the runway. This gets them around the bi-planes that come from the left. From the left, into the 'S' pattern queue on the south side of the runway. From the top in a 'C', loop similar to pictured above. From the right - under the bi-plane runway first: and either into the 'S' queue or a sharp angle towards the runway to avoid biplanes and helicopters.
Jumbo planes. From the left - directly in. From the top. Into a 'C' loop. From the right(top) - directly down the runway(wrong way!) under the helipad or just under the runway to a sharp U turn to the landing. From the right(bottom) - cut across the bi-plane runway and under the main runway and a sharp U turn to the landing.
Once you have planes into a pattern you can start managing the landing area of the main runway. Pulling a jumbo off for a sec to let a small plane in or pulling a small plane off for a brief second to let a couple of jumbo planes in.
The hit detection is pretty amazing - the red circles can cross and that will save you once they start weaving in and out. It's all about timing.
And as skimike4 mentioned, you can land two on the same runway nearly at the same time. There are two general spots the runways pick up as "aligned for landing"(plane goes white). There is one at the tip, and the other towards the end of the striped markings.
Watch the runways and the edges, that's where most crashes occur...when a jumbo jet comes in on a just entered helicopter - UGH!
If all else fails pause, or send some air craft into an infinite spin, yet this really only works in the earlier phases as you'll want to just land things as quickly as possible.
Hope these help! Let me know if you top 140! I honestly don't know how I lasted that long.
High Score: 260
Average: 68
Most aircraft on screen: 14
Total aircraft landed: 13,091
My roommate got me into this game. We are both really competitive so we have been going back and forth w/our high scores. He is currently at 325 and we always take screenshots to prove each other wrong...This game is really addictive
Some tips:
1. Stay away from the edges of the screen.
2. You can land airplanes heading the wrong way on the runway if you do an abrupt U-turn at the front of the runway. All you need to make sure you do is cross the lines at the front of the runway.
3. Land the faster jets if possible.
4. Take direct lines when landing. Take the shortest routes!
5. Take advantage of the fact that planes can stop and turn on a dime.
6. You do not need to come into the runway head on, come from the sides and backwards.
7. Land all aircraft as quickly as possible.
8. Don't be afraid to anticipate that an airplane will land. You have to take chances, and understand how close the aircraft can get to one another in order to be successful.
9. Create landing patterns. Make all aircraft fly the same pattern if coming from the same side of the screen. Don't be afraid to change the direction more than once.
10. Create landing orders.
*Have larger jets land one after the other. Then all the small jets.
*Or if the time calls for it and if you are skilled and have the timing, land a large jet then small jet, and continue that pattern.
*Also land aircraft simultaneously from both directions on the runway. Land one coming up the runway followed by an airplane coming down the runway.
ALL OF THESE PATTERN WORK WELL IF YOU CAN PULL THEM OFF.
THE BEST TIP MY ROOMMATE AND I HAVE IS STAY ORGANIZED. I HONESTLY BELIEVE THIS GAME IS ALL ABOUT ORGANIZATION.
MisterP (above) had some good tips on flight patterns for specific aircraft. I tend to use the patterns he described.
Bloody addictive game it is..
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by seika7
April 20, 2009 11:47 PM PDT
- You can also aim them to the edges of the screen (pray another one doesn't come in at that same spot at the same time). They'll predictably bounce off the edges like billiard balls and can give you a little time to sort things out.
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(13 Comments)I aim them toward the landing stripes at all angles, straight in (no smooth curve necessary), and roll my finger a bit in the direction of the runway until the runway highlights indicating a successful course. So, I slide my finger to get it to the stripes, then roll my finger (without sliding) so the course aims down the runway in the proper direction for the minimum length which seems to be a few pixels, the distance between stripes or so. You can't see the tiny hook or kink you're making in the flight path under your finger tip, but it works fine and the plane will turn on a dime and land.