I hope you have plenty of time to lose because
developer Kairosoft is back with another sim
game to eat up the hours. In Mega Mall Story,
your goal is to take the small building you've
been given and turn it into a 5-star ranked
mall within the span of fifteen years. Sound
like an arduous task? Perhaps, but with the
help of your faithful secretary and some wise
investment, a great mall is certainly within
reach.
For as complex a game as Mega Mall Story is,
it sports a mostly intuitive control system.
Everything is a touch or a drag away, with
sometimes a double touch required to confirm
choices such as shop placement. Moving around
your mall can be annoying, and the double
touch system isn't fool-proof, but these issues
aside, the game is a breeze to play.
The flow of gameplay works like this. You
build shops in your mall that attract customers.
As a shop becomes popular it levels up and
can even create regular customers that spend
more money. To aid leveling up, shops can
research new items that will boost stock and
quality (at a higher expense). Researching
new shops and items costs hearts which customers
give you while using facilities such as rest
areas, or while being aided by the staff you
hire. Investing in property raises the population
of your area, ensuring more customers (that
can reach a fever pitch), and certain stores
put together will create combos that will
boost reputation and sales.
Each star rating on your way to five contains
a laundry list of prerequisites including
daily sales, number of stores, and number
of regular customers, so not only is reaching
these new star rankings a balancing act, but
expanding your mall to do so can be just as
difficult.
The sprite work on display here is appealing,
but sometimes it is hard to see what's going
on. The music is OK, but like most tracks,
can get quite annoying over time (and you
will be playing this quite a while if you
like what you see). In the end, fans of sim
games are going to love Mega Mall Story. It's
got loads of content, and an easy to use interface.
Perhaps more time could have gone into explaining
the game's mechanics in a tutorial, but once
you open your mall's doors, you might not
put your iPhone down until the fifteen years
have passed.
