RATING:
Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 6
Sounds: 7
Overall: 6.5
Pros: easy to access and quick to get invested in, casual and fun gameplay.
Cons: Lacks a bit depth for those who like more serious simulation/ management games.
We’ve lately taken a look at Bigpoint’s airport management MMO Skyrama, which is playable for free in any major browser. The game tasks players with managing their own airport, making them responsible for constructing buildings, purchasing aircraft, handling passengers and managing flights as planes are landed at their own airport and sent to places across the whole globe. SkyRama is a cutesy, colourful and surprisingly addictive game which certainly attracts a younger audience while more mature players may also find its Farmville style gameplay pretty attractive. When throwing a first glimpse into the MMO, we worked our way through the tutorial to find out what the game is all about and if it had a certain appeal on us.
A usual, entering the game was extremely simple: you either use your Facebook account to sign in or quickly create an account with your email address, and the easy access portal allows you to get into the game right away. The very first screen we were presented with asked where we wanted our airport to be located. We saw a real-world overview map divided into the continents and being Englishmen, we opted for Europe and were then nicely surprised as the continent was broken down into its individual countries so that we could choose The UK. Our airport location chosen, we were informed about having access to three different types of tourist souvenirs. At this point, however, we didn’t have the foggiest idea what this would mean.
We were then introduced to our guide Fiona who walked us through the tutorial, at the beginning of which our personal airport only consisted of a plane hangar bay and a single runway to land planes. In the course of the tutorial, we added additional buildings and decorations and learned about their individual function.
Our first task was to land the plane, which was a quite simple process as the Flights tab shows the entirety of incoming planes, and players get an on-screen notification when those are queued. Hitting the button allowed the plane to land on our runway; before being able to finalise the flight and send the plane back on its way, we had to construct a servicing bay though. A simple process provided our airport with a small bay that removes the plane from the runway freeing it up for other planes
Servicing a plane consists of pushing a single button which starts a timer to prompt unloading luggage, refuelling, loading passengers and then preparing for take-off. Although each action only took a few seconds, there was also the option to spend AirCash (the game’s premium currency) in order to quick service the plane and instantly send it off again.
With each plane that we landed, particularly the CashCow plane we earned AirCoins, the main in-game currency which buys planes, buildings, decorations and other items. The other main resource players have to acquire is Passengers and we therefore built a Passenger Terminal to provide our airport with a steady flow of passengers to disembark from our planes.
Sending a plane off to a flight was pretty interesting as well for we could again choose any country of the entire world to send our flights to. This was when we realised that each country had its own souvenirs, which could be collected each time a plane visits that particular country and added to the player’s Collections. Items are divided into different categories such as Security Set which requires players to acquire 8 Warning Vests, 10 Shirts, 8 Screwdrivers, and 12 Medi Kits. Once a collection is complete, players will earn their reward. They also gain extra bonuses for visiting each single country on a specific continent and an even larger reward for visiting all the countries in the world.
Skyrama definitely has a certain appeal; it’s easy and quick to get into, very casual and doesn’t require too much thought. However, we can imagine that the constant stream of planes coming and going as well as the instant goal of visiting as many countries as possible could easily hook many players. By the time they have managed to hit their first milestone of visiting all the countries of a continent, they will unquestionably feel well invested in the game. Players can moreover add other players with airports as Buddies to gain extra bonuses for sending flights between them, which really adds to the game’s social aspects to help other players out.
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