67
Pocket Planes is free, which makes it perfect to give it a try. Collecting money and bucks is slow if you don't spend real money, but in time you can expand your airline without taking out your wallet. Too bad, though, the game is incredibly passive; you do nothing but sending out flights and waiting for the money to roll in.
74
Take away the freemium structure and the need to wait for ages between goes and we'd happily play it for hours at a time. [Sept 2012, p.110]
100
There's a lot of fun to be had in the game without spending any money, since you can find bux floating around and you'll earn some with every level.
9
This is a great game to get hooked on to, and there's a fun element to expanding the coverage of your plane empire. One problem I'd say is that there's high expectations of the player by the time you get to higher levels, because with the best plane, which takes 17 cargo, it is extremely heavy, which requires you have a lot of airports build if you want to make a profit out of this plane. But I had a lot of fun in this game, and it's certainly worth a try.
9
This clever little in-your-off-time game is free, nice, and doesn't require obscene quantities of cash to find nice. Buy, fly, and deck out your airline, buy airports, do events, anything a clever tycoon would want to do. Not much action or effort needed, as flying planes is a tap of the finger, but be wary, the game can be addicting. Pretty unique. It's also free, so go ahead. You've got nothing to lose, except maybe dozens of hours of your life.
6
From the makers of Tiny Towers comes Pocket Planes (gotta love those alliterations). Using a similar approach to Pocket Planes, you're given a set of planes and some money and your goal is to build your airline empire from the ground up. This game benefits from being more complex than it's sister game, requiring more strategy and precision in the decisions that you make. However, this complexity without much reward makes this game confusing without reward and less satisfying when you're reaching success. This games pacing is also significantly slower than Tiny Towers, which makes this game less enjoyable at first. Upgrading, buying new planes, and new airports is initially very expensive work. It's slow and tiresome work, and when you finally push past the expense barriers, there's nothing to truly reward you for your effort. Yet, somehow this game pulled me in like Tiny Towers did. My gaming obsessive compulsions that this game takes advantage of makes me stare at the game for hours trying to navigate my planes efficiently and getting all the bux I can get to upgrade and make my enterprise better. Other times, I open up the game and then think maybe later. I just don't know what to make of it. I share a love-hate relationship with this game. It will draw you in like Tiny Tower, but it's slower to do so, and the rewards aren't that significant and are less visible than your ever-climbing tower. On the other side, it's more complex and strategic and sometimes I really want to buy every airport, and upgrade everything. It's really a toss up, and it is a good time killer, but beyond that, there's no reward and no incentive beyond the obsessive compulsions of the completionist gamer or those with many friends to compete with.
Pocket Planes
iOS (iPhone/iPad)
Released On:
Jun 14, 2012
Metascore
Generally Favorable
78
User score
Mixed or Average
7.0
My Score
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All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Favorable
59% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
41% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Jul 8, 2012
100
There's a lot of fun to be had in the game without spending any money, since you can find bux floating around and you'll earn some with every level.
Jun 20, 2012
90
Even sharing a similar formula, Pocket Planes is a much better game than the previous Tiny Tower, featuring an intuitive strategic gameplay and huge amounts of content for a free-to-play.
User score
Mixed or Average
65% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
15% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
19% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Jun 28, 2012
10
I love this game and now I play it everyday! If you liked Tiny Tower, this game is twice as fun and addicting. Tycoon lovers must have this airline experience!
Nov 15, 2014
9
This is a great game to get hooked on to, and there's a fun element to expanding the coverage of your plane empire. One problem I'd say is that there's high expectations of the player by the time you get to higher levels, because with the best plane, which takes 17 cargo, it is extremely heavy, which requires you have a lot of airports build if you want to make a profit out of this plane. But I had a lot of fun in this game, and it's certainly worth a try.
Jun 14, 2012
90
The game contains an intriguing blend of strategy, management and under-the-hood tinkering, and in contrast to the deceptive Tiny Tower there's much more genuine depth to the game beyond a superficial appeal to obsessiveness. Whether you felt burned out by that game or not, we highly recommend you try out NimbleBit's brand new addiction.
Jun 18, 2012
80
Pocket Planes showcases NimbleBit's deft-hand at creating miniaturized, yet still strangely addictive titles - keeping your fleet running is a more-ish exercise that will keep you entertained for days.
Jun 28, 2012
70
Of all the iOS developers using the free to play model, NimbleBit has come the closest to getting it right.
Jul 3, 2012
60
There isn't much of a 'game' here, unless you count watching your plane fly to it's destination while tapping the screen to collect coins which appear in the sky a game. Somehow I can't see that being a listed feature on the iTunes description.
Jun 18, 2012
50
Playing Pocket Planes is like driving a car that steers itself. All I want is a wheel, NimbleBit. Give me just one tool that can be wielded in interesting ways to make an impact on the outcome of my play. I want the ability to play your game well, or play it badly. As it currently stands, the only choice you give me is to play Pocket Planes or not play it at all, and I'm going to take option B.
Dec 31, 2013
9
This clever little in-your-off-time game is free, nice, and doesn't require obscene quantities of cash to find nice. Buy, fly, and deck out your airline, buy airports, do events, anything a clever tycoon would want to do. Not much action or effort needed, as flying planes is a tap of the finger, but be wary, the game can be addicting. Pretty unique. It's also free, so go ahead. You've got nothing to lose, except maybe dozens of hours of your life.
Oct 16, 2013
9
This is one of my favorite iOS games and one of my most played. There is no pressure to spend real-life money as you easily gain lots of bux. There is definitely more freedom than most other tycoon games and I find it smoother than NimbleBit's previous game of this style, Tiny Tower. It certainly deserves its place in my dock.
Aug 2, 2012
9
Pocket Planes is exactly what free-to-play games should be. There is of course the possibility of using real-life money to buy in-game currency, but this option is far from obligating players to pay. It matters much more on how you're building your airline than how many real life money you spend on the game; and creating your own airline is a lot of fun: you will have to think a lot on what kind of aircraft you have and where your airports are placed. Events are a brilliant idea of Nimblebit and a great way of earning bux and money without having to wait a lot or having to spend real money. I give this game a 9 only because I think it may be a bit boring to just wait for your flights to arrive and the leveling system may block you from growing faster due to its airport limitations per level, but as this game is free and a lot of fun, everyone with an iOS device should give it a try.
Dec 2, 2013
6
From the makers of Tiny Towers comes Pocket Planes (gotta love those alliterations). Using a similar approach to Pocket Planes, you're given a set of planes and some money and your goal is to build your airline empire from the ground up. This game benefits from being more complex than it's sister game, requiring more strategy and precision in the decisions that you make. However, this complexity without much reward makes this game confusing without reward and less satisfying when you're reaching success. This games pacing is also significantly slower than Tiny Towers, which makes this game less enjoyable at first. Upgrading, buying new planes, and new airports is initially very expensive work. It's slow and tiresome work, and when you finally push past the expense barriers, there's nothing to truly reward you for your effort. Yet, somehow this game pulled me in like Tiny Towers did. My gaming obsessive compulsions that this game takes advantage of makes me stare at the game for hours trying to navigate my planes efficiently and getting all the bux I can get to upgrade and make my enterprise better. Other times, I open up the game and then think maybe later. I just don't know what to make of it. I share a love-hate relationship with this game. It will draw you in like Tiny Tower, but it's slower to do so, and the rewards aren't that significant and are less visible than your ever-climbing tower. On the other side, it's more complex and strategic and sometimes I really want to buy every airport, and upgrade everything. It's really a toss up, and it is a good time killer, but beyond that, there's no reward and no incentive beyond the obsessive compulsions of the completionist gamer or those with many friends to compete with.
SummaryFrom the creators of Tiny Tower comes Pocket Planes, a casual airline sim that fits right in your pocket!- Manage and grow your fleet of planes as they fly interesting people and cargo to over 250 cities around the map.- Unlock everything from tiny prop planes to jumbo jets and small town airports to mega cities.- Customize your planes w... Read More
