by John Overocker

Created on: April 24, 2008   Last Updated: April 27, 2008

Airport Mania does exactly what a game of its kind is supposed to do. It eats up time in a slightly challenging, but mostly innocuous way. The game is simple; the player is described as the "Air Traffic Controller" but the role that is really played is that of Small Airport Manager. As the planes of various color fly across the screen, the mouse is used to click on an airplane, direct it to a runway and once it lands, on to various tasks that have to be completed (passengers unloaded and loaded, repairs, refueling) before the airplane can be sent back on its merry way.

The object is to get any one plane back in the air as soon as possible. As there are a finite amount of Gate's to deal with passengers, or refueling points, the game is basically a time management exercise as you try and get all the planes finished with their work and back onto the runway before there's any backup. If you happen to keep a plane waiting for any period of time, it begins to get angry at you.

Getting a plane back in the air early garners you a bonus. There are also bonuses awarded when you have two or more planes land or take off in quick succession. The easiest bonus to attain that I found was having multiple planes of the same color go to the same gate, the more planes of that color that used the same gate one after another, the bigger the bonus.

With the money that you earn from these bonuses, you can purchase power-ups and improvements for the airport to increase the speed of service or the happiness of the planes themselves. After your time at a certain airport is up, you'll receive a rating of stars from one to three that marks your progress. It isn't a difficult game, but at times it can be a bit hard to keep track of all the moving planes-and it's certainly engrossing.

The graphics are bright and cheerful, especially the planes themselves, with their big eyes and changing expressions; a plane will go from a smile to scowl if it is kept waiting too long on you. They look to me as if PIXAR had moved on from cars and fish and begun to create plane characters, albeit, slightly less realistic, more two dimensional ones.

The sound effects weren't bad, but nothing earth shattering either. The didn't get annoying to me, the just faded into the background, which may suggest something worse about them than if I'd noticed them enough to come to dislike them. There are a few tones that are helpful in reminding you that there is some new activity on the screen or that your attention is required elsewhere but most of it is just background noise. The familiar tones of the "Fasten your seat-belt" sign from actual airliners, as well as the childlike laughter of the planes are sort of endearing, but not for long.

Not the most innovating game of the year, but what do you want for twenty dollars? I give it a three out of five (3/5)-worth playing for the hour they give it to you anyway.

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