Flight Control takes off as the Xbox Red Stripe Deal of the Week on Windows Phone

By Paul Acevedo
last updated

Windows Phone 8 users received an awesome new Xbox release this week: Order & Chaos Online, officially ending the recent release drought. But Windows Phone 7 gamers still need stuff to play, and some people just want games on the cheap. Namco Bandai and Firemint’s Flight Control will have to do, as it makes its second appearance as the Xbox Red Stripe Deal this week. Not the most exciting game, but the sale price of a dollar is fair!

In non-Xbox Red Stripe Deal territory, Sketch Taxi is a fun old school game on sale for a dollar as well. The GPS Voice Navigation app rings up at $3.49. Details and store links after the break.

Flight Control (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 16 MB Store Link

Flight Control is the progenitor of the line-drawing genre of casual games. Created in 2009 by Australia-based Firemint (now owned by EA), it became an instant sales phenomenon. The goal is simply to direct an endless array of incoming planes and helicopters to their matching colored runways, all while avoiding crashes.

The Windows Phone version lags behind the iOS and other versions in terms of features (no HD makeover and only six maps here), but remains a fun and addicting title. Check out our review for more details. Still, if you have a Nokia phone I highly recommend skipping this one and getting its much improved sequel Flight Control Rocket instead.

Sketch Taxi (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $1.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 41 MB Store Link

Space Taxi was a fun little arcade-style game for the venerable Commodore 64 computer. Developer Vernal Equinox has created a nice little Windows Phone clone with doodle/sketch-type artwork. The goal is to safely land your flying taxi and pick up passengers and then take them to their destinations. Swiping controls your thrusters, and bumping anything crashes the taxi. It feels like a more natural Lunar Lander except without the fuel depletion and with easier landings.

Sketch Taxi seems like a fine adaptation of a classic game, though the loading times for levels are too long for a game with such simple graphics, and the voice work could give you an infection. See George’s review for more impressions.

GPS Voice Navigation (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $6.99 Sale price: $3.49 Download size: 16 MB Store Link

The default Windows Phone GPS apps are pretty useful, especially Nokia’s version. But they could be a lot better, hence the market for paid GPS apps like GPS Voice Navigation. This one’s claim to fame is obviously its turn-by-turn voice driving navigation. It offers four different map sets (Google, Bing, Nokia, and Mapquest), and the Nokia maps can even be used offline. People who are reprehensible drivers will appreciate the traffic camera positions indication as well.

GPS Voice Navigation offers both Windows Phone 7 and 8 versions, so people with newer and more powerful phones will get a few extra features and better performance. Considering how expensive the good GPS apps tend to be, this sale looks like a great deal. George delivered a head-to-head review of this one and Turn by Turn Navigation a while back, but keep in mind the app has progressed quite a bit since then.

Paul Acevedo
Paul Acevedo

Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Central. A lifelong gamer, he has written about videogames for over 15 years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don’t hate. Appreciate!

21 Comments
  • Anyone have recent experience with GPS Voice Nav? How would it compare with HERE Drive+? Obviously the aesthetics of Drive+ are superior, but if the overall package is roughly comparable, Nokia has priced itself out of my business.
  • If you want, send an e-mail to betawp[at]melontech.com, so that we give you beta access for the latest versions of GPS VN. Quality feedback is what we're hungry for. Especially, if you've been intensively using similar apps. Cheers!
  • Just got flight control for free on my iPhone yesterday (5 year app store anniversary deals) - also got Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Peggle, Infinity Blade II, and Sims Medieval for free during the same promotion.  I can't remember ever getting a free game on my Lumia 920 except when it was a marketplace error :/   I love my 920, but iOS is still very much where it's at for mobile gaming - XBox on windows phone needs to try harder - for example - what ever happened to the price parity strategy?.  Some may argue that having XBox makes them worth 3 times as much, but GameCenter does everything Xbox does (achievements, leaderboards, etc.) - I don't give a rat's about my total 'gamerscore', the fun part is comparing acheivements and scores with friends and the competition is providing that (and at a larger scale I might mention since there is no special approval process involved with becoming a GameCenter game).   I hope that this 'One Microsoft' restructure helps but as of right now I'm pretty dissappointed with Xbox on WP.  Looking forward to playing Halo next week, but the drought relapse lately is disheartening.
  • There was a Miniclip promotions this year back in April-May where 4 games were free for WP7/8 and 3 for Win8 for 10-15 days I think and it was not a marketplace error neither a glitch. The new Angry Birds Classic was also free for ~10 days then it went to 1$ (not a marketplace error again).
  • Oh yeah, I forgot about the miniclip promotion!  Thanks for the reminder.  Still - there needs to be more of this.
  • Apple is holding a milestone giveaway that it is obviously subsidizing. You can't really compare that to a typical day on another platform.
  • That's true; however, these types of promotions happen all the time on iOS - particularly around the holidays. Also, any given day of the week there is an app that is going free for a limited time to boost themselves up in the app store rankings (hence all of the free-app-a-day type apps). The marketplace is coming up on, what is it - 3 years now (or is it 2ish?). Where are the WP milestone giveaways? Don't get me wrong, I love both iOS and WP - just wish that WP was trying a little harder.
  • My girlfriend and daughter have iPhone 5's. It's no fun for me on that tiny screen. To be honest my 920's 4.5 is a bare minimum for me. To each their own though.
  • It is definitely easier to play games on my Lumia with my fat fingers, but I adjust pretty well between the two.  Looking forward to the official gamepad sdk in iOS 7 - what ever happened to the WP edition of MOGA Pro?
  • It's out but has only very limited support so far... Mostly because MOGA doesn't seem to be promoting the WP support much.
  • Guess that means we won't be seeing a review for it here for a while - kind of hard to review something when you don't have any games to play it with.  It's a shame that gameloft isn't supporting it on WP since their android games do.
  • I thought I read a review on here about the MOGA. I read a lot of tech sites so I could be wrong.
  • I would've been the one to review it, and I haven't done so. We have talked about it in several articles though.
  • Ahhhh I must've mistaken a discussion for a review. My bad... I just remember hearing not 1 Xbox game supported. I quit reading after that :)
  • PS - looking forward to the Verizon exclusivity for Halo article on here - curious what you think about that.
  • Awesome my streak continues! Bought flight control when it was dotw. Next week...
  • Hmmh, another week of deals I'll have to pass on. I'm not too big on the flight games like this (played one on Android for a while, got bored). At least we're getting Halo next week (it seems), and Order & Chaos is something I'll also have to give a trial to, maybe buy both.
     
    Regardless, even though people complain about lack of games and such, I've got 3 or 4 I have PLENTY of stuff left to do in, and that's before adding in those free Miniclip games I've yet to touch.
  • Can't find flight control rocket in the store. 920 AT&T.
  • Just follow the link from our Flight Control Rocket review, or search for FC Rocket. Lemme know if that works.
  • The link on the app goes to the regular flight control, not the new one. And yes, searching it works. :)
  • I was talking about the link from our Flight Control Rocket review - of course THIS article doesn't have a link since it's not about FC Rocket. Just checked the review and its link definitely works. Glad you found it somehow though!