by Joshua Brooks

Created on: April 24, 2008   Last Updated: July 07, 2011

Airport Mania is a fantastic educational game aimed at young children between the approximate ages of four and twelve. The player is an air traffic controller and is most importantly in charge of organising the planes (i.e. landing, taking off, sending for repairs, docking etc.). The player is faced with gradually increasing levels of difficulty and complication, which is slowly introducing multitasking and strategy to the child.

This is a great creative idea for a children's game and is complimented well with innovative styles of graphics and colour application as well as music and sound effects.

Upon opening the game the viewer is instantly drawn into a sense of interest and faith in Airport Mania. This is due to the clever use of soft pastels, which colour the inviting, fluffy clouds and soft bubble writing. From here the player enters the campaign menu where there the choice is provided at the beginning of each level between completing a tutorial or by working your way through the levels. Levels are divided up into about six different equal groups of roughly eight levels per group. Each group is represented by a different airport. This adds an effective extra touch of variety to the game.

The tutorial is a great introduction to Airport Mania. It slowly introduces seven to ten key concepts to the player, most if not all of which must be considered at any one time during a level. The tutorial is more or less exactly the same as a campaign level with the only difference being the helpful screens which guide a first time player along the way.

A level of Airport Mania would go more or less as follows. The player views the entire airport and the level begins when a plane appears in the vicinity. This plane would need to be guided onto the runway, sent to unload passengers and then guided back to the runway to take off. Points are awarded primarily on timing (the earlier you are, the more points are earned and vice versa), which is depicted by the expressions on the planes' faces (the happier a plane is, the earlier it is and vice versa). Some planes may also have to refuel, or go for repairs. The early levels have approximately ten planes which have to be catered for and strategy and multitasking really come in when a player must tell four, six or more planes what to do and where to go while the clock is ticking and all the docking bays are full. At the end of each level, depending on the point score, a player earns money with which they can purchase items to improve their airport and make it easier to use.

The colours (soft pastels) and graphics used in Airport Mania during game play are soft, high quality and unpixellated. This as well as warm and creative sound effects (including voices of planes, skids on runways and loading up fuel) and soft, calm, flowing background music gives the game a welcoming and inspiring atmosphere.

Airport Mania is perfect for children and is a great educational tool because not only does it introduce multitasking but it also could keep kids entertained for hours. I rate Airport Mania 4/5 and highly recommend it for all parents with young children. If I had young kids I would definitely purchase Airport Mania for them as an educational tool (although it's so absorbing I may just buy it for myself).

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