Venture Towns iOS Review

Kairosoft is becoming the Pokémon of the handheld industry if you have an iOS or Android device. If you own both, you can get the full range of their games but Venture Towns their latest title is only available on iOS.

Conceptually it’s similar to Oh! Edo Town by Kairosoft. In fact it’s very similar as there are only a few differences between the two. Players are given a small plot of land and enough resources to turn it into a rapidly-expanding city of destiny. This is done on a Sim City style grid, which allows for strategic city planning. From there, you manage resources to build buildings, attract residents, and become a legend. It’s a simple and fun concept that can quickly get out of hand.  Venture Towns is one of Kairosoft’s more difficult titles, but still doesn’t bog players down in too much complexity.

Every month players pay maintenance for all the buildings they own. Then, they are given another month to recover from that and make a profit. Failure to do so will drain their banks and ultimately lead to failure. This is pretty common with any simulation, but Kairosoft manages to find a unique way to do it.

The only real issues with this relatively air-tight game is that it’s so much like the others. Because of this it’s too easily compared to them and any omissions quickly apparent. Where’s the random travellers from Oh! Edo Town? What happened to Epic Astro Story‘s RPG feel? Why do I feel like I’ve done this twenty times before? The answer? Those were probably just Kairosoft’s theme of the week.

Rather than managing a large community with twenty million people, players will be managing around 25 residents. Each resident is unique to themselves and players are given very little direct control over them. Actually, short of building houses for them and choosing their employment, players have no control over these citizens. They can only hope and pray that the citizens have enough money and desire to go into the state-run casino they built for them rather than the cheap bakery.

Here’s what it boils down to. It’s a Kairosoft game and all of them are easily worthy of ten hours of your time, considering they cost less than five dollars each. Venture Towns doesn’t differ greatly to their other titles but has the same addictive gameplay.  If you are a newcomer, ask yourself if you would prefer to build a modern-era city, if not have a look at one of the other amazing Kairosoft games.

8 out of 10