In a nutshell:

Play out your fantasies of being a mayor in this Sim City knock off that’s surprisingly solid.

What’s it good for?

Building a city, recovering from disasters, tweaking imaginary taxes… you know, the usual.

Judgement time…

Recreating Sim City is no easy task. The game’s combination of a complex algorithms and simple control is tricky with only a direction pad and number keys at your disposal. Still, MegaCity Empire: New York makes a healthy attempt.

Its simple control structure is intuitive, and rather than struggle with buttons for each building category, tapping the central key opens up multiple choices for the games many actions – building or otherwise.

It’s possible to tap into the game’s deeper workings too, although the charts and graphs you’ll see are more simplified than in sim-games on desktop computers, or even consoles. Everything on-screen is designed to be simply understood – no tiny icons or cramped graphics here – and the game is better for it.

As well as a Free Play move, there are levels with steadily progressing objectives. From increasing the population of a city to re-building its infrastructure after a disaster, MegaCity constantly offers a challenge while keeping the action varied.

Of course, this is a sim game, so there’s little in the way of button-bashing or fast action. It’s all slow paced, think-before-you-click stuff, but if that’s your thing, you’ll love it.