Airport Mania 2 - iOS Review

Airports. Most people asociate them with slow, uninteresting, even boring environments, and normally I'd agree with you. However, a little game called Airport Mania 2 has made its way onto the iOS scene and completely blown this idea away. Two years on from the original game, Airport Mania - First Flight, this is the sequel fans of time management games have been hungering for.

There is no actual story to the game, but instead you are tasked with the everyday running of a series of airports around the world, ranging from the North Pole to the Tiki Islands, and even in space. This is a huge step up from the first game, where all of the levels looked practically identical besides a slight change in colour palette. Your goal is to land the airplanes, unload and reload passengers, and also repair and refuel the plane if necessary, all while keeping combos on the runways and terminals stacking up.

On the face of it, this game has changed only slightly since the original, but the dynamics have been altered with the ability to wash dirty planes and load luggage onto a plane. In addition, there are nearly twice as many different planes as the original, featuring military planes and even intergalactic planes alongside commercials as the levels progress. However, although the idea was fantastic it hasn't actually been implemented overly well as it becomes quite difficult to distinguish between the specific types of planes, which in turn is required to build the highest score combos. The colour palette for the planes has also been dulled down from the first game, leaving the once brightly coloured and easily distinguishable planes as dull, pastel colours that are easily, and often, confused for each other. Another point to note is this game does not feature retina definition graphics, so users with a 4G model and up will be disappointed.

Despite the disappointment with the graphics, the game is still just as fun to play as ever before. The touch controls feel both improved and more accurate, as I found my finger rarely selecting the wrong terminal or runway. The music is also exactly what you'd come to expect from both the Airport Mania franchise and games of this genre in general. In short, you won't be rushing to tun the music off as your ears bleed, but an extended playing session may require your own personal music collection to save you from insanity.

Featuring a whole 99 levels, with the promise of more coming, this game easily provides 6+ hours of gameplay. Replayability is not limited either, as every level you complete is graded, from a normal pass up to a 'perfect' score, which is extremely challenging to achieve, even to a practiced gamer.

With a price tag of a mere 59p, this game is no less than a must-buy, even if you're only sightly curious. Besides, this game has done the impossible. It has made airports.. fun.