Having sold over 1.3 million units worldwide, I would assume that you have heard of Firemint’s innovative line-drawing game titled Flight Control released on April 6, 2009; and if not, where have you been the last 5 months?! Flight Control took the App Store and iPhone fanatics by storm, providing scarily addictive gameplay at an extremely affordable price (a small 59p).

The premise of Flight Control is fairly simple. As the name suggests, you have to guide certain types of aircraft to the correct landing pad, while also making sure the planes do not collide with each other; if this unthinkable event occurs, the game ends and you’ll have to start the tense run for your highscore again. The larger red jets, yellow planes and blue helicopters appear from random edges of the screen, and you simply draw a line from the plane/helicopter to the correct colour-coded landing pad with your finger. This line-drawing mechanic works seamlessly and with the greatest of ease; many games since have copied this popular control method.

The game starts off at a steady pace and gradually adds more planes and helicopters at a faster rate, making you think and draw quicker. There have been times where I have had at least 15 or 20 planes and helicopters on the screen simultaneously, and this really does provide frantic and intense gameplay. Once you eventually get overran and 2 planes crash together, you have the opportunity to upload your score to the global leaderboards, but I’m sure you’ll but to eager to have another go and instead try beat your highscores.

A recent free update from Firemint has given the game an extra 3 maps which provide different backgrounds, move the landing pads around and even add new planes to control. The game is fantastically presented with detailed backgrounds and smooth animations which are very pleasing on the eye. The easy to navigate menus allow you to get into a game quickly and get back into the action instantly after failure. The audio aspect isn’t as great however, with some annoying sound effects every time you select and move a plane; the success noise is quite addictive though, and one I’m sure you’ll hear many times over your Flight Control career. The game asks whether you want game sounds on or off, and if you click off, you can then make a playlist from your ipod to listen to; an awesome feature indeed.

Summary: Firemint have created a fast and frantic line-drawing game consisting of easy to pick up, but very hard to put down gameplay. For the low asking price of 59p/$99, Flight Control is a must purchase for iPhone game enthusiasts.

9/10