[03.31.13] Review: ‘Pocket Planes’

NimbleBit LLC

In 2012, NimbleBit stole our hearts with the adorable game, “Tiny Tower”. After its immense success, they took the formula and applied to a much larger venue: an airline company. In “Pocket Planes”, instead of managing the day-to-day operations of a tower, you’re in full control of an entire fleet of airplanes. You buy your planes, choose your airport locations, pick your passengers, and schedule your flights. It’s a simple enough process of push some buttons and wait, utilizing the same inherently addicting formula that made “Tiny Tower” a hit; but does the fun carry over when you massively upgrade the scale?

The Fun Stuff:

“Tiny Tower” posed the question, what could possibly be more fun than owning the next Trump Tower? Well, NimbleBit found the answer: having an armada of aircrafts at your disposure! You start small with one or two passenger planes, but as you progress, you can purchase significantly larger planes, and larger airports in distant cities. There’s also the joy of mild customization, choosing each airplane’s call sign, paint scheme, and even the outfit of your pilot. There’s also the option of upgrading both your planes and airports.

Once again, NimbleBit draws from the pristine combination of micromanagement, real-time strategy, and fine-tuned wait times that allow you to play on your own time in small increments. Once again, there’s no requirement to play, but your efforts are increasingly rewarded the more you check back. If you do have a chunk of time to play, you’re not stranded if all your planes are mid-flight. You can follow your planes and collect in-game currency that flies past your airships as an extra reward, however you’re in no way required to participate in this mini-game to be able to play. Enough money is awarded by simply managing flights properly.

The greatest improvement “Pocket Planes” makes is the implementation of the “Flight Crew”. This allows you to join up with other friends who play and fight your way up the leaderboards to earn prizes that range from more in-game currency to full on planes. There’s also a new marketplace feature where you can purchase planes or just parts of planes to construct them yourself. Buying a plane piece by piece takes longer, as not all pieces are available at all times, however if you win a piece during a competition (which run every few days), it allows you to purchase the remainder of the pieces you need, and ultimately, you can get a plane for much cheaper than buying it outright.

The Frustrating Stuff:

The biggest complaint about “Pocket Planes” comes from its greatest asset: the Flight Crews. While their implementation goes a long way to extend the life of the game, it also adds an unparalleled level of frustration. There’s no rules or restrictions to who can join flight crews, which means anybody can join up with anybody, which allows for the creation of one “master crew” who always wins. In fact, that’s not just a possibility, but the reality thanks to the online community at TouchArcade. The members there banded together to create the largest flight crew in “Pocket Planes” by a long shot, with which they dominate the competition day in and day out. While the collaboration is awesome, the problem comes from the lack of restrictions granting anyone access to the flight crew. That privilege is abused and many with no connection to the community have latched on purely to reap the rewards. Because of this, the glamor of climbing the leaderboards wears off significantly faster.

The excitement wears off quick too, as the addition of new planes nowhere near matches the excitement of new floors in “Tiny Tower” due to the lack in variety in comparison. To counteract that, there’s more than just realistic planes, which are occasionally given out as rewards. You can collect everything from a starship to a hot air balloon, which are fun, although not as effective as other airplanes available on a regular basis.

Bottom Line:

“Pocket Planes” drastically improved upon the success of “Tiny Tower” and breathed new life into the formula with its exciting improvements. If you were a fan of the latter, it’s highly recommended you give their new game a try, as you’ll delight in the fresh new take. If you have yet to join the millions addicted to this style of game, “Pocket Planes” is a perfect entry point because of its simplicity and entertainment value. No matter where you stand, it’s absolutely worth the download at the appealing price of free.

“Pocket Planes” for iOS

“Pocket Planes” for Android

Pocket Planes was initially developed by NimbleBit LLC and was optimized for Android by Mobage. It was released in North America on June 14, 2012 (iOS) and September 22, 2012 (Android) and is not rated by the ESRB. This review was based on an Android copy of the game.

Anthony Ortale writes news and reviews on behalf of Examiner.com. He does so much gaming in his spare time, it’s practically a full time job! If you like what you read here, please subscribe to his articles! You can also follow Tony on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email Tony any time at ortale.anthony@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you

[04.12.12] Review: 'Tiny Tower'

Mobage

Tiny Tower for Android

Rating:

5 Stars

After taking the iPhone by storm, Tiny Tower finally made its way to Android courtesy of publisher and social gaming platform Mobage. It’s Sim Tower meets Farmville topped off with some beautiful pixelated graphics and inherently addictive gameplay. Your ultimate goal is to build a thriving community contained entirely within one skyscraper. Maintain your shops and take care of your ‘bitizens’; and you’ll be on your way to a successful tower. With a design so simple and obvious, you’ll be smacking yourself wondering why you didn’t come up with it first! But does addictive gameplay translate to quality game content?

The Fun Stuff:

Sim Tower may have been more of a cult hit, but there’s no denying the power simulation game had through the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Tiny Tower manages to pull the best parts of those simulations games with the exhilarating theme of Sim Tower. What could be more exciting than owning the next Trump Tower? The idea of building that next empire was something that everyone could relate to, and once it was available in game form, everyone latched to it. The developers of Tiny Tower recognized that and did an excellent job of tapping into that natural human desire and giving you the perfect opportunity to satisfy it.

They also recognized the spell that games such as Farmville has had over everyone. Micromanagement and real time strategy themes are interwoven with extensive waiting times that allow, or rather require, you check back frequently to maintain your items. What’s most satisfying about Tiny Tower is that there is no requirement to play. In games such as Farmville, if you don’t tend to your crops within a certain amount of time, the crops will wilt and your entire harvest will be lost. Sure, this may be true in real life, but what they seem to fail to realize is that Farmville isn’t real life, it’s a video game. Tiny Tower’s developers were kind enough to acknowledge that you may, in fact, have a life, and thus whatever task you perform will be patiently awaiting your arrival whether it be 6 hours or 6 weeks later.

This is incredibly satisfying as it allows you to play on your time, not theirs, and this makes any game infinitely more desirable. It allows you to play as little or as much as you want. Of course, there is incentive for playing an extended period of time, but if you only have a couple minutes to pop in, you can restock some items and maybe build a new floor, then head back to reality and let everything happen in the background. Should you choose to stick around, you have a few options. There is constantly people that need elevator rides, for which you will be tipped a generous amount of coins. You may also be occasionally graced by the presence of a V.I.P. who can instantly fill empty apartments, cut down on construction or stocking time, or increase sales to a floor either by directly purchasing all of an item or just attracting lots of bitizens to the floor. There’s also a “Where’s Waldo” type game that challenges to find a bitizen in your tower for various ridiculous, but goofy, reasons.

Although some of Tiny Tower’s charm comes from its pixelated graphics – a sort of throwback to gaming juggernauts of yesteryear – the majority of it comes from all the other intricate details woven into the fabric of the game. There are numerous costumes you can adorn your citizens with, various missions to complete, and plenty of in-game achievements to collect. There’s even a tiny little social network you can check called BitBook, which will give you an idea of your bitizens feelings in regards to things taking place in the tower. Should you choose, you have the power to rename all the apartments and stores to whatever you please. All in all, it gives you a true sense of community inside your tower and gives you the drive to make it as successful as possible.

The Frustrating Stuff:

The frustrations with Tiny Tower are rather… tiny. The most obnoxious quirk is also its greatest asset – the long time spent waiting for things to happen. It does give you the courtesy of setting many things to process and then leaving to take care of other things in real life, however as you get into the later levels of the game, the wait times are almost too much. Around just level 50, you’re looking at about a 24-hour wait for construction of a new floor. That’s an entire day of your life, should you choose not to speed it up with ‘Tower Bux’, one of the in-game currencies. When you have a strong desire to complete something in the game, this extensive wait time can be incredibly frustrating. Still, it’s necessary for the basic mechanics of the game.

There’s also no ability to play offline. At first, this detail may go overlooked, seeing as we’re in a world that’s constantly connected however there are some concerns with a set up like this. The first of which is that no technology is perfect, and occasionally signals are lost and networks go down. This completely bars access to the game, albeit probably not for an extended period of time. There’s also concern for those who are just trying to save precious battery life. Being constantly connected to the internet can put serious strain on your battery, regardless of whether it’s the cellular network or WiFi. Fortunately, Tiny Tower itself uses virtually no battery itself, especially in comparison to any other game on the market which eats your battery alive.

The only other thing that will have you steaming up your screen is the aforementioned search-and-find game with your bitizens. More often than not, the guy or gal you’re looking for has conveniently wandered out of sight on the screen. This is ok when you have just a few floors, as it challenges your memory; however, once you’ve built tons of floors, the expectation that you memorize every single bitizens’ location is entirely absurd. You’ll find yourself having to make multiple passes up and down the tower before they walk back. Alternately, you can just start clicking on each floor one by one until you make your way to them.

Bottom Line:

If you haven’t downloaded Tiny Tower yet, you should. It’s an absolute must-have for your phone, and the best part is it’s completely free! It’s a masterpiece and sits right up there as one of the best games to ever grace the portable platform. The addictive gameplay will constantly have you coming back for more, and seeing as you can’t really ‘win’ Tiny Tower, the sky is the limit!

Tiny Tower for Android

Tiny Towerfor iPhone

Anthony Ortale writes news and reviews on behalf of Examiner.com. He does so much gaming in his spare time, it’s practically a full time job! If you like what you read here, please subscribe to his articles! You can also follow Tony on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email Tony any time at ortale.anthony@gmail.com, he would love to hear from you!