Our
understanding of air-traffic controllers comes mostly from Hollywood
caricatures of chain-smoking radar jockeys, so it's hard to say whether Air
Traffic Chaos
accurately simulates a modern control tower. But accuracy be damned, this game
is faithful to the legend. With relentless difficulty and an unforgiving pace, Air
Traffic Chaos
forces you into the twitchy, overstressed mindset of airplane disaster movies.
The
game mechanics are simple: You tap a plane's call sign on the DS touchscreen
and choose a command—e.g., "Clear Takeoff"—which plays out on the
top screen's airfield view. Along the way, Air Traffic Chaos stokes your rage with
annoyances like slothful tow-truck operators and hotshot pilots who don't even
bother to look out the window before slamming into the 5:45 from Seattle. A
fixed-zoom perspective makes it tough to keep track of land and air
simultaneously, but that isn't a major hindrance, as the skies are pretty
peaceful. It's the situation on the ground that really makes your onscreen "stress
meter" climb, as you shepherd planes through a limited number of gates and
taxiways. You aren't managing the air; you're managing the concrete.