Ondrej Holzman The condition for a game to be successful on iOS is definitely not that it has to be excellently graphically processed and offer the most realistic experience possible. Even an innocent-looking game that has graphics from the 70s of the last century, but bets on gameplay, can succeed. That's definitely the case with Pocket Planes, which is damn addictive.
To introduce the plot, I will mention that Pocket Planes is the work of the studio NimbleBit, which is behind the similar game Tiny Tower. And whoever played her knows how she can entertain. It's the same with Pocket Planes, where you take on the role of an air traffic controller and an airline owner. But as I already mentioned in the introduction, definitely don't expect any graphic and modern throws, you won't find that in Pocket Planes. This is primarily about logical and strategic thinking, which can lead you to success, but also to the ruin or collapse of your airline.
Throughout the game, which has no defined goal and can therefore be played endlessly, your task will be to buy planes and airports, improve them and, last but not least, transport passengers and goods of all kinds between more than 250 cities around the world. Of course, initially you will have limited resources, so you will not immediately fly across the ocean, for example, but you will have to start circling, for example, around the cities of Central Europe, such as Berlin, Munich, Prague or Brussels, and only gradually expand to other corners of the globe.
[do action=”citation”]Pocket Planes either get tired at the start, or they grab hold and don’t let go.[/do]
In the beginning, you can choose where to start your empire - it is usually chosen between individual continents, so it is up to you whether you start in an area you are familiar with, or perhaps explore exotic Africa. The world map in Pocket Planes is real and the data of individual cities generally agree. For each city, its population is important, because the more inhabitants a given location has, the more people and goods will be available in it. At the same time, however, there is a direct correlation between the number of inhabitants and the price of the airport; the more people, the more money you will have to pay to acquire the airport.
This brings us to the Pocket Planes financial system. There are two types of currency in the game - classic coins and so-called bux. You earn coins for transporting people and goods, which you then spend on buying new airports or improving them. Individual flights where you have to pay for fuel aren't free either, but if you plan carefully, you'll rarely end up in the red, meaning the flight won't make a profit.
Bucks, or currency marked with a green bill, are more difficult to obtain than coins. You need buxes to buy new planes and upgrade them. There are more ways to get them, but usually this currency becomes a scarce commodity. From time to time at airports you will come across a shipment/passenger for which you will receive bucks instead of coins. In practice, this means that you usually won't make money on the flight (if there are no other passengers on board), because you will have to pay for the flight itself and you won't get anything back, but you will get at least one bux, which is always useful. You will then get a bigger load of bux if you advance to the next level, and if you are lucky, they can also be caught while watching the flight of the plane. After all, this also applies to coins, which rarely fly through the air anymore.
So the basic principle is simple. At the airport where the plane landed, you open the list of passengers and goods to be transported, and depending on the destination and the reward (as well as the capacity of the plane), you choose who to take on board. Then you just plan the flight path on the map and wait for the machine to arrive at the destination. You can follow him either on the map or directly in the air, but it is not necessary. You can easily just schedule a few flights, exit the app and continue to manage air traffic when you return to the device. Pocket Planes can notify you via push notifications when a plane has landed. However, in the game you are not pressed by any time limits or anything like that, so nothing happens if you leave the planes unattended for a while.
The only motivation in the game is to level up and explore new destinations by opening their airports. You always earn progress to the next level by gaining a certain amount of experience, which increases constantly during the game, if you actively play it, i.e. fly, buy and build.
In addition to airports, Pocket Planes also features a variety of aircraft types. In the beginning you will only have small planes that can only carry two passengers/two boxes, they will have a low airspeed and a short range, but over time you will get bigger and bigger planes that will be better in every way. In addition, the entire squadron can be improved, but considering the price (a few bux), it is not very worthwhile, at least initially. New planes can be obtained in two ways - either you can buy a brand new machine with the bux obtained, or you can assemble it from three parts (engine, fuselage and controls). Individual aircraft parts are purchased on the market, where the offer changes regularly. When you get all three parts from one species, you can send the plane "into battle" (again at an extra cost). But when you calculate everything, building an airplane like this is more profitable than buying it ready-made.
You can have as many planes as you want, but you have to pay for each additional slot for a new plane. That is why it is sometimes advantageous, for example, to just replace a new plane with an older and less powerful one that can be sent to the hangar. There it will either wait for you to call it into service again, or you will disassemble it and sell it for parts. You choose the tactics yourself. You can also decide the fate of individual planes based on how they are delivered to you, which you can find out in the menu under the Logs button. Here you sort your planes either by time spent in the air or by hourly earnings, and it's these stats that can tell you which plane to get rid of.
Even more detailed statistics are offered by Pocket Planes under the Stats button, where you will get a complete overview of your airline - a graph capturing the curve with earnings, miles traveled and flights, money earned, the number of passengers carried or the most profitable aircraft and the busiest airport. Among other things, you can also track here how much experience you still need to advance to the next level.
Everyone should visit Airpedia, the encyclopedia of all available machines, at least once. An interesting feature is joining a so-called flight crew, where based on ongoing events around the world you can transport a certain type of goods to a selected city together with players from around the world (it is enough to enter the same group name) and at the end the best they get plane parts as well as some bux.
And not only this cooperation between players adds to the gameplay of Pocket Planes. Also, the presence of Game Center along with various statistics adds to the fun of competing against your friends. You can compare your miles flown, the number of flights or the longest or most profitable trip. There are also 36 achievements that propel players forward.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that Pocket Planes will either get boring within the first few minutes, or they'll catch on and never let go. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's an advantage that Pocket Planes can sync between devices, so if you're playing on an iPad and start the game on your iPhone, you continue the game you've played. This means that the planes will never leave you. A big plus of Pocket Planes is also the price - free.
I fell in love with the game and I'm curious when it will be released. However, since I fly mainly in Europe, the role of the head of the airline will certainly last me for some time.
[app url=”http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/pocket-planes/id491994942″]
They catch and won't let go... :)
Does anyone know how to retire the plane if I don't want it anymore? Or send to the hangar?
Thanks for the advice ;)
When the plane is at an airport, click on the plane icon with a magnifying glass and select remove. This will shift to the hangar
Thanks… the game has a lot of potential
I had to delete it because I stopped paying attention to anything else.. Even the wife started to taste it.
Drug