$3.99
Kairosoft
We like the mall almost as much as Robin Sparkles, but we're even a bigger fan of just pretending we're going to a mall by playing an iOS game. Still better, designing our own mall. That's where Mega Mall Story comes in.
Mega Mall Story lets you design everything from the length and height of your mall to which companies are inside it, but for the perfectionists out there, that might not be the freedom you think it is. Your dreams of a 30-story videogame mall will quickly deteriorate as Mega Mall Story quickly sets requirements to level up that will constantly change the look and layout of your mall. That's okay if you don't mind winging it, but if you're expecting Sims-style customization you can just throw that idea out the window.
As you progress through the game, your mall collects hearts and money from happy shoppers. At the basest level, hearts are used to research new shops and money is used to buy them. But as you'll quickly learn, owning a successful mall isn't just about having good shops, it's also about developing an entire city around it. There's something perversely naive about the game's lessons as it teaches you to develop a quaint little park into an abomination filled with carousels and skywalk ways. When competing malls go out of business, your secretary exclaims how good it is that you'll get more customers. Meanwhile your gargantuan re-creation of Babel has helipads, subway stations, even an aquarium and clinic.
At the end of the game, which embodies a quick 15-year cycle, it adds up all the points for how many shops you unlocked, how many visitors you had, and how much money you made. My high score was 156,106, but I can't wait to go back and see how much better I can do on a second playthrough.
Despite the scandalous undertones, Mega Mall Story is well worth the money.
