Welcome to the wonderful world of an entrepreneur simulation! You have been selected to start an airport from the ground up and you need to safely transport passengers while still turning a profit. While playing god in other simulation games seems entertaining and fun, running an airport can be very tedious and time consuming. 

Let's start with the name. Airport Tycoon, Airport Incorporated, and Airport Mogul. Do these names sound familiar? That's because that all three names are the same game. I am just as confused as you are. The box says Airport Tycoon, the developer website and search engines say Airport Inc, and then when you install the game and run it…they call it Airport Mogul. At least they left Airport in the name. Even parts of the manual and menus in the games have different names for the game. Since I was very curious about this situation, I looked it up and it seems there was a clerical error at a British coaster manufacturing plant that packaged the CD. Anyhow, we will refer to the game as Airport and get on with the review. 

We start by reading through the manual that doesn't really offer much help, but does mention that there is a tutorial in the game that will show you how to play. Once installed we go straight to the tutorial. I would have been better off trying to figure out the game myself. The tutorial is one of the worst I have seen for any game. This so-called help shows text on the bottom half of the screen that takes up most of the interface and is telling you what to do next. I then realized that I am not supposed to touch the mouse, but rather let the computer go through the steps. From the time it shows the text, and the mouse shows the action for the text for about 15 to 20 seconds -- making this a long and boring 30-minute tutorial that could have been done in 10. It is not just the time that makes this tutorial horrible. It's the clumsiness of the computer moving the mouse. I had a better time laying down runways and terminals then the help did. It fumbles through menus like it was looking for what the text is talking about. I don't know though, it may be worth buying the game just to laugh at the tutorial. I sure had a few laughs. Keep your receipt for good measure.

Once we started a new game you select your location from areas all over the globe. You then select a designated set of land in that city to start your airport. Cost depends upon the proximity to the city, but the city brings people and money. After getting your area laid out, then you begin your building. You can pick pre-fab terminals or build a terminal from scratch. You then build runways, control towers, parking lots, roads, cargo and maintenance facilities, and airplane parking. Once you get your airport in place, you open up the runways and start business. 

While your airport is running, you approve contracts from airlines that want to use your airport for landing and loading. Some airlines will turn you down due to inadequate facilities or not enough consumer traffic. Listen to their complaints to avoid contract termination for the long term. Basically, once you set up your airport layout, you manage the money flow and watch the planes land and take off. 

I hate to slam any game. I personally know that games take long hours to make and you hate to make something that really gets terrible reviews, but I just can't help it with this game. The graphics are bad for a game that requires 3D acceleration. There is no landscape when viewing the planes fly, there are hardly any textures to the objects, and there is no detailed atmosphere about the entire game. The sound is also extremely annoying in my opinion. The background tribal dance elevator music really got to me after about 3 minutes. The airplane engine noise against tribal mating ritual music just doesn't seem to do it for me. The list of complaints is 5 feet long, but I believe you get the point. 

I will try to find a few good aspects about the game to smooth over what has so far been a disaster. The few things I liked were the camera views. You could follow a plane in takeoff or landing and also look out of the control tower. Another camera option that was interesting was the passenger camera that allowed you to follow a passenger around your terminal to board a plane. Some other features were the financial information that showed charts of your growth or non-growth. There were also financial options to change the fuel, car, and parking fees. Although these features were interesting at best, it did not come close for making up for the rest of the game.

I would not recommend this game to sim fans. There are far too many games out there that deserve your money. Whatever the name may be for this game…I would call it "refund."

Install: Easy. It doesn't give any options other than where to install the game. The poor intro movie takes up 20% of the space. 

Gameplay: 5 The menus on top were easy to understand, but the layout of the airport was cumbersome and annoying. 

Graphics: 4. I have no idea why you need a 3D video card for this game. 

Sound: 3. Tribal dance themes that repeat over and over. 

Difficulty: 4. Actually, if it wasn't for the cumbersome controls, then there would be no difficulty.

Concept: 7. Very nice idea. I wish they had pulled it off.

Overall: 4.5 I gave them this much because it deserves at least that much for the time spent on it.