Billed as the “most realistic flight simulation game ever created,” Airplane Mode is not exactly what you’d think it is. Produced by AMC Games, Airplane Mode recreates an actual flight experience in real time as a passenger.

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The player takes a seat in economy class for a long-haul flight and must find things to entertain himself or herself, or at least keep busy. Game designer Hosni Auji included every imaginable inflight detail, including an aircraft information card, inflight magazine, occasional crying baby, public address announcements, flight delays, turbulence, intermittent Wi-Fi and more. The magazine contains readable articles, ads, sudokus and other puzzles. Seatback video screens can play old movies, safety videos and a flight tracker.

Players can also dig through their carry-on bag for books, headphones or other things to help pass time. Looking out the window provides satellite images of the flight path.

There are meal services, but I don’t have the details on the depth of food or the ordering and eating process. I also don’t know about the possibility of interacting with other passengers, other than potentially cringing at a crying baby.

Airplane Mode is described as 90 percent serious and 10 percent tongue in cheek. Auji said, “While there have been 30-plus years of flight simulation games, the passenger experience has never really been taken into account.”

The game features only two flights for now. There’s a six-hour flight from New York to Reykjavík, Iceland, and a 2.5-hour flight from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Despite not being released yet, the growing buzz has sparked interest in adding more flights.

I don’t know how scoring works or even if there is any type of scoring. Game testers cited the goal of the game as attaining calmness, although some described it as amusing torture.

I immediately thought of playing Airplane Mode to pass time while on an airplane. Then I wondered if Airplane Mode had a feature where the passenger in the game could play Airplane Mode, thus creating my own version of the Droste effect. Either way, there is always room for new ways to pass time on a flight.

— John Wroblewski, online writer