No disrespect to the seasoned, learned pilots of our times, but I have to be in a certain mood for hardcore flight sims. Sometimes I just wanna climb into the cockpit with all my driving aids on, like I'm playing a regular game of Gran Turismo or something. No crashing a minute after takeoff, no expensive HOTAS controls, and plenty of view options beyond first-person. Or maybe I wanna try something other than planes, like a jetpack or hang glider. That's something these sim-arcade flight games excel at.

Some simcade flight games are "civilian", eschewing human vs. human (or vs. robot/AI, etc.) combat for more benign goals and interactions within each environment. Others go all in on warfare, but keep an arcade-y simplification of controls, physics, and mechanics. I can't vouch for all these games' quality, either, nor how closely they adhere to the simcade flight genre's center. But most of these focus more on slick pacing, less strict/difficult moment-to-moment flight, and showcasing the essence of flight through one perspective or another. Some are borderline, yet have enough sim-y or arcade-y elements + lack of showcase elsewhere to fit here.

Please give me recommendations for new adds to the list; for all I know, there's always something missing. I'm excluding space sims from this list as they're well-documented elsewhere and would dwarf the count of airborne flight simcade titles here. Games must also have you piloting an aircraft, like a plane or helicopter; flying as a bird or other airborne creature/person doesn't count here.

Notable Omissions (not yet on IGDB/BL):
Project: Intellisphere
Touhou Flight Simulator

| Changelog |
April 2, 2023: Initial list, adding notes for games throughout the day/night.