Flight Control Rocket and Blobster now available to all Windows Phone users

By Paul Acevedo
last updated

Windows Phone 7 users must be feeling a bit left out of the Xbox gaming fun lately. We spent the majority of last week celebrating the release of Halo: Spartan Assault and publishing detailed strategy guides for Order & Chaos Online, both excellent Windows Phone 8 games. But what are the Microsoft mobile users who haven’t upgraded to Windows Phone 8 yet going to play?

Former Nokia exclusives, of course! Less than two weeks ago, Chillingo’s pretty decent Picnic Wars became available to all brands of Windows Phone. And just a few days ago, two more games dropped their exclusivity: Flight Control Rocket and Blobster. If you liked the first Flight Control, you’re going to love FC Rocket! Oh, and Blobster. Yayyyy.

Read on for details on both games and an updated list of current and former Nokia Collection exclusives!

Flight Control Rocket

Flight Control Rocket for Windows Phone

The original Flight Control just went on sale a week ago, and now all of a sudden everybody has access to its far superior sequel. This one switches things to a retro sci-fi setting in which players must help incoming rockets land on a space-faring mothership safely. You do this by drawing paths from each ship to the appropriate runway, all while trying to avoid collisions.

Not only is FC Rocket way prettier than its forbear, it also offers a lot more gameplay. The three modes each mix the gameplay up in interesting ways, changing up the combo scoring system, bonus rounds, and even mixing in stranded astronauts to rescue. Players can also purchase and equip a variety of robot helpers to customize the gameplay a bit.

The only catch is that FC Rocket’s Achievements are horrendously grindy. Arsenic 17’s guide estimates it will take 60 hours to unlock them all! But as I say in our review, if you ignore Achievements this is the best line-drawing game in town. Say, you probably need to read that review!

Flight Control Rocket – Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 41 MB - $2.99 – Store Link

Blobster

Blobster is an innocent little platform that clocks in at a light 13 megabytes to download. The titular character is a living blob who must stop the Big and Powerful Corporation from polluting the land of Blobtopia.

The gameplay is simple enough to learn. Pressing the left or right side of the screen moves the Rock Blobster in that direction. A tilt option is also available, though I’d have preferred a virtual stick, myself. To make Blobster jump, tug at him with a finger and then release; he’ll go flying in the desired direction.

Let’s be honest, Blobster is not the most impressive game in the Windows Phone lineup. The backgrounds are completely flat and the rest of the visuals lack flair as well. But the Achievements are pretty quick and easy, as Arsenic 17’s Achievement Guide reveals. Maybe you’ll soldier through it for the GamerScore.

Blobster – Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 13 MB - $2.99 – Store Link

Nokia exclusives update: Current exclusives

Bejeweled Live+

Here’s the full list of Nokia exclusives:

  1. Bejeweled Live + - Released: February 18, 2013
  2. DaVinci Pinball - Released: April 23, 2013
  3. Dream Track Nation - Released: March 22, 2013
  4. FIFA 13 - Released: July 8, 2013
  5. iBomber Defense - Released: December 22, 2012
  6. Mass Effect: Infiltrator - Released: May 22, 2013
  7. Monopoly Millionaire - Released: April 23, 2013
  8. NBA Jam - Released: May 22, 2013
  9. Real Racing 2 - Released: May 22, 2013
  10. Storm in a Teacup - Released: April 3, 2013
  11. The Sims: Medieval - Released: March 26, 2013
  12. Tiger Woods 12 - Released: May 22, 2013
  13. Tiny Plane - Released: March 22, 2013
  14. Vampire Rush - Released: April 3, 2013
  15. Yahtzee - Released: February 19, 2013
  16. Zuma's Revenge! - Released: February 19, 2013

Former exclusives

Spy Mouse

  1. Blobster
  2. Connect 4
  3. Flight Control Rocket
  4. The Game of Life
  5. Jet Set Go
  6. Mirror’s Edge
  7. Parking Mania
  8. Picnic Wars
  9. Risk
  10. Spy Mouse
  11. Trivial Pursuit

Thanks to EasyPeasyJD for the tip! Sorry it took me so long to publish.

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!

23 Comments
  • No prblm... Real racing2 and nba jam are still nokia exclusives....
  • That's why they're on the list of Nokia exclusives in this article. ~ ~
  • Whateva, my HTC exclusives will never be given to Nokia losers ha!!!!
  • 4 more games looses exclusitivity... Zuma, ibomber, yahtzee n bejeweled..
  • I know that Nokia has to do this to get certain games but I wish they weren't exclusive or at least for 30 days or so..or it seems like windows phone as a whole isn't growing..just nokias monopoly.
  • You should tell that to HTC,Samsung and huawei
  • And yet people complains about Halo only available to one provider in US for now. Microsoft need to stop all this silly exclusive thing. It fragmented things too much.
  • Ita not nokia prblm other brands tend to stick with android
  • Better late than never!!
  • Paul, looks like we have a pattern in here: the mayority of the Nokia exclusives was release in the 22th day, or nearly of that. :)
  • Pretty much occupied with Halo, nova and mc4 that have no need for more games, also until this 'other' storage issue is fixed I can't afford to waste my memory, jetpack joyride ftw
  • iBomber Defense seems to be the next game to come out of Nokia exclusivity, can't wait :)
  • there shouldnt be any exclusives...
  • Idc ,having a unlocked device rocks, i just changed the marketplace ,and bought rr2. The game ROCKS !!!
  • I don't understand why someone would get a Samsung or HTC wp8. I mean Nokia clearly has the better phones, with more storage space, for equal or less the price. I understand if someone is attached to HTC or Samsung...
  • Before I learned Samsung wasn't releasing the Ativ S for AT&T, I fell in love with that device and was going to grab it for its 32GB on board storage, its 64GB expandable storage, it's AMOLED screen which I still like over the Lumia 920's and it's size was perfect for my hands. But my photography hobby couldn't ignore Nokia's PureView tech. But when launch day came and it was confirmed the ATIV S wasn't coming to AT&T, the choice was clear. I still want expandable storage for the next Nokia Phone.
  • I completely understand that you want expandable storage. I'm just saying that if you didn't really care about any of the features, why would anyone go for any other phone besides nokia. 
  • While I agree with this sentiment, HTC windows phones do look better than most lumias and I actually like the device as well as some people are fans of Samsung devices, which I find boring, and they want devices from these manufacturers. While Nokia overall is the better company for windows phones and I love my Lumia, what works for us and what we like could be the very thing that they dislike about Nokia and makes them prefer Samsung or HTC.
  • That is your opinion that the HTC phones looks better than nokia phones. Many people see it the other way. Once again, completely up to you.
  • Equal or cheaper? The 900 & 920 have always been $100+ more expensive than the HTC equivalents. Even now I can get a 8X for $360ish but the 920 is around $470. If you're talking about on-contract prices in the US, well they're not based in reality :P
  • +920
  • Quick question about Blobster – Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 13 MB - $2.99 (hope someone knows the answer): 
    Why would a game like this need access to my photo, video and music libraries?  I want to BUY this game but not with those permissions!
     
  • It's because when they submitted the game to the WP Store, they forgot to uncheck those options.