Platform: PC/Android
Release Dates: Vanilla, 1998. First Class: 2002. Evolution: 2002. Deluxe: 2003.
Airline Tycoon was one of those games that my older brother spent hundreds of hours behind and I couldn't get why. On my old Pentium II system, I used to randomly click and assign flights or cargos to planes that couldn't take them. Much like Donald Trump, I always ended up happily bankrupt; probably because I could start all over again.
The game is a business simulator. You can pick one of the missions or you can play in a free-form mode without any objectives apart from keeping your airline afloat. The view is sort of 2D platformer-esque with a dash of Sims. You can pick four of the characters—Igor Tuppelovsky, the silent and efficient Russian; Tina Cortez, the matador-loving English woman; Siggi Sorglos, who seems rather Nordic but still has a British accent; Mario Zucchero, the stereotypical Italian. What's refreshing is that instead of gameplay perks to define personalities like in modern gaming, each of these characters have clear personalities that define them. When it comes to A.I, Tina goes gung-ho with sabotaging your business and Mario seems to be always the first one to sink and Igor being the most resilient. Each and every one of the NPCs have personalities that make them seem like real people.
Gameplay involves running passenger or cargo flights to destinations. You have to take care of your plane's conditions, fuel and destinations. If you, say, run a flight from Chicago to London and then decide to add a New York to Sydney flight right after it, then chances are that you'll incur a heavy loss due to the interim-flight from London to New York which won't run any passengers, so a smart thing to do would be to fit in a London to New York flight in between. You can buy permits to routes so you don't need to depend upon the Airport Travel Agency, Last Minute Flights or Branch Offices (you can bid for them). You can also run advertisement campaigns to improve your airline's image in the routes. Sabotage can be unlocked by buying the violin case from the Duty Free Shop and giving it to the Arab at PetrolAir. Then the Arab points you to a room next to him. It's somewhat racist in retrospect but in Airline Tycoon's defence, it was released in 1998.
Airline Tycoon is a well-balanced business simulator with the right amount of humour in it. The graphics hold up surprisingly well and on tablets it should do just fine. Playing the game on my 4.7” phone screen was nearly impossible because it was a game originally made for the PC where you can use a mouse. So using the flight planning diary was tedious to the point where I just gave up. It's a real underrated gem from the past decade and one that can be easily enjoyed with a cup of tea in hand. 

***

WHAT'S “WORTH A REINSTALL?”

 We decided to revisit games from the past that hold up real well today. They're like game reviews but they're... well, yeah they're game reviews but instead of attaching the game review label, which is often associated with new games, we decided to give it a new label to draw a clear line. Pre-2005 games are preferred but we can push it up to 2007. Popular games like Diablo: II and Starcraft don't count because people still play them. Mods, maybe. So if you think that a gem from the past deserves to be on Overclock, send in your Worth a Reinstall within 500 words to [email protected].