Flight Control HD: If Tetris Had A Baby With Flight Simulator

Flight Control HD is like stepping into a jet-liner in the early 1960's. A cute, shapely stewardess ushers you into the cabin of the chrome-clad fuselage. Inside the air is fresh and cool, the seats are plush and capacious, Brubeck jazzes out lightly from the speakers above, and in the back a slick-haired suit shakes up icy cocktails. Finding your seat, you relax, sip your drink, and enjoy the ride.

A little ways in, the pilot announces rough weather ahead. No problem. The aircraft begins to wobble, then shake. Okay. Still okay. Bam! Nosedive! You're plummeting faster than Polly Shore's popularity in the late 1990's and the view out the window looks like you're zooming fast for street level on Google Maps! Fortunately, Flight Control HD doesn't crash there, but rewards you with your score and a pin-up, as it were, of their cartoon cart-tart mascot in an oh-so-slightly-saucy getup themed to each map.

Its so cold I can see her tips. Her ski tips.

This casual diversion from Firemint plays simply enough: land each airplane on its color-coded runway and ensure it doesn't crash into others on the way. Different planes fly at different speeds, and flight paths are drawn with the mouse (or a graphics tablet) . Score is one point to one plane landed. As you play, more planes appear more frequently. It reminds me most of Tetris: things start slow and easy, only to end in a brow-sweating panic of control-mashing trying to avoid the inevitable (unless you're Deep Blue or some sort of gamer-savant or something).

Its hard to tell, but I like to think they were at war.

Although the gameplay is fresh enough, it quickly stales. An online leader-board encourages better scores, but soon enough you find yourself achieving minimal improvements on each map. Maps are well-varied, and some even have special rules. That said, I felt Firemint could have explored much further the gameplay possibilities. Like many modern casual and indie games, it fails to fully exploit its own originality the way an older example, such as The Incredible Machine, did with gusto.

My favorite map is actually this special Steam 'stunt' map.

It's the presentation and features of Flight Control HD that really gleam. The vector-based graphics are smooth and colorful with a reserved, cartoon art style that affords the game both style and taste. Similarly, the background music is pleasant and inconspicuous--a catchy jazz of lightly-plodding bass and airy saxophone. Sound effects are excellent, menus are clean and easily navigable, features are plenty and appreciated. I especially like the online leader-board ranking system which places you into a category (all of which are titles such as 'Co-Pilot' or 'Captain') based on performance instead of simply assigning a number. Personally, I'm much happier to find out I'm in the top 15% of players than just some schmuck, which I already knew.

I'm still probably #143,239.

My only peeve with the spit-shine of Flight Control HD is it's one piece of background music. Its a good track, but after a hundred plays or so it sounds less like John Coltrane and more like Kenny G. This is especially disconcerting considering the track was purchased by the company from www.royaltyfreemusic.com (It's track six, 'Kitschie Koo', on this album: http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/funspots.html ). The purchase price for the song is $60, presumably with no royalties. I'm sure Firemint ain't making Blizzard cash, but it seems a shame when a little variety is only three Jacksons away.

Overall, Flight Control HD is a well-performing casual entry that, with a little more developer exploration, could have been real gamer-crack. It's polish may be shiny, but only great gameplay can make for a great game. It is currently on sale for just $2.49 on Steam. It retails at full for just $4.99, an excellent price for what I consider to be solid, casual, gaming entertainment.