The airplane-mode test we run on every game

People ask how we decide whether a game truly works offline, and the answer is embarrassingly low-tech. We turn on airplane mode and see what happens. That's the test.

But there's a bit more to it. We check three moments: the first launch, mid-session behavior, and whether progress survives closing the app. A game can pass the first and fail the third, which is the worst kind of surprise on a long trip.

We also watch for silent failures. Some games technically open offline but quietly disable half their features or refuse to save. Big Bass 3in1, for example, passed all three checks cleanly during our week of testing, which is why it earned a spot in the catalog.

You can run this yourself in two minutes before any trip. Install the game, flip airplane mode on, play for a bit, force-close it, and reopen. If everything's still there, pack it. If not, you've dodged a boring flight.