Price: $4.99   Score: 10/10    Category: Games

Flight Control is one of my all-time favorite iPhone games and although the iPad edition has been out on the app store for some time now, it’s still one of the few must-have iPad games.

Developed by Australian studio Firemint, Flight Control HD has all the elements of a great mobile game – simple, beautiful graphics and cheerful music combined with an addictive gameplay mechanic.

In Flight Control HD, it’s your job to safely land an ever-increasing number and type of inbound airplanes and helicopters. Each aircraft type has its own runway, as indicated by the matching colors of the aircraft and corresponding landing zone. You simply tap an aircraft to select it, then create a flight path by dragging your finger to the correct runway. A thin white line indicates the selected path.

While it’s all quite easy to begin with, the number of aircraft quickly increases and it will take every bit of concentration and strategy to successfully micromanage all inbound flights. Due to the larger playing area, the HD version of Flight Control features a number several new high resolution maps that have multiple runways and helipads for up to six different aircraft types. What begins as a relaxing game fast becomes a frantic tap and drag fest as you try and navigate each aircraft to its correct runway, create priority landing for the faster aircraft, manage impending collisions and dodge slow moving helicopters.

Flight Control HD features three HD maps, one 3D map, and five standard-def maps – giving you plenty of variety in the gameplay. There is a simple tutorial for beginners, Game Center integrated leaderboards and achievements and both local and online multiplayer for two players.

A game that is truly hard to fault, Flight Control HD is an enjoyable and challenging gaming experience, and one that I would definitely recommend.

Flight Control HD is compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later.