Pocket Planes Review

Pocket Planes from NimbleBit is a free title on the app store powered by in-game microtransactions that puts you in charge of your own little airline. To begin you're taken through a small tutorial to get to grips with mechanics of loading your miniature planes with passengers, cargo or a mixture of both and how to get them to their destinations, via multiple stops if needs be, once that is complete you're on your own to build your aeronautical empire.

You only have a handful of aircraft to begin with, mostly one or two seater aircraft with small ranges so you're limited on which airports you can serve. Each airport will have a listing of cargo and passengers, their destinations and how many coins you will earn for making that trip. When you plot the route you will also see if you're going to make any profit or take a loss on that journey as each flight costs you money to perform, some passengers will be asking for the same destination which give you an extra percentage of coins if you take them on the same plane.

Thankfully the vast majority of flights will generate profit for you, the only occasions where you take a loss on coins are the rare trips in which you will earn some 'Bux' which is the more desirable currency in game as you can purchase additional aircraft parts or fully operational planes for a number of Bux. Additionally you can exchange Bux into coins if you need a quick boost to the bank balance in order to cover flight costs or you're a little short in opening up a new airport.

Each successful flight will also bring you some xp in order to level up, each level gives you some complimentary Bux to spend at will and the ability to open a new airport if you have the coins to do so. You're increase of levels will also, from time to time, unlock a wider range of possible aircraft that you can have in your airline's portfolio so if you play long enough you'll have access to multiple passenger jumbo jets which is a far cry from your humble 1 seater propeller powered jalopy you start with.

It all sounds a bit complicated but that couldn't be further from the truth, the game is so simple to pick up and play; addictingly so. The complicated part of the game is trying to put this back down to do some work. The simplistic pixel art throughout the game has some magical draw to it that makes you watch the characters with care from airport to airport, which will actually reward you. If you watch one of your flights you see coins fly past your aircraft which when tapped awards you with 1 or 10 coins for your balance. Occasionally you'll see Bux fly past too so it can be worthwhile to sit there for the five or ten minutes flight time in order to bolster the balance a bit more.

There isn't really much more too the game but for a free title it's an amazing time waster which you'll find hard to put down, well worth the megabyte space on your iOS device.