by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: May 20, 2008   Last Updated: May 30, 2008

I will admit it: I usually hate work games. As in, games where you do mundane jobs that people do in real life where the main danger is not death but boredom. So I came in to this game heavily biased. That is why I was all the more surprised when I actually liked it.

In First Class Flurry you play a flight attend working (you guessed it) first class. Only this is the most demanding set of first class passengers you could possibly imagine-a flight attendant's worst nightmare. You work for an airline that has gone bankrupt and your boss is pressuring you to put in an extra solid performance and keep all the customers happy. The fate of Starlink Airlines is in your hands!

But before you can get to First Class and even Royal First Class you will have to prove yourself. You start out in Economy Class and work your way up from there. You work as a flight attendant named Claire. The gameplay is based on time management more than anything else. The demands and needs come at you faster and faster and after awhile your head will be spinning as you try to juggle activities and keep things straight!

As with most time management games, you must reach a minimum score before advancing. To me this raised the replay value as I came back after mastering the game just to try and get an "expert" score on each level before moving on.

The variety of passengers is exceptional. They come in all ages and lifestyles, with the only shared trait that they are all very demanding. You have to deliver meals, mix drinks, get the customers things like pillows and even find lost items. You even have to quiet down children whose parents have gotten up so they do not annoy the other passengers. All of these leads to a very realistic and immersive experience.

I also liked the graphics. The camera is stationed overhead and you can see three full rows of seats. Behind these there are the areas where you make drinks and find needed items. There is even a miniature kitchen in the middle of the back area where all the food items are laid out and you have to match them all together.

On the bottom is a scoreboard as well as a bar that fills up as the customers get more satisfied with the flight. This shows the average customer happiness level. Each customer has a heart and if you keep their happiness level above a certain threshold you keep points, losing them when it dips down. It is hard to keep all customers fully happy but the average happiness level is your main concern. This adds another element to the game which ratchets up the intensity and forces you to make sometimes hard decisions.

As you move up levels-Economy Class, Business Class, First Class, then Royal Class-the plane becomes more and more advanced. By the time you get to Royal Class you feel like you are in a glorified spaceship. This is probably the only time management game I have ever really liked, so that should tell you something about its level of quality. I would give this eight stars out of ten.

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.