Little Big City
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| Little Big City

They say that time flies when you're having fun. Hours can disappear in a flash when you're gripped by the spectacle of a blockbuster FPS, and an evening might race by when you lose yourself in an RPG epic.

Even though town-planning isn't the most exciting of pastimes, Little Big City is similarly adept at gobbling up hours of your leisure time.

The welfare state

Tasked with turning a teeny village into a sprawling settlement, you have to construct properties, collect rent, and invest in business in an effort to increase your income and population.

Enlivening this sandbox city-building is a mission system that offers optional objectives to complete for currency and XP. Your needy population might require six farm plots, for instance, or a particular resident may have a hankering for two European bungalows.

As mayor it's your job to indulge the whims of your electorate. And what a lot of whims they have.

XP gained from these missions feeds into a simple levelling system, which unlocks new structures as you rise through the mayoral ranks.

It's a formula that scales the difficulty smoothly, ensuring that your city is up and running smoothly before you're allowed to blow the entire annual budget on a football stadium.

Tap dat

This plain-sailing progress through Little Big City is barely challenged throughout the course of the game, though, and your interactions with the game are simple too.

Everything from collecting rent to harvesting crops is carried out with a tap of the relevant grid square, and a session with Little Big City can often degenerate into absent-minded prodding at your handset.

That's not to say that Little Big City is boring. It just has its own gentle rhythm that's untroubled by difficulty. Rather than carefully balancing your budget or micromanaging each block, you'll make soothing circuits of your city, tapping pretty much everything you see.

While it's not the most cerebral of city-sims, Little Big City's slick presentation, considered interface, and gentle gameplay make every visit a sedate pleasure. Time flies when you're having fun, but it also races by when you're mindlessly mesmerised.

Premium version reviewed. A freemium version of Little Big City is also available in certain markets.

Little Big City

It offers only the most gentle of challenges, but slick presentation and a well-designed interface make Little Big City well worth a visit
Score
James Nouch
James Nouch
PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013