Previous Next

On the face of it, being an air traffic controller is one of life's easier jobs. After all, the sky is pretty big and it can't be that difficult to tell a few big-headed pilots whose turn it is to land. One mid-air collision, two near misses and innumerable avoidable delays later, I was left to reflect on where I had gone wrong. And that was on the easiest level!

Kennedy Approach is one of the most exciting and challenging simulation games I have played. The main argument about flight simulators and the like has always been that they are boring. Very realistic maybe, but definitely boring. Not so with Kennedy Approach. There always seems to be one thing more happening than your brain can cope with!

The first thing you notice is that the game talks to you. A lot. Every time you tell a pilot what to do, the pilot converts your instructions into speech. "F, one, zero, one six. Turn right. Heading one eight zero. Descend to four thousand feet." "Roger," comes back the reply. The speech is perfectly intelligible with a built-in static crackle.

You issue instructions to a particular plane by moving a cursor over it and pressing the fire button. Moving the joystick sideways alters the direction that the plane is flying whilst moving it up and down changes the altitude.

Altitude on screen is depicted by the number of dots under the plane, each one representing a thousand feet. This gives a pseudo 3D effect to the controller.

When everything is clear and the plane is in the correct position, you can tell it to land at the appropriate airport. After one successful landing (beginner's luck?) my next nearest attempt was the middle of the field somewhere. You are also supposed to make planes take off, but I never created sufficient space the airfield.

There are five different airfields to choose from with varying weather and volumes of traffic conditions. Occasionally, emergencies occur such as a plane running out of fuel and these then have to be accorded top priority. The game lasts for the duration of a shift; after which, you are assessed on the quality of your work.

When I was a kid I used to go plane spotting at Manchester Airport. Listening to and playing this game brought the memories flooding back.

A throughly enjoyable game that can be recommended to ex-plane spotters and simulation fans everywhere.