Airport Tycoon is a business simulation game released for Windows 95/98 in 2000. It was developed in the United Kingdom by Krisalis Software. In Airport Tycoon, the player must successfully build and manage an airport without going bankrupt. There have been two sequels created for Airport Tycoon: Airport Tycoon 2 and Airport Tycoon 3. There was to be a Nintendo 64 version released as well, but this version was cancelled for unknown reasons.
History
Airport Tycoon was originally called Airport Inc. and Air Mogul. A week before the game's publishing, Krisalis Software changed its name to Airport Tycoon in some markets, a more catchy title. However, the gamecalls itself Air Mogul because of the inadequate time to change the software, and is sold in PAL as Airport Inc. Krisalis became defunct shortly after publishing Airport Tycoon.
Gameplay
Similar to other games of this type, the player takes the form of an airport manager by first selecting a location for his or her airport from several cities around the world before beginning his or her airport. The player then constructs a terminal for passengers, then runways, tarmac, control towers and support services. The player then attracts businesses to his or her airport by signing contracts with vendors in the terminal and contracting flights into and out of the airport. The player also manages the airport's budget, which can not operate too deeply in the red. Players can operate passenger airports and cargo airports with different considerations for each. A number of preset scenarios are also available to the player, including the conversion of a major cargo airport to a passenger airport in Beijing.
Reception
The game was poorly received by critics. Frequent criticisms included difficulty of gameplay, substandard graphics and confusing controls. It received a 62/100 score from PC Gamer, 3/10 from IGN, among other rankings.
Sequels
Airport Tycoon was followed by a sequel, Airport Tycoon 2, in early 2003. It was developed by Sunstorm Interactive and published by Global Star Software on February 26, 2003 for Windows PC. Airport Tycoon 2 received negative reviews from critics. Aggregating review websiteGameRankings provides an average score of 31% based on 9 reviews, whereas Metacritic provides a score of 32 out of 100 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." A third game in the series, Airport Tycoon 3, was developed by InterActive Vision and published by Global Star on October 30, 2003. Based on four professional reviews, Metacritic finds that Airport Tycoon 3 has received "generally unfavorable" reviews and establishes a metascore of 46/100. Airport Tycoon received negative reviews by IGN and GameSpot calling the game "irritating and monotonous", and the general review of the game on both the sites stated that the game was "lackluster" and "bland" not only in gameplay but in sound and texture, and its mechanics were "tedious". GameSpot's final comment on the game was that "It's unfortunate that the execution in the game is so disappointing in virtually every respect."
