Pocket planes test your Patience

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Shiv Visvanathan [1]

NimbleBit’s latest entry in the iOS app store is Pocket Planes. Like its predecessor, Tiny Tower, it’s available for free and gives an engaging experience to those who are patient, determined and strategic, not unlike a young Padawan. Pocket Planes is a business simulation game, which positions you as the head of an airline carrier service. At each terminal, you choose from a range of people and goods which need to be delivered to different cities, as well as choosing the most profitable flight route with an intuitive map interface. You make decisions as to what jobs to accept, and which airports to fly to. As you level up and progress through the game, you can buy more airports, collect and assemble more airplanes or upgrade your existing aircraft.
In many ways, this game simulates what it’s like to be at a real airport: the seemingly never-ending waiting, the criss-crossing of flight routes coupled with the unfortunate layover to tank up an aircraft, the dry, sardonic remarks which float to the top of consciousness when dealing with particularly pesky airline regulations which one can access in the in-game ‘BitBook’. Need to get a box of textbooks and a clown to Ulan Bator from Osaka? It might make more financial sense to stop over at Vladivostok.
Like a transatlantic flight, to be successful at this game you need to be in it for the long haul. Frantic searching for that one remaining piece of equipment to build a plane often ends in frustration for those who spend their coins and 'Bux' (NimbleBit’s in game currency) too quickly, and too mindlessly. Download Pocket Planes; it gives you the illusion you’re an airline tycoon, minus the large investment.