Why we review every game in airplane mode

Before any game gets a rating here, we switch the phone to airplane mode and try to play it. It's the fastest way to learn what a game really needs from you.

Some games handle it gracefully — full offline play, progress saved locally, nothing lost. Others crumble the moment they can't phone home, throwing up error screens over a single-player level. That difference matters to travelers and anyone with unreliable signal.

We also watch how a game recovers when the connection returns. The good ones sync quietly in the background. The bad ones nag you or, worse, lose your last session.

This method has quietly become our favorite filter. If a game passes the airplane-mode test, it's usually built with some care.