If you're looking for a quick gaming session on the iPhone, this is it.

User Rating: 9 | Flight Control IOS
This game isn't a flight simulator. This game is not an air-traffic control simulator. This game bears no resemblance to reality. What this game is is a simple concept that is easy to describe, hard to master.

Here's how this game works. You have a top-down view of an airport. Planes fly on-screen, and you draw lines for their approach onto the runway. There are 5 different types of planes. (Helicopter, general aviation plane, jet, big jet, and on one map a military plane that is on a forced route.) They each travel at different speeds and can each land in only specific spots. In this way, the game becomes more challenging. Also, the main point here is to not let the planes collide. If they do, you lose.

So how does this concept work in production? Very well. It's not something you're going to sit down and play for hours. You're not going to stay up late at night desperately trying to advance in the game. It's for the minutes waiting to get into the movie at a movie theatre. It's to make a quick car trip a little less boring. It's for the minutes waiting in a doctors office. There aren't any levels in the game, you just try to get more planes landed to score. That's it.

The game runs well on both old and new hardware. Loading is near-instant on an iPhone 3GS. The graphics aren't going to win any awards, but they're simple, pretty, and smooth. The background music is a bit painful, I'd suggest bringing your own music for this one. Drawing the lines works well, and that's really the only control.

All in all, it's 99 cents. For this price, there is no reason not to buy this game.