Jumbo Airport Story

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 63 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement. And then there’s a template that has you managing not employees but members of a sports team, something we first saw in Grand Prix Story.

Jumbo Airport Story originally released on mobile devices and PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch in 2023, then received a port to PC and PlayStation 4 in 2023, then to Xbox One in 2024. This is a game that fits in that second “cater to guests” category, with players building their airport to attract visitors and increase traffic.

Overall, this is in many ways exactly what I’m looking for in an airport Management Simulation. You can direct where to build boarding gates and ticket counters, where to place the food stalls and souvenir shops, you can increase value with decor and seating, and you can choose the layout of your plane runways, storage hangars, and the various paths between everything. Apart from Kairosoft’s own unique quirkiness about prices being automatically set by value and popularity, and an inability to independently manage your staff or set flight schedules, this is overall a great airport sim… with one exception.

That exception is that progression in this game is just too slow. After your initial chunk of startup funds, it will take a while to get a steady flow of income, and likewise it will take a while to unlock additional types of facilities. There are long stretches where you’ll just be waiting for something to happen. When it does, this game is great about giving you the freedom to do what you want, it just takes a while before you can do it.

As for the presentation, this is in line with what we’re used to from Kairosoft. As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals (here presented in an isometric overhead view perspective), paired with upbeat repetitive synthesized music that’s largely forgettable (and a tad irritating). For the most part, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

It’s a shame that the pacing of Jumbo Airport Story is so slow, because otherwise I think this would be one of Kairosoft’s best Management Simulation games, giving players a lot of freedom to customize and run their own airport. As-is, it’s still a solid (if somewhat simple) Management Simulation, and as long as you don’t mind the slow pace, I think you’ll find a lot to like here.

tl;dr – Jumbo Airport Story is a Management Simulation where players manage an airport, choosing its layout and facilities and trying to grow its popularity with customers. This is a solid, if somewhat simple, take on its premise, and it’s largely only undermined by sluggish pacing. However, that issue aside, this is definitely worth a look for genre fans who are interested in running their own airport.

Grade: B

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