My Country

A small step forward in city simulation gaming.

Some time ago, we were amazed by Cooper Media Corp's other game, Paradise Island. Broadly speaking, MyCountry can be seen as a more serious, more complex and deeper version of the former. Just don't lose sight that we're in a mobile environment: there may be a lot of options as we'll see below, but it's still a phone game so it has to be lightweighted.

The game's full of little surprises and achievements. You can paint a building to change its color, build warped houses and place odd sculptures. Likewise, you can make out-of-game quests to earn CountryBucks, the in-game currency, such as give the game a 5 star rating.

Although gameplay is more or less the same as any other simcitish game, MyCountry focuses on two specific topics: rising from lovely, small and domestic choices to not-so-lovely, large and influential policies; and an "eco·factor" which must be looked after as if it was money or energy. When you put off building ecological infrastructures means that things aren't being done in the right way. In addition, professionals will get a key role in your city, from the janitor and the taxi driver to the opera singer and the CEO, all will be needed. Hire them when you meet the required items to do so. When your city has grown enough, you can buy land tiles next to yours to multiply your building available area. Bigger and more complex structures are unlocked as you earn experience points. This could be a flaw, as makes the game more linear, but once you achieve third or forth level there are too many options and too much to do that you'll appreciate that your first level was a tutorial instead.

One important thing: the game's easy enough to not bankrupt the city if you don't want to, but keep in mind that the reset option costs 30 CBs ($1.49 including you've earned or at least not expended your initial points), so don't play too foolishly at the start. Try to be sensible and learn to play step by step.

By the way, it's free without ads, and there's no need to spend real money to play unless you want a fast and hasty growth. Sit and enjoy, mayor: you have a lot of work to do. Highly recommendable to every one with some spare time and a must have for every Android city simulator lover. As we warned at the start of the review, it's neither as complex as similar computer games nor as childish as other managing games we've seen before. Five stars.