Airplane Game Found Amusing

by Sherard Harrington

Okay. I don’t know what it is about them, but I love airplane games. Not pilot games, but airplane games.

I think it all started with this online computer game called “Now Boarding,” which I actually bought after playing the free version. (Talk about commitment, right?) You essentially own an airline company, and you fly your planes around and try to pick up all the passengers before they freak out from waiting too long. (They get progressively angrier until their heads blow up. Sounds accurate.) I remember just loving the jazzy background music.

Then it was “Airport Madness,” the Air Traffic Control Game, where the goal was more so to make the flights take off and land without crashing into each other while the flights get more intermittent. I couldn’t have been the only one playing this one, since they went from version one to version four, most of which I’m pretty sure are still free to play online.

And then I forked over 99 cents to try out “FlightControl” for the iPhone, which...let’s be honest, wasn’t worth the price. It’s only landing flights, and you have to drag the planes across the screen to create the flight path. It’s...simple. And...I don’t know. Not cute enough.

But then I found “PocketPlanes,” which was much more my speed (a.k.a., free).  Another iPhone game, but with this one you get to peak inside each of the airports you purchase access to, and they all have adorably bizarre info screens. Like, Saskatoon in Canada reads, “Saskatoon boasts the only burlesque group in the prairies, the Rosebud Burlesque,” or Chicago’s is “Chicago has many nicknames, including ‘Chi-town,’ ‘Windy City,’ ’Second City,’ and the ‘City of Big Shoulders.’”  The game’s a great little stress reliever that’s non-demanding and not incredibly time consuming. Something simple, like...running an airline.

I was once told I had a dictatorship complex.

And the passengers (unlike all the other games I’ve played, “PocketPlanes” gives names to the passengers. And, you can also move cargo, which is another aspect previously unavailable to me) have a little section where they comment on the flights, usually a conjecture with whatever cargo you’re carrying on that flight. And the little section is called, “BitBook,” which is a blatant rip off of Facebook. Usually I ignore it because it has nothing to do with gameplay, but this one caught my eye.

Ugh. Lillie Freeman, so TRUE! I’m using that one day.

Neither business nor pleasure.