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March 8th, 2009 
superbad 
**Win A Copy For Yourself!**
Recently, a plethora of great $0.99 cent games has invaded the store, from iDracula to Pocket God. This time, another $0.99 game elevates you in the skies… literally.
Airport Mania: First Flight ($0.99)
At this point, it’s looking more and more that the Tower Defense (TD) genre has found its new competition: Time Management (TM) Games. Sally’s Salon and Diner Dash started it all, but more recently, flight themed TM games has invaded the store. From ATC 4.0 and the latest, Flight Control. Airport Mania however takes the cartoon-ish approach. Airport Mania is time management at its best. It provides hours and hours of fun capped off with great amount of polish from top to bottom.
Forums: Airport Mania: First Flight
Interface
There’s a lot to love regarding Airport Mania’s interface. But more specifically, we at The APPera think it’s cute that the general themes are similar to that of our site’s. Purple, blue, orange… see it?
But kidding aside, for a $0.99 cent game or for any higher priced games in the store, the game is one of the most polished we’ve ever seen. Airport Mania nails down the basics throughout the game, even providing us with a clever animated now loading screen. Clever because it actually uses airplane seat belts complete with sounds. It’s one of those things that get us. We’re frankly tired of single page loading screens without a bar that tells us the progress.
Gameplay
The gameplay is simple and well put. You guide planes for arrivals, refill gas, repair the planes, load and unload passengers, and take off. The controls require multi touch and quick thinking for higher and bigger points.
For example, tapping on the plane and the air strip makes a plane land. You can also go a step forward and tap the gates you want the planes to unload/load their passengers.
A tap marks the current item a specified number sign at the order the plane completes the selected actions.
Levels are scored by Goal, Expert, Master and Supreme scores with stars awarded to the last three expertise. Familiarity with the game usually leads to Supreme scores aka three stars. There are a total of 8 airports with at least 5 levels each.
After the end of the previous level, and before new levels, players are given the ability to add and improve gates and air strips, buy in plane entertainment and food etc.
Money is awarded per the amount you got during the last round. We’re up to airport # 5, level 5 as of now and we have NOT experience any money crediting problems as stated by some reviews in the store.
As you’ve read so far, Airport Mania comes with simple and specific details that make the game complex, addicting and will keep you replaying until you achieve Master Scores on ALL airports and levels.
Cherries On Top
Fathering off our great graphics comment, take a look at the airport and levels map:
Although not as animated as Zen Bound, it comes in a strong second in terms of Map design.
Medals are also awarded at the end of each game for different accomplishments like landing a plane with an organ transplant or someone pregnant. (SPOILER: A little birdie has told has even the Air Force One of some sort lands on one airport:SPOILER).
You can then view all your medals and trophies in the trophy room, notice the little flight certificate you get upon completion of Flight Academy training aka the equally awesome tutorial:
Fog sometimes covers your strip in which you must wait for it to clear before having a plane depart/arrive:
Lastly, a chopper that drops money bags sometimes pop up to give your current points a little boost:
Conclusion
Already, we feel that this is one of our best written reviews so far because we are so enthusiastic about the game. I can’t even begin to explain why Airport Mania is one of the BEST $0.99 games out there. The game can easily be tagged at $4.99 upwards and it’s STILL way worth it. We’ve been playing non stop since Thursday and we’re just at level 5.5 in case you’re wondering about longevity. The sequel is already in the works.
As a suggestion for the sequel, why not incorporate a Food Loading stop since you already have a food bar with a pit stop beside it? Also, I think the icon needs the little icon bubble effect to make it more awesome. It looks flat currently.
Please please please do yourself a favor and buy Airport Mania.
Giveaway
Now just because we and the guys over at Reflexive Entertainment love you so much, one lucky commenter will be given a chance to experience Airport Mania for free! Simply comment about the review and the game below. Contest closes March 12, 12AM.
If you can’t wait ’til then, seriously, spend a buck and get this game.
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Looks so cute… The cuteness is overwhelming >_<! Great review and thanks for the giveaway, definitely looks like a winner!
sweet, a time management game with an aiport theme! Looks like it has a long play value has well.
I was confused a few years ago when Time Management games started invading the casual games market on the PC/Mac circuit. I never thought doing menial chores in a game would be fun. Then I bought Sally’s Salon on a whim and loved it, despite all the pink. Now, after playing several more TM games on the PC, I almost have to physically restrain myself to keep from getting all the TM games for my iPod; the fact that most are $5 and under doesn’t help to quell my obsession. I’m going to hold off on this, because I’ve spent much too much in the past few weeks on Apps, but I hope it stays at $1 and I hope more people appreciate well-thought-out ports on the App Store.
just a little note i forgot to put…
PLEASE REGISTER IN OUR FORUMS SO WE CAN HAND OUT THE CODES THROUGH PRIVATE MESSAGES. THANKS!
Looks great, love the crisp, clean style and how the colors actually complement each other, rare in appstore games. Great review.
Very well done review! You touched on everything that makes Airport Mania a super game!
This app looks great, especially for $.99. I read your revie and it was great! I may pick this up if I don’t win. My Forum name is g0tsk1llz
This app is so adorable and at $.99 should fly to the top of TM games. I just LOVE the look! Nice review guys!
Wow! This does look like tons of fun! I’ve been waiting for a long time for a worthwhile time management game since I finished Sally’s Salon last year. Can’t wait to get my hands on it!
sounds great….any online scores in the works?
not sure. i’ll definitely ping it by reflexive ;p
Great review as always. The game looks interesting and the artwork looks well designed.
I’m in the same camp that Polyplay was in. Time Management? That’s something I HAVE to do on the job – why would I ever want to play a GAME built around it? Still, for $0.99 I could be tempted to give it a try and it certainly does LOOK cute…
Straight from the developers mouth:
[quote]I noticed that someone also asked about online high-scores. I really toyed with that idea for awhile. It’s not going to happen in this game, but it might be in the sequel. I have a different approach to how scores are displayed for the sequel (though notably that’s a good ways off). I also liked the food management suggestion, food and luggage are both things we’ve been toying with for the sequel, and that implementation is one way we’ve considered doing it
[/quote]
YAY!!! sequel!!! also, the price is permanent:
[quote]The price I hope will be the final price. I wanted it to be so inexpensive that everyone could get it.[/quote]
Looks really cute and based on the review, sounds like a lot of fun.
Maybe I’ll be able to understand after playing why MY planes are always delayed! lol
This game looks cool witba cute cartoony look
I like timemanagment games my Account name is stykman
Awesome! It looks really good. You guys at appera are awesome!
Wahoo!!! I love this game online!!! I want it SOO bad!
Hmm. I really want this game!!!! You guys are awesome!!!!!!!! Wahoo!!
Seems like a great time management game! Very nice review!
This game looks great :]]!
Great review! Really in depth about the whole game!
If I don’t win it, I think I’ll just buy it cause it looks great :O
i lalalala love reading these reviews. theyre so much more detailed and really persuades me to buy this, but then again i might win.
time management is a lot of fun
thanks… we try to keep them as detailed as possible. we just dont write a couple of sentences and call it as a review…
REMINDER EVERYONE… REGISTER AT THE FORUMS OTHERWISE I CANT PM YOU YOUR CODE and i have to pick another one!
wow. huge wave of new people here
anyway i’m interested in this game title, because that could be my first experience with time management game. this is a good opportunity to get it.
Looks like a splendid game. I don’t have any time management games on my Touch, but this looks like a lot of fun!
I just read the review and this game seems like one my middle child would like to play. He loves airplanes and this could be another “airplane” added to it. (Even though its a virtual plane, its a plane nonetheless.)
just found your site and made it a fave, awesome review… love these types of games.