Aero Porter (Nintendo 3DS) Review

In Aero Porter the player starts out as a new employee at a small local airport and the job is to make sure all the baggage is loaded on the corresponding flights. To accomplish this, up to seven carousels must be managed, either raising or lowering parts to move the luggage up or down. Once on the right carousel, indicated by matching colours, the option to choose to load them on the aeroplane before it takes off can be taken. If one is completely empty, the flight will get cancelled and a hefty fee needs to be paid. It's a good idea to at least have them partly loaded to prevent a cancellation but ideally everything should be loaded on the corresponding planes. If managing to achieve this, bonus cash is awarded and if able to get consecutive perfect take offs, combos that yield even greater bonuses can be scored, including aeroplanes for a personal hangar.

Additionally, activating StreetPass and passing someone with the game whilst on the road will send a plane to their airport, earning them additional money for a successful take off with that particular aircraft. Unless a lot of big mistakes are made, there is never a shortage of money, so this feature is relatively useless. The carousels are powered by a generator and an eye must be kept on the remaining fuel. Consumption of fuel can be influenced by changing the speed of the carousels or the amount of activated lights. Restocking reserves regularly is crucial because you still have to make sure the fuel tank reaches the generator at the bottom of the carousel.

While the first few levels aren't particularly challenging, it does get incredibly hard and stressful later on. As the airport is expanded, there will be more carousels, flights, and luggage to deal with. If that wasn't enough, politicians or even the president himself demand special treatment that requires full attention.

On top of that, there are also the occasional suspicious packages and even bombs to deal with. If there are not disposed of quickly, they will explode. If that happens, you might as well delete the save file and start over because after an incident like that it invokes an extreme handicap, yet the same tasks as before still need to be fulfilled. While it does add some sense of realism to the game, it's just a ridiculous game design choice that absolutely shouldn't have been added, especially one that already gets overwhelming and frustrating on its own.