After hearing good things about Tiny Tower and seeing developer NimbleBit’s response to Zynga ripping them off, I decided to see what all the hype was about. I had no idea what type of game Tiny Tower was but after a few minutes, I was reminded of games like We Rule and Farmville. The premise is simple: build more stores and apartments to expand your tower.
If I can sum up Tiny Tower in two words, it would be “simple” and “addictive.”If I can sum up Tiny Tower in two words, it would be “simple” and “addictive.” NimbleBit has crafted a balanced game that keeps you engaged by giving you small tasks throughout the game. You can deliver people to their designated floors for money, help look for people, and restock your stores. But the most devious way that Tiny Tower keeps you playing is the random appearances of “VIPs.” They are people with special powers that you can bring to any floor to help increase your business, take time off of construction projects, or decrease delivery time for your stock.
You can also use real money to buy virtual currency to speed up the development of your tower. While the game is free to play, NimbleBit is hedging their bets that people will pay real money for virtual currency. I have not yet had to resort to buying any virtual currency so it is possible to be successful in the game without having to spend real money. Patience pays!
Tiny Tower has a simple premise but has deep game play. Each bitizen has stats for what jobs he or she is good at, in addition to having a dream job. If a bitizen is put in their dream job, they will help you increase customers and increase your tips. There is also the “bitbook,” which is a Facebook parody for your bitizens. It is filled with hilarious status updates and is a good way to gauge how happy your residents are.
There’s currently no way for Android and iOS users to be friends and interact with each otherI found myself constantly delivering people to their desired level in hopes of getting a VIP that would help me increase my sales. It was actually my girlfriend, Anne, who turned me onto the game and we spent the better part of an evening playing Tiny Tower and ignoring each other, which brings me to one of the biggest gripes I have against Tiny Tower. There’s currently no way for Android and iOS users to be friends and interact with each other, nor does NimbleBit plan to introduce this feature in the future. There are gaming social networks like OpenFeint that are cross platform and it’s a shame that Tiny Tower doesn’t take advantage of them. iPhone users will have to use Game Center and Android users have to use the Mobage gaming social network.
Overall, Tiny Tower is a satisfying game with beautiful 8-bit aesthetics, witty writing, and engaging gameplay. I’ve a couple of my friends onto it and they’re hooked. Highly recommended.
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One response to “App of the day: Tiny Tower”
I’m definitely going to try this out.