Airport Tycoon (Jewel Case)

You are limited to four runways, and if you want to upgrade to a longer runway, you have to clear all the old flight contracts off the old runway. This sounds easy, but you can only change/refuse contracts at their annual renewal. Thus, you have to go through a year of game time refusing all new contracts for the old runway and moving or cancelling the old contracts. TEDIOUS!

You eventually run up against a cap on the number of objects in the game. You also run up against a cap on the number of airline/flight/retail contracts in the game.

Construction is basically dumping the correct items in the correct areas. Layout doesn't matter (i.e. the game doesn't care if the fronts of two check-in counters are sandwiched together so no one can get to them). Many items don't seem to do anything anyway.

So why two stars instead of one?

The game was somewhat fun in the early stages of airport development. But I wanted to grow my airport into world-class status (e.g. JFK, O'Hare, or Heathrow). You just can't do that in Airport Tycoon. But without the goal of seeing how big you can make your airport, the game loses a lot.

Airport Tycoon is one of them. The graphics are horrible, the sound is mediocre, but MAN, is it fun. This is not a game where you can jump right in and start building a thriving airport: you will undoubtedly fail in your first few attempts. But as you learn the ropes, this game becomes increasingly addictive. From choosing the site of your airport, to the layout of the terminal, this is one of those PC games that will whittle away hours of your time.

HOWEVER...there is a tragic, tragic flaw in Airport Tycoon: the graphics. What you see is not reality; the running of the graphics does not correlate to what is recorded on the data tables. For example, the graphical representation of your airport may show two planes landing in a single day, whereas the data table (that can be accessed through a menu) will show about 20 flights passing through your airport! The poor graphics are a horrible misrepresentation; do not take them seriously. On top of that, the layout of your airport REALLY doesn't matter...I've had vending machines in my terminal that have been shoved backward against a wall...and they still manage to generate profit.

If you're more into the math and statistics of a simulation game, Airport Tycoon may be for you. But if you're more of a graphics person (like most gamers are) then stay FAR AWAY from this crazy game.