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May 28th, 2009 
Daniel Scott 
**It’s my birthday. I forced Superbad to get this game reviewed and now you can download it for FREE!*
The battle to become a mafia kingpin has hit the iPhone! Start a mafia with your friends, run the crime business, and fight for respect.
Mafia Wars (Free)
Zynga ports their popular Facebook and MySpace app to the iPhone/iPod Touch. See screenshot and add me 8702 3531 75!!! Check out Superbad’s hillarious take on this game as well.
Superbad’s Take
Hey! Daniel is really is addicted to this game. He would NOT stop babbling about it. He asked me if we can cover it, and I obliged. Who am I to turn down Mr Birthday boy. LOL. But seriously, if our lead reviewer pushes for this game to get reviewed, you should ask yourself WHY you do NOT have it?!
My Take
Sigh. A buddy of mine asked me to join his Mafia on Facebook one day. I did and I didn’t quite understand what was going on and how to play, but it looked like fun. Then, I asked him what he did this weekend, he replied “Played Mafia Wars.” That couldn’t be it. He didn’t sit there and play it all weekend! Sure enough, he did. He was hooked and was working on me to play the game with a plethora of emails about helping him fight another Mafia or whatever. It was then I decided to take a back seat and not play the game for the fact I could waste a weekend like he did, very easily. But then I found it in the App Store, and free just like the Facebook App. Why not give it a try? Sadly, I went downhill from there and I haven’t stopped since 2 weeks ago, plus I ramped up my playing on the Facebook app as well. Hook, line and sinker.
Presentation
I’m going take a different approach to the game and compare the two apps for those who only play the game on Facebook but have a iPhone/iPod Touch. The art is completely different from the FB app, more of a Grand Theft Auto 3 look but heavy in the Kill Bill Vol.1 colors. Given the theme of the game, everything revolves around heists, holdups, smuggling, fighting, etc. All this is going on with 550,000+ people at the same time. In comparison the web version has a lot of bells and whistles as compared to the iPhone app.
Game Play
The user interface is clean, and easy to navigate. From the main page you can get to the jobs, weapons, properties, doctor and fighting. It’s basically the same play condensed with a few elements missing. You create a character. Either a Brawler, Criminal, or Mogul. Weird part is the criminal is a ninja, or at least I am a ninja in the game (I didn’t know ninjas used guns either). Go do some easy jobs to make enough money for your weapons and defense. From there you have the option of fighting other characters from a pool of players online at anytime. All this while gaining experience points to level up and unlock more content, vehicles, new weapons, new jobs. There’s always something around the corner waiting to be unlocked.
On the option of fighting, it’s a crap shoot just like the FB app. Either you fight the smaller mafias for the smaller dollar amounts (more of a chance to win) or fight the bigger groups, possibly getting lucky and winning more dough. The problem is you could win some or lose some, and your health will decrease either way. You do have the option of paying a doctor to fix you up, but for a fee. It seems as if it’s based on a percentage of the money you have in the bank. So if you are rolling in the Benjamins, the doc will take his portion.
Down the road you start to accumulate more money, more weapons, and more vehicles requires upkeep. That means you will be buying properties to offset the upkeep costs. Thus creating an even further tangled web just like if you really got involved in a real organized crime, it just sucks you in and the different areas fund each other to keep your books balanced. Or is that bookies? 
Build your mafia like you would in on the web, except the profiles are separate on the iPhone. Quick tip: Search on Twitter and/or Facebook for profiles, they are always on there and plenty of them to build your family fast. Post your profile and you will be added, guaranteed.
Your character does start out with a good amount of Godfather points. Those can be used to refill your energy, regain your health without paying the doctor, refill your stamina, even add more mafia members. But Godfather points are hard to come by, unless you are willing to pay for them in the app store. Very pricey for a game! So if you are desperate to gain an edge, be ready to cough up the real money for the points! Zynga recently had a 20 Godfather points free app posted and of course I used it up already. Does a bear crap in the woods?
The Cons
For some reason the iPhone app and the Facebook app don’t interact. I’m surprised about that. I figured Zynga would be able to pass the action back and forth from the web app to the iPhone and vice versa. Mafia Wars pushed to your mobile would be a strong argument.
I’m mixed on this perk. If you create a new profile on the iphone app, you are able to get an elusive iPhone Bomb added to your loot in Facebook. That’s cool, but I own two devices and it’s a 1 to 1 ratio on the special loot. Yeah it’s cool to have, but I should be able to have two phone bombs or at least gift one to someone.
There are elements missing as I noted. Here’s a few not included from the Facebook app:
- No bank to store your cash. Cash is open season for everyone, although harder to empty depending on your beefed up profile.
- No special or limited edition loot to collect while fighting, only money. Saying this, there’s no collections to vault, no gifting your mafia members who are collecting stuff as well.
- No special achievements, like the Napoleon Complex (that cracks me up, nice analogy)
- No true mastering of jobs or tier levels of jobs or boss fights per tier. It’s all lumped together.
- No robbing either. It’s in “beta” on the web version, whatever that means. But saying this, there’s no pillaging someones properties either where a good amount of money can be made.
There are more parts missing I’m sure, but the good news with iPhone apps, they can be updated and it won’t cost you anything. Zynga seems to be testing the iPhone waters with this app and fine tuning the gameplay as feedback comes through. We should expect some more content at regular basis.
Conclusion
Free is good. I’d tough it out and not buy any Godfather points and earn it the hard way. It’s crack on your iPhone and when you start, you will be checking your status a lot. If you are like me and was gun shy on the app, take a dive and you’ll be hooked.
Birthday Joke
Obviously, if you’re dumb as a stick and didn’t get it, the game is free and will FOREVER be free. The real birthday contest is coming up around 7-8 PM PT tonight.
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