Flight Commander by ColorStone for Windows Phone Review

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Introduction

Have you ever wonder what it’s like to work as an air traffic controller?  Well, Flight Commander by Color Stone Ltd now gives you a taste of what it’s like by putting you in charge of airport landing fields.

Features:-

  • Insanely addictive
  • Beautiful graphics
  • 2 airports for different strategies
  • 2 additional game modes for eve more gaming pleasure
  • Real life airport recordings


Game Play

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Flight Commander’s game play is simple. You command an airport with both runways and helipads. Main objective? You direct each one by swiping your finger from the aircraft vehicles to its landing area to create a path which won’t cause any mid-air collisions.

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Seems pretty simple, no? It is, and that’s what makes this game so approachable. Almost anyone can pick it up and start playing with no instruction at all. However, the game soon becomes more and more challenging as more aircraft vehicles approach your airport looking to land. The aircraft vehicles are different sizes and have different speeds which makes the air traffic control increasingly difficult. Anytime two aircraft vehicles fly too close, they will glow with a red circle.  This does not necessarily mean that a crash is imminent, but you should certainly pay attention and check for potential course corrections. You’ll find yourself playing this game over and over and over again, saying to yourself, “Okay, just one more time” as you try to beat your previous score.

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There are several game options available. Before you start the game, you can select how many crashes are allowed before the game is over. The default is 1, but beginners should increase it to the max of 4 until you’re comfortable with the game. There are two game modes, emergency and airjam. Emergency mode introduces additional factors into the game such as uncontrollable aircraft vehicles that are set on a predetermined landing path and random aircraft vehicles that could collide with your aircraft. The other is the Airjam mode. In Airjam mode, every 2 aircraft vehicles that you landed, there will be 1 more aircraft vehicles that will appear on screen. So, if you have landed 10 aircraft vehicles, there will be 5 aircraft vehicles on screen now, at the same time. Think of Airjam mode as the “Hard mode”. Finally, there are two maps available. I would’ve liked more, but since this game is relatively new, there might be some new maps in development.
Performance

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Flight Commander features beautiful graphics and sound, but the real star here is the game play. It’s terrific. Each map and aircraft vehicles are beautifully designed. The graphics and sound effects are well-synced. It would be even nicer if there’s an option to turn on or off in-game background music. You will probably be too involved with the game play to even notice the music though.

The game is currently limited to VGA and WVGA devices.
Overall

Overall, Color Stone Ltd’s Flight Commander is a great and simple game. The game is extremely solid in the addictive game play. The game takes seconds to learn, and mere minutes to play. That makes it even more impressive that I’ve spent hours guiding aircraft vehicles in Flight Commander and can’t wait to go play again. I would say Flight Commander is indeed a must have game if you have a Windows Mobile device. There are some areas that needed improvement (see below) but it’s a relatively new game and hopefully, future updates will have improvements.

Flight Commander is available directly from Windows Mobile Marketplace or other retailers.

MSRP: $14.99

I was given a registered version of Flight Commander in order to do this review.

What I Like:

  • Great stable game with great cartoon graphics!
  • Very addicting

What Needs Improvement:

  • Help menu needs more information on game options
  • No demo or trial version
  • Price a little on the high side
  • Limited screen resolution support (no QVGA)

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3 Comments on "Flight Commander by ColorStone for Windows Phone Review"

  1. Looks a lot like my favorite iPhone/iPod Touch app, Flight Control. Only that one, as I recall, was only $0.99. I’d love to get this one since I generally carry a Windows Phone and not an iPhone, but that price needs to come way down to be competitive.

  2. Perry – that pricing disconnect is pretty typical … and I simply can’t see someone paying $15 for pretty much the same thing you can get for <$5 on the App Store.

    Allistair – what is up with the misogynistic graphics? Is there some compelling need for the developers to make it seem that either they or their target audience is middle school boys?

  3. Christopher Gavula | November 18, 2009 at 11:18 am |

    I like Flight Control a lot and this appears to be an almost direct copy. I’m not surprised considering the success that Flight Control has seen.

    But one of the things that made Flight Control kind of a classic is that the graphics have a kind of ’50s or ’60s kitch. It’s very cool because it reflects that period when air travel was “glamorous” and all that and the graphics and messages keep that whole look and feel intact. You can find many old airline commercials and promo films from that time on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean. The graphics of this game lack that feel and cleverness and almost border on tacky unless you are a teenage boy.

    Add to that the price differential (which might change now that there is a marketplace) and I find myself less than impressed.

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