For all of us girls out there, and even some guys, I’m sure you’ve always wanted to create the ultimate mall…

Create A Mall
 ($3.99)

With this game, you can have your favorite clothing, shoe, electronics stores, all in the same place! Create-a-mall is the closest you’ll get to this, but without having to spend your own money. How awesome is that?

Presentation

The presentation of this game is nice and clean without a lot of bells and whistles. The graphics are clear and easy to read. I like that everything is on one page and there is no scrolling/swiping involved.

Controls

There really aren’t many “controls” in this game, however you have to get used to touching the correct button, especially if you have fat fingers, because you may end up spending money on the wrong thing. I’ve done that a few times and when you meant to purchase resources for $7,500 vs. labor for $30,000, you can really mess up your game! The tutorial does a nice job of showing you around all of the buttons however so you can get used to them without too much trouble.

Game Play

I love time management games, and this one is no exception. I feel that the level to difficultly ratio is done very well in that you don’t start out too easy, and it also doesn’t get too hard too quickly. That’s not to say that there isn’t any difficulty in completing the levels. There is definitely a good amount of difficulty which I think makes the game challenging, yet fun.

In the game, you are Kelly, an up and coming mall designer moving from town to town building and improving malls across the country. In each level you are given a scenario in which you must build the mall to the specification given by the local associate for the mall. Each level has certain goals that you must meet such as building a certain number of stores, complete upgrades, reach a daily income level or accumulate a certain amount of funds.

At the beginning of the game, you are introduced to the game through a tutorial. The first three levels, you are helped along with a step-by-step guide that helps you become familiar with the on screen controls and in-game play. The tutorial is very thorough and does a nice job of helping you along at the beginning of the game. Should you not want to take the time to go through the tutorial, you are able to skip it and get straight into the game. However, if you have never played, I would recommend going through it as there are some not so obvious things for you to learn through it.

Throughout the game you are thrown many different goals, with each one having a time limit. Each level has a different time limit and these are expressed as days. I like how no level is the same and that you really have to read what your goals are or you could end up going over the limit and not scoring extra bonus points. I did that a few times thinking I needed to build two jewelry stores when it was really two perfume stores!

Suggestions

All in all, this game is put together pretty well. I would suggest possibly enhancing the “bonus” section where you get to purchase products with points that you earn during the game. Perhaps make some unlockable levels when a certain amount of points are earned or extra time within the levels that you can purchase with the points. For the most part, this would just be an enhancement to an already enjoyable game.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. I’ve played through quite a bit of it and really enjoyed all of the levels. At $3.99, it’s a great buy as there are 30 levels of play BUT the price may put some people off. Personally, I think 99 Cent Games did a great job with this game and that you will thoroughly enjoy it if you like time management games!