We are big fans of Kairosoft over at Pocket-lint, their uber addictive formula of retro gameplay and graphics has had us while away many an hour on one of its numerous apps.

Recently released was Oh! Edo Towns and after a few days playing, we have to say it is one of our favourites. Complete with the usual cheesy music found in other Kairosoft games, a unique art style and some highly addictive town building mechanics, it is most definitely worthy of a download.

Oh! Edo Towns

Format

iOS

Price

£2.49

Where

iTunes

Oh! Edo Towns puts you in charge of building villages in Japan. Think of it like a simplified version of Sim City, without all the complex building zone laying. You start off simple, with a small plot of land and only a few residents to manage. Build vacant lots and wait until people start arriving, from then on the game starts to get seriously fun.

Once you have a decent little collection of chappies enjoying the delights of your simple yet likely barren village, you are going to want to start building fields, shops and all other types of entertainments for your citizens. The usual emphasis on upgrading and researching, as in all Kairosoft titles, is there. 

Every so often the game will give you a newspaper which prompts you as to the going ons inside your village. At first we tended to ignore this but things soon changed when the population of our village grew. In fact you can end up with so many people that you have a fully fledged tile based city to manage. Citizens need lots to stay happy and will leave town if not kept cheerful. You will also likely not gain many new people to live in your village unless you continually upgrade and micro manage things.

This means watching stuff like taxes, your economy, crafts and even combos. Tiles themselves affect each other so placing different objects near to different buildings will stack bonuses. This means you need to be careful where you put things in order to keep people happy. It is all about balance. 

The last thing worth mentioning about Oh! Edo Towns is the speed at which it gets going. You can boot straight into the gameplay provided the app hasn't been killed and saves load very quickly. This makes it the perfect title to pick at whilst on the train and well worth the £2.49 asking price. 

Fan of Kairosoft titles? Let us know in the comments below...