Virtual City Playground
SCORE: 75
Have you ever heard: "you get what you pay
for?" That is not always the case, but I feel it is that way with
Virtual City Playground. The iPhone/iPod Touch game is completely free.
Yes - FREE! This micro-management game can be fun, and it can also be
addicting. The first thing anyone notices about Virtual City Playground
is it wants to post every little accomplishment on Facebook. You just
built a mill. You just leveled up. You just spammed everyone on
Facebook.
So that is how Virtual City Playground remains free. It has the player
advertise for them on Facebook. It is unknown if this kind of marketing
ploy works. But if you start to lose friends, you might want to check
what you are sharing. The colors of the cities are fantastic in Virtual
City Playground. The details are decent.
The little people look okay. Players can zoom in if they like.
The music in Virtual City Playground is very soothing. That is until the
game keeps pinging you to share any little thing. It becomes extremely
aggravating for the consistent interruptions. Virtual City Playground
does a decent job of explaining what to do. Although the WMG kept
getting buses and trucks stuck places. For some reason the recycling
trucks never had a problem. hmmmmmmmm.
Yes Virtual City Playground teaches recycling. If you forget to add a
new building to the route, then the environment points will decline
immediately which will also lower happiness. Nothing like promoting the
green movement with a video game. Because there is no where else we are
being ordered to recycle. There are eighty-five optional quests, and
ninety buildings in Virtual City Playground. Many of them cost a lot of
city credits or invest points. Players can purchase them on iTunes or
wait a few hours.
Waiting for the game to build up enough money for something can be
maddening. What is worse is this game has a habit of getting vehicles
stuck inside buildings. Changing routes helped at times. The WMG once
had three buses at the shopping mall with no people. All the people were
in their homes. They were unhappy and the game told me to bring them to
entertainment like a shopping mall. The buses refused to leave the
shopping mall until I changed their routes. This
happened all the time in Virtual City Playground. You think you
are building this great wealth only to find out some snag hit a few
minutes after you left.
Where are the churches? Virtual City Playground tells us we can build
our dream cities. There is a Saint's Cathedral as a monument. What
really gets this reviewer's goat is there are buddists idols, statues to
science, and idols for other religions. No churches though. They should
have a little country church, and a medium size church, and a large
church. Yet that was forgotten. Why?
There are two problems with Virtual City
Playground after playing for a week. The first one is the invest points.
If you choose not to spam Facebook then you can not progress into things
like Landmarks. The second is loading times. Leave this game alone for a
day or more and it can take ten minutes or more to load the next time.
- Working Man Gamer
Graphics: 79%
Sound: 82%
Replay/Extras: 86%
Gameplay: 60%
Family Friendly Factor: 70%
System: iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad
Publisher: G5 Entertainment
ESRB Rating: ‘4+’ - 4+
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