Airport Mania fans may wonder if First Class Flurry attempts to clone Airport Mania's success, but that would be comparing apples to oranges. Or should that be comparing supersonic jets to gliders? Anyway, Airport Mania involves directing and taking care of planes while First Class Flurry, like most traditional time management games, has players controlling a young girl - in this case, a flight attendant.
The story starts with Starlink Airlines doing what an airline does every decade or so: going bankrupt. The new owner wants to revamp and revive the airline and brings in her friend and top flight attendant, Claire, as CHO - chief happiness officer. Simple goal: Keep all the travelers happy including the sleepwalkers, ill and germ-infested passengers, parents with difficult babies, honeymooners, and snotty kids.
Claire begins her Starlink career on an economy class airplane. She also chooses one of four international locations (North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa) for all of her economy flights. Conquering a level requires meeting or surpassing the minimum score. You can also work to reach the expert level to show you have the right stuff.
Claire doesn't simply pick up and take items to passengers. Some require two steps, three steps, four. Most food items take two steps to make while sandwiches take three steps. By the time she works her way up to first class, she has to broil salmon and pour sauce on it. She deals with fewer passengers in first class, but oh those first classers are demanding!
Passengers also request pillows, masks, magazines, headphones, teddy bears. Oh, but wait, turbulence is coming. Drop everything and run to warn passengers, buckle a few needy ones, and sit down or else enjoy a whopper of a headache. This unexpected scenario changes the pace and challenges Claire to pick up where she left from before the impending turbulence.
The captain may also make an appearance. Drop everything again and get the captain a drink! After all, when he's happy, passengers' hearts fill, too. If the captain stays in his little cabin, you can use air freshener to raise everyone's happiness levels. But think strategy here - the perfume is only good for one spritz per flight.
As if that's not enough to manage, busy executives frequently lose their PDAs (handheld devices not public display of affection, mind you) and nervous women keep dropping their diamond rings. While Claire tracks orders and collects the trash, she has to keep an eye out for wandering jewelry and electronics to return them to their owners as well as wandering kids who want to annoy the passengers or cry because they're lost.
You know how most time management games let characters carry one or two items at a time? Claire starts with two, but she can upgrade to hold three and even four items - thank you, push cart! It's about time players have the opportunity to carry more things and make fewer trips.
Chaining comes with bonuses and you can easily click many actions ahead or cancel an item or an action. This feature works effortlessly except the couple of times you may not realize that a passenger gave up on waiting for you to deliver something. You're busy trying to think ahead that you don't realize your tray is full. All time management games should function like First Class Flurry does.
Casual games keep coming out with a diversity of characters in terms of gender and race. First Class Flurry takes it further and includes people from different countries, which is obvious from their clothing. What isn't as obvious at times is the food people order. The spaghetti, curry, and noodles dishes look similar. It takes time to get the hang of their slight differences (the tray, for one).
Upgrades. Those can be tough to do and First Class Flurry nails it. Upgrades help Claire move faster, increase passenger patience and waiting times, boost passenger happiness, and let Claire carry more items. On top of that, some upgrades come with options of their own. Floors and walls include three color choices. You may or may not be able to buy all the upgrades by the end of the levels for the specific plane class (economy, business, first, and royal first class).
Experienced players may find economy class and business class a breeze, but some early levels wreak havoc, so that should please the pros. When the airplanes fill up, it'll be harder to click the right spots with smaller spaces. Besides, there's much commotion with making food, delivering, finding lost objects, dealing with turbulence, and serving the captain, and with all the choices and action, you'll discover new things throughout the game. Many games stop surprising by the halfway point. Not here.
Sound and music blend well with the action to the point that the game has "positional audio." If a passenger sits on the left side of the plane, the sound comes from the left. Needless to say, this audio works best with two speakers or headphones.
Flight attending may not sound as exciting as controlling air traffic, but First Class Flurry engrosses from the first plane trip and doesn't stop. Try as you might, the game won't let you grow bored. The developers thought of everything, and First Class Flurry has it all - originality, variety, and a good upgrades system. So go have a grand time flying your way to Royal First Class... and beyond! Like we're going to tell you what that means.
Review by Meryl K. Evans
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