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It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!

Airport Mania: First Flight

Airport Mania: First Flight (iTunes Canada)

It’s summer, for those who haven’t noticed, and that usually means travel. Whether you’re flying across the country or across the ocean to a sunny destination, we are going to the airport. Do you ever wonder why some flights change their gates or why they get delayed or canceled? Don’t you feel that you could do a better job of managing all those airplanes? Well, here’s your chance to somewhat get a feel of what it’s like to be an air traffic controller and perhaps get a better understanding of managing planes arriving and departing, while trying to maintain a flow. It’s not as easy as it may seem, as you may get a better appreciation of the men and women who control the skies, via a much simpler, cuter and animated representation of it.

Today I’ll be reviewing a very cute, animated, cartoon-like game involving airports and airplanes called Airport Mania: First Flight. You are the air traffic controller of an airport and your job is to manage the arrival of airplanes on specific runways, direct them to their gates, assign them to the departing runway, as well as directing certain planes that need maintenance, to their hangers, or to the service station for refueling. Your main objective is to try to create a flow of traffic that comes to your airport and seamlessly goes through and leaves your airport within a certain amount of time. If you fail to direct a plane to land within a certain time limit, the plane will go to another airport and you will lose money. The faster you land a plane to its gate, the more money you will receive. You’ll receive bonus coins for directing specific planes to its correct gate and getting a plane out of its gate early. Sounds simple enough, until you start playing.

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For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

Airport Mania: First Flight will first step you through a week (seven virtual days) of training in which you will be taught how to land planes, direct planes to their gates, service station, hanger or layover space plus tips on how to get higher score and coins with multiple tasks for each plane. After you’ve graduated from the flight academy, you will be able to start playing for coins.

There are eight different stages, each situated in a different area and with a different airport with each level or game getting harder with graduating higher coins required to achieve each award level based on the score: goal, expert, master, and supreme which will earn from no star to three stars for that particular game. You can only progress gradually from each game or level before you can play the next game. So, you can only go from 1-1 to 1-2 and so on instead of being able to jump from 1-1 to 2-3 or similar.

Along the way, you will encounter new airplanes that land on your airport. The game will alert you to it and you can briefly view details on the plane such as its capacity, etc. You will also earn special trophies which will show up on the trophies room. Also, from time to time, there will be a helicopter that flies around the screen. Tap on it for the helicopter to drop its load and you will earn bonus coins. You’ll get bonus coins for using one runway for landing and another for take off, directing specific color coded planes into their color coded gates, getting planes to their gates and out as quickly as possible. Do not take too long in directing a plane to the runway, gate, service, hanger or you will lose coins. Also, if a plane decides to fly to another airport because you’re taking too long to direct it to the runway, you’ll lose coins as well. In other words, work quickly and efficiently to ensure everyone is happy and you’ll do fine. Mess up and everyone will be angry at you. Now do you understand the pressure of an air traffic controller? Well, the worst you get is an angry airplane, whereas in real life, well.

More details of Airport Mania: First Flight (taken from iTunes website)

Pack your bags for a trip through the skies in Airport Mania! Travel through 8 amusing airports while you land a variety of planes, purchase upgrades, and avoid delays. Stay on your toes as some planes carry precious cargo and will need to land in a hurry, while others might need a trip to the repair shop. But, with good planning, you’re sure to make it to the gate on time! With unique challenges, whimsical characters, and fun that will put a smile on your face, Airport Mania is one flight you can’t miss!

*********************

* 8 distinctly different Airports!
* Whimsical Graphics and Music!
* Awards to Challenge your skills!
* 48 Unique Levels!
* Secret Paper planes mode!
* Automatically saves as you play!

What’s New in Version 1.4

Added Airport Mania 2: Wild Trips information panel.

Slideshow of Airport Mania: First Flight for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Video of Airport Mania: First Flight for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Video review of Airport Mania: First Flight for iPhone and iPod Touch at YouTube

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

Easy to play

The game is very easy to figure out and play, especially when there is a great seven day tutorial that takes you through how to play the game.

Seven day tutorial available

If only more games were like this game, where it offers a full week, well, a virtual one where you are taught how to play the game with tips on how to get more coins and higher score. A must for any game in my view.

Cute factor, animation

This game definitely scores high on the “cute” factor. How can anyone resist the cute, bulging eyes of an airplane as it flies across the sky and lands on the runway. When it gets angry, it actually looks funny. Most planes actually look different.

Challenging

The game gets quite challenging as you progress through each stage, as there are more planes that need to land, some needing repairs, fuel, in addition to offloading passengers and loading passengers. Plus, there’s an influx of a particular colored airplane that arrives, requiring quick fingers, action and decisions on what to do. Quite fun and addictive.

Great sounds effects

The sound of airplane take off, the ka-ching sound of a cash register, the ding ding of a service station plus many other sound effects (minus the cute la di da singing) make it a great game play experience.

Trophies and award collection

For those who love to collect and earn awards and trophies, this game offers that. You earn special trophies for different planes that land on your airport, trophies for other special achievements and others.

Airplane themed loading screen

I really like the concept of using airplanes for the loading screen. The use of the seat belt coming together before the game is fully loaded plus the use of the smoke from an airplane as it takes off in the sky is another great concept that I like for the loading screen.

Airport, airplane upgrades available

As you progress through each level or game, you are given a screen where you can upgrade the airport (add additional gate, upgrade a gate, add another layover spot, etc), as well as an airplane upgrade (paint the plane, etc). Each upgrade costs coins but you earn coins with each level or game completed so you normally won’t run out of coins.

Eight different stages, places

There are eight different stages or places or airports that the game offers, each offering five (first three stages), six (next three stages), seven (next stage) and eight games (final stage) and each stage located on a different area and with a different looking airport.

Paper airplane unlock

Once you’ve played through all the games in all eight stages, you will be able to unlock the paper airplane, allowing you to be able to fly a paper airplane instead of the normal, animated one.

Landscape mode tilt

I like how the game can be rendered in landscape mode for any which way. Unlike other games that force you to only play in landscape mode with the Home button on the right, for example, this game will tilt upside down if you flip it over, allowing you to play with the Home button on the left.

Replay a game supported

Because the game offers stars to designate the level in which a particular game is completed, you can replay a level to achieve a higher number of stars.

Game Center supported

This game is Game Center supported, allowing the player to check his level against others in Game Center.

Volume slider

Those who know me know how much I stress on a volume slider. Thankfully, this game offers a volume slider for both the sound effects and music, without forcing me to only use the volume buttons of my device.

Background music playback supported

Another plus with regards to this game is that it supports background music playback. This is very useful when I get really tired of listening to the music and the airplane’s singing and just want to listen to music on my iPod.

I Didn’t Like:

No game selection, must progress incrementally

This is a game that needs to be played incrementally, that is, you can only progress with each game. So, you can only go to 1-2 from 1-1 and can’t jump to 2-3 or anything else. Thankfully, most games are easy enough to progress through without any problems.

May be too cute to play

The cute factor of the game may be something that may turn off some, thinking that it’s too cute and very girlish. I, too was kind of put off by the cute factor until I took a look at the game itself. I could do without the cute looking planes myself.

No Facebook or Twitter integration

Surprising how the official website has a link to its Facebook page and yet there’s no link within the game itself to its Facebook page. And, there’s also no Twitter page for Airport mania either, although there is a Twitter page for the developers, Lemon Team. Why there’s no link to either or these is beyond me.

No bug submit feature

Although, the game works very well and no bugs I’ve found, I think there should still be some kind of bug submit feature available for gamers to contact the developers.

No Contact link

Similar to the previous point, there is no specific email link to the developers for the gamers to contact the developers. The only way to do so is to tap on the “Check out the PC/Mac version” which will take you to the mobile version of the Airport Mania website. I would prefer to be able to quickly and easily contact the developers without needing to do it this way.

No side games or bonus games

Although the game is very fun and addictive, I find that it would be much better if there were some side game or bonus games available that will break the monotony of simply playing the main game of landing planes at an airport. Perhaps, something like the actual landing of a plane from a pilot’s perspective, or going through security or something like that, with an airport theme.

Review Summary

Airport Mania: First Flight is a cute, fun and addictive game involving airplanes and airports, putting you in the seat of an air traffic controller. Decide which planes gets the okay to land on which runway and which gate it should go. Direct them to the hangers or the service station for refueling as well as directing them back to the departing runway. Don’t take too long before you get them to their gate, runway or the planes will get angry and you’ll lose valuable points and coins. If nothing else other than the sheer joy of playing, you’ll definitely appreciate and understand the pressures that the men and women who direct the skies over us deal with on a daily basis.

Check out Airport Mania: First Flight, and Airport Mania: First Flight (iTunes Canada) as well as the free lite versions: Airport Mania: First Flight Lite, Airport Mania: First Flight Lite (iTunes Canada).

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