Airport

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local / Online)

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Review:

Airport is an Arcade-style game released on Switch in 2023. While this game’s title may conjure to mind images of controlling air traffic, this game actually has players controlling the flow of car traffic at intersections in and near an airport, signaling cars to proceed at times when it is safe and avoiding accidents. In fact, in some levels, the airport isn’t even related to the gameplay at all.

The presentation here uses simple 3D visuals with a nice field of view effect that makes everything seem like it’s a scale model, an effect helped by little details like strings attached to the planes. These visuals are backed by a relaxed, jazzy soundtrack that works great for this style of game.

The gameplay here is fairly simple in theory – all you’re doing is pressing one of multiple assigned buttons to open and close gates allowing cars to flow through roadways that can cross each other, airplane runways, railroad tracks, and pedestrian passageways, trying to keep traffic moving while avoiding collisions. However, this simple premise is complicated by the fact that multiple gates can be controlled by a single button, meaning that not only do you have to multitask and coordinate your actions, but you also need to be paying attention to multiple places at once when you perform an action – cars stacking up at one location may be safe to let through an intersection now, but the same button controlling that intersection may also control another intersection that’s currently busy.

As an option to help you in this task, every map in this game can be played in multiplayer, but even then players will have to coordinate and often still multitask. Honestly, I feel like this game does a good job of balancing these elements in multiplayer, making for an all-around solid co-op experience.

Airport’s plain and unassuming title may not seem like much, and the gameplay at its core is simple, but by changing one small element to challenge players with gameplay where actions can do multiple things at once, and giving players the option to offload some of their coordination to co-op multiplayer, this game provides plenty of great opportunity to be a fun but challenging co-op game that manages to rise above its simple premise. This is a worthy addition to a co-op gamer’s collection.

tl;dr – Airport is an Arcade-style game that has players directing the flow of car traffic in and near airports. While the title may be a bit misleading, this game nevertheless delivers some simple but deceptively challenging gameplay, excellent co-op, and an appealing presentation. If you’re looking for a simple but fun Arcade-style challenge with good co-op, this game is well worth checking out.

Grade: B-

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