iPhone Reviews 2.0

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New York Nights: Success in the City is a sim game by Gameloft. $0.99

[A Modified post from TheAppEra]

NY Nights was released before The Sims 3 and realistically had a small time space to crack the top 50 before The Sims 3 came along and made everyone who hadn't bought this forget about it. This sadly never happened and even with a price drop to $0.99 the game hasn't seen its own 'Success in the City'.

This game however is far from deserving its bad rap and sales. The game is super addictive, providing many hours of entertainment that is a lot different to The Sims 3. NY Nights strays away from free playing nature of The Sims 3 and provides a more direct storyline that you must follow to continue unlocking new areas and people. The graphics are more 2D and remind me of the popular online PC game Habbo Hotel.

As I just said above the graphics are 2D and very similar to Habbo Hotel. The graphics are perfect for this type of game, and there is actually alot of detail in the game. There are about seven locations to travel around in New York with multiple buildings and houses available to look inside around the city. They are bright and look fantastic, giving the real feeling that certain areas of New York provide.

The animation in this game appears everywhere, as people are dancing and talking and trying to stand up like a drunk person without you talking to them. There are people moving in all directions in all areas, again giving the feeling of being in a busy part of New York.

New York Nights is all about point and clicking and telling your New Yorker what to do. It is far from the engaging parts of The Sims 3, but uses the same type of set-up as what is in the majority of The Sims series. What sets this game apart from others is the absurd options that you can get at times. You get a chuckle when you try to make friends with a person on the side of the street but one of the options is to make the person drunk.

These controls aren't the best for all situations however. When in certain areas like on the dance floor it is incredibly clustered and trying to go to a certain place or do an action is more of a hit or miss in whether you get the option to pop up or not. Generally though this process works extremely well and is easy to pick up and play for the first time without the need to read up on how to use the instructions.

Take your New Yorker to the streets as they follow a life of either friendship or fame. As you venture through six districts of New York as well as various buildings you will find your character and your pathway. New York Nights gives you 40 game days to become as successful as you wish to be, but the main part of the game will take you considerably less.

The game follows a kind of career mode with 7 chapters to complete. Whether it is from paying the rent, getting your first job at the local nightclub or meeting the world famous Starlet, it will take you on an action packed journey with love, laughs and tears. There aren't really many choices you get to make in the way the story works out, with two endings that are irrelevant to how the game pans out. Still the first time you play this game and reach one ending I was convinced to complete the game once again to see what happens if I chose the other option.

Like in the Sims you have to worry about how your character is feeling in all different ways. You have many stats such as your body, your social state and how bad you need to go to the toilet. Maintaining these is pretty easy but how well you upgrade your stats will determine how people think of you in the town. The game is all about people a fun simulation game that is meant to let real New Yorkers relate to the feelings experienced in the town.

What I didn't expect in a game like this was quite a bit of comedy. Some of the quotes and sayings that come up in the chat between various characters is hilarious and would make the characters in Zenonia proud. When asking some people about their favorite game they confidently say that Asphalt 4 Elite Racing is absolute amazing. Another time I managed to talk a girl into saying that she starting hitting on another girl only to find out that it was a dude with a mullet.

The game actually has a decent amount of fun content to play around with. The career mode will take about 2-3 hours to complete, but what lets this game down is that once the career part has finished and you are left to explore New York there is absolutely nothing to do. Sadly the incentive to continue playing went out the window and I went onto other games like Asphalt 4 Elite Racing which has some of the coolest cars around!

For $1 New York Nights provides a great casual sim game that will guarantee to give you a good 4-5 hours of entertainment. The game is no where near the quality and class that The Sims 3 will provide you, but if you aren't looking for the A+++ experience then this will do you just fine. Of course the game is from Gameloft so quality is a given with them.

Great graphics, a straightforward storyline but with a lot of laughs is a basic wrap-up of what you will find in the center of New York. This is easily one of the best $0.99 games. This is one that you seriously need to consider picking up.