Customer Reviews

Air Traffic Chaos

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fun - keep all the balls in the air - game.

You have a choice of 5 airports in Japan each at 3 levels of difficulty. Each airport has its own challenges. Some aircraft begin at the gate, others enter the holding pattern from their origins. You have to manage the movement and timing of those in the air and on the ground. Once you give a command it often can't be undone - so you need to think ahead and visualize the movements into the future. You also need to remember that there is a delay between command and action - so "lead" the command so it executes when you need.

If you ignore aircraft for too long - because you're busy elsewhere - they become "stressed". Too much stress and you loose. Mid-air collisions and you loose. Ground collisions and you loose. You get the idea.

Wind and weather are factors but emergencies and fuel are not. Only commercial air - but no military or private.

Keep in mind there is no head-to-head option a la Mario Kart. Also, you only have a limited number of scenarios - 5 airports, 3 levels each. But you can extend play by experimenting with the best way to get everyone where they need to be in the most expeditious manner. For example, at Chitose, try using the outboard runway for departures and the inboard for arrivals.

I flew for six years and did ATC management for 3, this is pretty fun but not too overwhelming. Adjust the difficulty to match your "mood". If you enjoy flying simulations this is an nice change of pace. Perfect for those long waits at the airport when your flight gets delayed! :)

The game may look for kids, and feature outdated graphics, but it will get your brain going and test your prioritizing skills. The whole point of the game is to see how many things you can keep track of at once. You are scored points depending on how fast a plane can reach its intended goal (either take off or arriving at a gate)

On the easiest difficulty, you'll have maybe two planes in the air at any given time, with one or two on the ground waiting to take off. Landing the planes is easy, just move them to an empty gate, provided there isn't a plane on the runway blocking you.

On higher difficulty, especially on Expert, the game throws more planes at you that are trying to land, while also giving you a full airport with planes waiting to take off. Can you keep an eye on those planes flying over the airport? Can you adjust their speed in time so they don't crash into each other? On the ground, will the lanes get clogged with traffic? Can you recognize which plane should leave first so as to maximize the amount of points you get?

The later airports (which act as stages) give you more gates and more runways to deal with, and each airport can be played on 3 difficulty settings, each setting with a different goal. All in all, about 12 stages, which provide around 10-15 hours of gameplay if you want to beat all of the stages. I'm sure there are people that will enjoy playing the stages over and over again, as well.

Some things are frustrating, like there are times when you can't issue an order to a flying plane, like 'speed up' or 'slow down', and it never gives an explanation as to why it does that. Sometimes the plane is just flying and not doing anything, but I can't issue orders. This has led to several mid-air collisions for me. Also, I think simple 3D graphics could've added a little more to the presentation. I'm not sure if the game is part of a series or not, but it looks like a GBA port.

A fun little game that is pretty cheap, only $20 US. Puzzle fans and gamers that enjoy brain teasing games will get a kick out of this.

Air Traffic Control chaos is more challenging than expected, far more than the cute air traffic controller cartoons suggest. Lots of fun for a while, interesting concepts, and artful rhythm are all part of the game at the lower levels. But since the pilots do not act like real pilots, it is too difficult at the higher levels. In real air traffic control you can use all the taxiways to put planes when there are no gates available. In the game, you can only put taxiing aircraft on a fixed route, no variation. In real life, if you have one plane follow another on the same taxiway, the pilot will stop when the plane in front of him stops. In the game the plane runs into the back of the other one. In real life pilots exit the runway asap after landing. In the game on some of the scenarios, they sit on the runway until you tell them what to do. Combined with the artificial frequency congestion (having to wait until one aircraft is done reading back a lengthy clearance before you can issue the next clearance) makes the game nearly impossible at the expert levels.

Loads of fun early on. Impossible later though. Good for a few hours of fun, and maybe only interesting to those in the aviation community. Maybe even more so for those in Japan.

Air Traffic Chaos Is an outstanding game that takes stratagey and patience to advance to the next level. Book em', taxi em', and send em' on their way. This is a great game for Ages 8+. You now have total control over the flight plans of this aircraft. I insist you buy this game.

I bought this game because I remember how much fun Kennedy Approach was back on the Commodore 64 (or was it the TI?). At first, the game was very frustrating because a lot of basic things were not explained, like the fact that one runway can be 2 runways, or many of the details of the pilots' procedures (very important--they will follow your orders even if it means mass carnage).

But then I read the other review here, and gave it another chance, and I love it.

Now I want to add another star. Looks like another irreversible decision.

I'll leave the description to the ATC reviewer, but this game is just a lot of fun. It takes place a little faster than a real-time pace, which presumably makes it more fast-paced than the actual job, but there is a lot of leeway on how to handle situations. But you do have to plan ahead, because there are very few instances where you can rescue a bad decision. Even so, this game somehow avoids being frustrating--not once have I felt the urge to throw my DS while playing this game.

With a little bit of practice and patience (for us non-ATC's), this game is excellent, even with the cutesy characters.

Now I want to add another star--another irreversible decision, I guess.

This is a fun game. But it could be a lot more fun if:

* You could establish radio contact with planes any time you want, rather than at intervals which are some times too slow

* You could have more freedom controlling aicraft on the ground (you don't always have access to all open gates, planes do not automatically hold behind another plane which is holding short, etc.)

* You could turn off the music! Strangely you can only disable "Sound FX", but not the music. This is the number one reason why I can't play this for more than ten minutes.

Overall it's realistic enough to entertain real-world aviation enthusiasts, but I get the impression the development team was lazy or not inspired enough. The situational complexity and the freedom to control aircraft exactly when you want is just a bit too simplistic.

This game seemed like it would be easy, but I find it difficult to manage the departures and arrivals without causing collisions! It truly is air traffic chaos, and I'm glad I'm not a real air traffic controller! Fun though, as there are different airports with varying weather and layouts, and increasing levels (rookie, novice, expert).

The game is enjoyable, however the graphic are less than desireable, and it repetative game play, causes the game to get old.

I bought this game while in paris. read about it on some game web page. this game is fun as crap. for $10, i'd buy several. what makes this game fun is that it tests your memory on the normal and pro modes. it's like keeping the balls in the air and knowing when to put them in a slot while taking on a new ball. it's gets nerve racking at times. the fun parts are when you just know you screwed up but somehow you have one plane taking off while another is landing just a few hundred yards behind it. yeah, pull that one off in real life. it's stuff like that that makes you clench your fist and say, "yeah, baby!" as the ATC, you only have to survive for like a 3 - 4 hour shift. on pro mode, it gets hard!

this game does support the rumble pack if you have one.

buy one for a friend. it's as addictive as brain age, but one third the cost.

I'm happy with the game however the sound is lame. I can't hear the radio communciations because the music is so loud. It would be nice if there were separate volume controls or the ability to turn the music off. One of the airports only allows use of two of four available gates which seems like a glitch.