Aerobiz Supersonic

"Another odd Koei game"

As with most of Koei's Games, they tend to put a lot of power behind the gameplay and that pretty much takes up the whole cart. Sound and graphics take a back seat. It should be noted that there are a few more tricks out of this cart then Aerobiz.

-The Story-
Your the new CEO of a new up and coming airline company that is ready to take its first steps into airline management. You will have to hire staff, buy planes, set up routes and weather random and historic events that effect the world and anything that effects the world will effect you. If you manage to make it past your rivals and into some solid profits, then your well on your way. To win you must meet all your goals set by the Board of Directors (or who ever sets those goals) before any rival does. Good luck.

- The Gameplay -
Basically this is a redo of ''Aerobiz'' that came out a few years back. It was near the same gameplay. Basic gameplay is menu driven with the control acting as a little mouse cursor on the screen. To do anything you hit buttons and activate menus. Some of the Icons dont always make sense but very soon you will figure out what to do. The game has 4 different time periods and the 1st period and the last seem to be the hardest to win just because of the economic conditions. To make money you need to open routes and put an efficient plane on the route. Its usually easier to make money on 2 big cities then to link 2 small or 1 small, 1 large together. This is defiantly one of those games when you have to take risks and try new things. It should be noted that the learning curve seems to be a bit high for a SNES game but its well worth it in the end.

- The Graphics -
This is actually pretty optional since you can turn off some of the graphics which will speed the game up. And you really arent missing out on anything by doing so. This is basically a menu driven game so the emphasis isnt on graphics and so everything is kept pretty generic.

- The Sound -
Two words come to mind, ''Elevator Music''. There is simply nothing worth repeating and you should probably turn you sound on the TV down a bit or you might risk going insane like one of my poor friends did (oh wait he might have been a bit insane before playing this). There is different music for different parts of the world but they are all pretty awful.

-Audio/Video-
Nothing like FMV but there are some moving airplanes which arent worth watching so just turn that part off.

-Reply?- I do enjoy this game enough to blow the dust off and put it in the SNES, there are so few Simulation games for this system (especailly for business). If your a newbie then you should probably give this game atleast 4 plays through to see if it is for you.

THE FINAL TALLY

Story: 7
Gameplay: 10 (Its all about the gameplay)
Graphics: 4
Sound : 3
Audio/Video: 3
Reply : 6 (Learning curve may discourage new players)
Final Score : 6 (Not an average)

Final Comments :
It should be noted that this is a slight improvement over Koei's Aerobiz and that the economic parts of this game hooked me from the moment I played it. But I felt that there just isnt enough to make this anymore then a 6. That game tends to go on a bit too long when every player starts out in Europe, Asia, or N.America. This is what Aerobiz should have been.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/15/01, Updated 09/15/01