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"A really fun business strategy game!"

Aerobiz Supersonic is a gem of a game. It offers both a realistic simlulation of the airline world, but is also incredibly fun and addictive to play. Which surprises me, since its maker, Koei, isn't known to produce fun games--they tend to produce overly drawn out historical strategy games. But somehow Aerobiz Supersonic, as well as its predecessor, Aerobiz, managed to be incredibly entertaining games.

Description:

The point of Aerobiz Supersonic is to create the world's largest--and therefore best--airline. You do this by gaining the number one market share in 3 geographic regions. (you don't actually need to be profitable, you just need the most passengers!) You start out in one city of your choosing (I typically chose either New York, or Tokyo since they seemed to have good starting locations), and from there you have to build a large network of flights. Send your underlings scurrying around the world "bidding" on airport slots, or creating new "hubs" for you to create flights from later. You also have to keep track of the "biz" end of the Aerobiz: buy new planes--a decision based on whether you really need a boeing 747 to take people from Boston to New York, and other elements, such as fuel economy--advertise your airline, and even buy some other sundry items like hotels to convince passengers to fly with you.

But then you also have to fend off the competition, which when played by the computer is often very crafty. (you have the option of playing against up to 3 computer opponents) To compete you can slash prices--i.e. have a "fare war"--or advertise like crazy. I often had to tinker with my flight routes down to the tiniest detail to beat the competition. Don't worry, though, the world is large enough to support multiple airlines, but only one of those can be number 1.

Since this game is also set in the real world (as opposed to some magical world where airline tycoons are revered as gods), there are "real world events" sprinkled in to keep things interesting. All of these "real world events" in the game directly impact your airline. For example, the oil boycott drives up fuel prices, which drives down profits dramatically; or the olympics in seoul will increase the amount of passengers flying to korea; etc. Such elements really add to the gameplay by introducing a flavor of reality into the game, so that you feel almost as if you really _are_ an airline tycoon yourself! Of course, it isn't so much fun when you get a mechanics strike which shuts down half of your flights.

Now onto some of the nitty gritty of the game:

Graphics -- 7

The graphics don't really add to the game, but they don't detract from it. The interface is clean, if a little overly complicated. The best thing is that they managed to not over complicated the graphics needlessly. This is, after all, just a strategy game, graphics aren't as important. The only thing that I wished to changed was the "take off" animations, which don't add much to the game. Every event in the game is represented by a little "animation", some work, some (like the take off) don't work. If one of your planes has engine trouble, you see an icon of a plane with fire coming out of the engines. Not graphically impressive, but it suits the game perfectly.

Controls -- 6

The controls are typical for a console strategy game, that is to say, not very good at all! Every command in the game is accessed through a button on the "tool bar" at the bottom of the screen. The tool bar is easy enough to use, once you figure out what all those little icons on it means. After a while I found that I only used a couple of the buttons, anyway. The controls were also a little limiting, and tight. I would have also preferred it if there was a good way to change the Text Scroll speed (you can accomplish this in the game by simply holding down a direction on the D pad, but this is annoying).

Sound -- 5

The sound and music in Aerobiz is its weakest link. Not only does it have all the customary Console "beeps" and "bloops", but it also has very uninspiring--to the point of annoying--music. The one bright side is that every country has its own music, so if you are playing in Moscow you hear different music than if you were playing in New York. After a short time, I became very tired of hearing the same music played over and over, and just muted the whole game, and put in a CD.

Fun -- 8

I had a great time playing this game (which I think was apparent before now!). Not only did I feel like I was accomplishing something, but I also felt like I was actually running an airline, but without the stress that such a job would bring. I also found it immensely fun to try to outwit the somewhat clever computer--although at times the computer made really stupid decisions, for the most part it was intelligent. The only thing that really bothered me about the game is that you can only create 40 flight routes, and after that, the only way to get new routes, is to close old ones. Altough this does encourage you to create only really good routes, it also discourages you from making low profit routes (like a London to Paris route). I thought that this stifles a bit of the game. But other than that it is a great game, one that I would recommend to anyone who likes a good strategy game.

Reviewer's Tilt -- +1

What can I say? I loved this game! Plus the sum of the game's parts didn't quite equal the score that I felt this game deserves, so I bumped it up one point.

Final Score -- 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99