The premise of Airport Madness: Time Machine is that you're an air traffic controller traveling through time. There are three eras that you play through on your journey, each with its own style and music. You're responsible for making sure the planes are taking off and landing safely in each time period. Airport Madness is a fun-addicting air traffic control game. You are in charge of the airport management and so you have to control all takeoffs and landings. Beware of any frenzy actions around the airport and avoid crashes. Take over air traffic control at a busy airport and manage all the takeoffs and landings. Avoid causing catastrophic crashes and keep the planes moving. Also try out the newer versions. Play Airport Madness 4, Airport Madness 5 Time Machine, and Airport Madness 6 World Edition now.

Publisher: Big Fat Simulations

Review Author: Meng Yu Suggested Price: $9.99

Intro

This is the latest product in the Airport Madness franchise from Big Fat Simulations, and is based on the general structure of the player advancing through time to witness major changes, in terms of airport, and model of airplanes. For those of you who have no idea what Airport Madness even is, it is basically an ATC type of game, where you control planes landing and departing. In this review, we'll just take a basic overview of the game, and I'll explain some game mechanics as we go along. This review will be a shorter one. Let's begin!

Differences from previous versions:

The main difference you'll notice is that the artwork is simply astounding. Dirt runways are also made with great detail, and the entire game is just given more life. Look at the screen shots to allow yourself to visualize this better.

In fact, there has been word from the developer that they have been working extremely hard on the art side of the game, and this is really evident. The entire game is 1000 by 700 resolution, which frankly speaking, is not exactly HD, but is definitely big enough for most of our monitors, with the exception of the widescreen ones. I really appreciate the amount of work put into the design and layout side of the game. The overall game just looks friendlier to the eyes, and really makes this game realistic. (Well, compared to the first few versions at least.) There are still plans for future development, and I'm sure there will be much better artwork awaiting us in the near future.

Game Mechanics

In this game, you are the controller of a small airport, which would evolve into a major commercial airport by the end of the game. In the game, there are three eras, present, past and future. The past and future dimensions will be available once you complete the present dimension, but frankly, I am not a big fan of the past, (1802) era, or the future (2173). The past, according to the developer, is based on Da Vinci's drawings of flying machines. However, as I have said before, I am not really a big fan of that. The other era other than present it the future. This is the developer's own vision of how the future will look like. According to them, the planes would get faster and bigger, etc. The future era does indeed look cool, but my favorite era is still the present.

I would show you some screen shots of all three eras, but only the present would be from my own gaming. The rest are from the developers. I am currently only on the year 1932, which is about seven years from the start. I have witnessed Charles Lindbergh takeoff from the airfield, in his Ryan NYP.

Airport Madness Time Machine Hacked

Another thing to note, speaking of old aircraft is that there are virtually an unlimited selection of aircraft available that will be spawned, and ranging from the old Jennies to the new 747s are all available in the game. Do note that currently, there are only levels until something around 1970, but the developers are adding more, very soon.

Airport Madness Time Machine

I do have to acknowledge that Big Fat Simulations, although I am not sure what the name means, does make high quality products. I have gotten their Airport Madness franchise since the second version, and also have their Radar Chaos and the Hawaii version of that. I must say that their games are truly addicting, and this version, Time Machine, is by far the most addicting. I have a problem to 'unhook' myself from the game to do some work!