I was sure I had reviewed at least one previous RC air simulator during the first (including recaps) 1000 or so game recommendations. I wasn’t able to find one, though, so perhaps I’m mistaken. This is not the first time this has happened: there’s a mesmorising effect to reviewing so many games over so few days.
Either way, “Aircraft RC” is here, costs 240 Microsoft Points, and is a good effort. Any criticism you could level at it is, such as difficulty curve, etc., lays at the feet of what this is trying to be: a simulator, not a game. And it’s simulating something that, frankly, is kind of difficult. Not to mention expensive, if you crash a lot.
The beauty of “Aircraft RC” is that the controls are nearly identical to the RC aircraft controllers it’s trying to simulate. Those are two stick (occasionally with other buttons), so the controls strongly replicate the source. That’s a big positive. There is some gameplay here, in flying your RC plane through rings. Again, the difficulty level closely matches my impression of flying RC vehicles in the past (though, admittedly, it’s been a while).
The perspective is based around the experience of standing in a fixed place, and watching the plane as it moves around you. I believe this could make a good training tool for someone who’s new to RC planes, especially given the alternative is crashing a bunch of expensive RC aircraft, making the 240 MSP a negligible cost. It does what it sets out to do, and does it well.
Here’s what the developer (Aircraft RC) has to say about the game:
“Aircraft RC is a simulator of radio-controlled airplane models.Aircrafts are equipped with retractable landing gear. The game display shows the throttle, aircraft speed, and radio control signal. There are three aircraft available.”
Writings of Mass Deduction 