Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 19, 2015

  Ever since the Airport Madness series started coming to Steam, I have had a huge love affair with it. There's an addiction that cannot be described. All you do is monitor the incoming planes and try to find a gap to send departing planes on their way. It starts off simple, but gets progressively more difficult as the sky gets busier. This happens until you lose enough attention to cause 2 planes to collide. You then swear profusely at how stupid you have been, think about rage quitting. Then instead of exiting, you press the retry button again and again until it's 4am. It's a form of self inflicted torture, but you cannot stop playing. You have to beat your previous score. This has been true of Airport Madness 4 and World Edition. So along comes Time Machine. I found the demo on their website, and got immediately hooked. I'd often play it at work out of boredom, and the hours fly by (pun intended). So when it came to Steam, I was all over it like a rash. Instead of Airport Madness 4 or World Edition's several airport levels where you just attempt to accumilate enough score until you collide 2 jets, and then try to better it because you're stubborn. Time Machine takes you through numerous levels/years of just a single airport. From a basic field in 1925, you go year by year, watching the airport expand and take shape until you get to 1970 where you've got to deal with more aircraft than Heathrow and LAX combined. Each level presents new challenges, from new runways, new facilities, to having to deal with military and civilian aircraft in World War 2 at the same time. Then even more... Once you get to certain stages in the game. You also unlock a Victorian Style steampunk airport and an airport from far in the future. These present further challenges and add a nice change of pace from trying to beat each level in the main part of the game. This means more fun and more addiction! Time Machine stands as my favourite in the series for the different direction it takes. It doesn't matter how many of these games Big Fat Simulations release. I will always buy them on launch, because they are just really, really fun to play. I look forward to the possibility of seeing Airport Madness 3 on Steam and their current development, Airport Madness 3D in the new year. For me these are "Must Buys"... I suggest you go to their official website and play the demos on their site. Discover the addicition, and buy the series here on Steam. You'll be hooked in no time!
• gamedeal user

  Sep 27, 2015

  A surpisingly deep strategy game. In Airport Madness: Time Machine you run an airport by deciding when and where planes are allowed to takeoff and land. You have to keep a steady flow going of takeoffs and landings, without causing crashes. The game begins in the early 30s and each level is one year later, each year introducing new features such as additional runways, faster planes, priority transports, etc.. What starts out really simple with simple queuing up planes quickly becomes a deep strategy of making sure runways are /just/ cleared when a new plane has to land or take off, dealing with multiple waiting planes and deciding the optimal order for them to launch, etc.. Visually the game is really underwhelming but the graphics do their job. On my system the game started fullscreen stretched across three monitors, but fortunately pressing ESC once made it windowed. Sound: music is limited to looping time period [ieces. Soundeffects are basic and limited to plane engine sounds. Control can be done completely via the mouse, or by using keys 1 through 5 on the keyboard once a plane is selected. A fun game that won't bore you too quickly, with decent length levels. Recommended for anyone who likes management strategy games.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 16, 2016

  My wife is glad I'm not a real Air Traffic Controller.
• gamedeal user

  May 7, 2017

  Do not buy this game on it´s own as it contain bugs that makes gameplay perform strange and counterintuitive. Personal favorite, plane trying to taxi down the runway in the wrong direction rather than taking the taxi path. As the Dev himself has said "Unfortunately, this game is not receiving any further updates." in the steam forum, this is not expected to get a solution any time soon. If you get this as part of a bundle, expect some frustration over this buggy mess compared to the crisp and well polished game that is AM: World edition.
• gamedeal user

  May 24, 2017

  It's a very good game and provides a good gameplay equivalent of being an Air Traffic Controller. This game has a nice progression as it moves through history and gives a sense of achievement. Downsides are that sometimes traffic glitches (flies at taxi speed or doesn't follow taxiway routes) and also, it feels like there are mechanics to engineer collisions (for example, two aircraft landing of the same type. You tell number 1 to expedite vacating, yet halfway down the runway it slows down. The second one doesn't slow down and collides (It's stupid, as pilots would never do this in reality). Recommended for a few dollars. It's a good game for occasional play. Just some fristrating mechanics and bugs.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 13, 2017

  Very addictive, if you've never played Airport Madness you should try out the flash game version before buying a full version. 7.7 / 10
• gamedeal user

  Nov 13, 2017

  [b]Airport Madness: Time Machine[/b] is the third iteration of air-traffic controller RTS games. Even though it holds its own well by introducing different eras and progressive mission-style levels, unfortunately it feels like a step-back from the excellent Airport Madness 4 version. Here's a short list to sum it up: + Yet another take on the Airport Madness traffic controller theme with its own unique flavour + Progressive difficulty missions (from a humble grass field to huge modern airports) + Three different eras with their unique backdrops and air-traffic patterns (gyrocopters anyone?) + Some limited injection of humor in the form of catchy newspaper article titles + Final year (2172) with 6 runways at max difficulty is seriously insane! + You could possibly squeeze 10 hours out of it if aiming to get all 3star levels - Not enough content and little replayability value - The main interface seems rushed and unpolished - Lacks the finesse and fine-tuning of its predecessor, Airport Madness 4 - Some annoying bugs, inc the occasional landing and taxiway glitches - There are no challenges on offer or even different game modes, e.g. scenarios - Would only allow full screen mode - No steam achievements or tradecards ----- TL;DR: Airport Madness: Time Machine is a just above average RTS air-traffic controller game. If you were deciding to dabble into the genre, I would recommend instead its predecessor, Airport Madness 4, for a small price increase you'll get a lot more fun and replayability out of it.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 8, 2020

  The game itself is fun for a time consuming easy game. However, its full of bugs. Aircraft when overflying parking areas will "land" so they now fly at taxi speed. When they do get to the runway to actually land, they still move at taxi speed, so now you can't land any aircraft cause they'll overtake the slow one and crash. When having 2 aircraft landing on the runway close together, you can tell the 1st aircraft to expedite off and the trailing aircraft to go normal speed, but the first will go as slow as possible, while the 2nd will go as fast as possible (while still having the expedite command available), always resulting in a collision. game over. further more, when you have the military base, the military aircraft will go wherever they want. Overall, can be a fun game, but when you get to a point where all 3 of these issues happen at once, you'll get frustrated and uninstall as its not worth the level of frustration. If they fix the bugs, buy it. Otherwise, find something else
• gamedeal user

  Apr 10, 2020

  frustrating fun :)