Aerobiz

Aerobiz Air Management: Ōzora ni Kakeru
North American Super NES cover art
Developer(s)	Koei
Publisher(s)	Koei
Series	Koei Executive Series
Platform(s)	Super NES Sega Genesis Sharp X68000
Release date(s)	Super NES: JP April 5, 1992 NA February 1993 Sega Genesis: JP November 1, 1992 NA 1992 Sharp X68000: JP November 20, 1992
Genre(s)	Business simulation game
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer (up to four players)
Media/distribution	Super NES or Sega Genesis cartridge

Aerobiz (エアーマネジメント 大空に賭ける^?, "Air Management: Ōzora ni Kakeru") is a business simulation video game for the Super Nintendo, Sharp X68000 and Mega Drive/Genesis game consoles, released in 1992 by Koei.^[1]

Summary

As CEO of a budding international airline, the player has a limited amount of time to expand their business to become the industry leader against three other airlines (either AI-controlled or human opponents). The player has an amount of control over how their airline develops, such as the name, investments, what routes to fly, plane purchases, and other various aspects, while at the mercy of world events such as politics (for instance, if the player runs his or her airline out of Moscow, he or she can initially only buy Soviet planes and will have a harder time negotiating with Western nations) and natural disasters. The player can also get the company involved in peripheral businesses such as hotels and shuttle services.^[1]

The sequel Aerobiz Supersonic was released in August 1994 for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis. The player is presented with a wider variety of options in nearly everything, but the game play is much the same. Another sequel known as Air Management '96 was released only in Japan for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation.^[2]

Gameplay

Aerobiz features two timeframes to play the game through: 1963 to 1995, and 1983 to 2015. After selecting the timeframe, the players then choose a city for their airline's headquarters. This allows a certain amount of handicapping: some cities, such as New York, London, and Tokyo, start the player with many airplanes and a large amount of money; others, such as Lima, Nairobi, and Honolulu, start the player with only a couple of airplanes and a small amount of money. The players then select a difficulty level, which affects the amount of passengers, world events (and the reactions of the passengers to those world events), and the win conditions.

The gameplay is superficially straightforward: players negotiate for access slots at each airport, buy airplanes, then open routes and start business. After each player has made their desired moves, the game shows any world events that affect the players (for instance, a labor strike will delay shipments of aircraft from that company, while the Olympic Games will boost traffic worldwide, particularly to the host city). The game then shows the results of direct competition between airlines flying the same routes, then the quarterly results of sales, expenses, profits, and passengers flown. After the January-March quarter of every year, it also shows annual results.

The game is won by the first player to achieve the win conditions: link all 22 cities and carry a certain number of passengers (between 2.5 million and 4.5 million, based on difficulty level), all while remaining profitable. If a player goes for four quarters with a negative balance, the company is declared bankrupt and offered reorganization. If the game goes for 32 years (128 turns) without any player meeting the win conditions, the game is called a loss.

Newsworthy Event

In a 1994 contest sanctioned by TWA, 16 year old Michigander Rich Baldwin bested the game in only six moves. Twelve years later, Baldwin died in a horrific plane wreck when the Cessna 172 he was piloting crashed into the Northern Michigan woods near Escanaba. Autopsy results indicated that Baldwin’s blood alcohol content was .476 when he died (just .001 less than famed country music singer Keith Whitley at the time of his death). First responders on the scene reported that Baldwin was actually strapped into the pilot’s seat backwards leading investigators to question whether Baldwin was trying to fly the plane with the soles of his feet. Found on his person, the manual to Aerobiz.^{[citation needed]}

Cities

Airplanes

References

External links

• Aerobiz (Super NES) at GameFAQs
• Aerobiz (Sega Genesis) at GameFAQs
• Air Management: Ōzora ni Kakeru (Sharp X68000) at GameFAQs