Create a Mall from 99games is now available on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Developer: Roiworld
Price: $3.99
99games Website

You play as Kelly setting out to create or improve malls wherever she goes.  Kelly visits different cities and helps malls by building and improving stores within them.  It’s all pretty simple, each mall has several slots where you can build a variety of stores.  The stores are generic: shoes, clothes or perfume.  You can also building entertainment spots like restaurants or theaters, or buy upgrades for the malls like elevators.  Each store or entertainment location can be upgraded to help bring in more customers to the store, thereby bringing in more money.

Now each time she gets to a new mall location, Kelly gets a task to complete for the mall, like trying to bring in a certain number of stores, or a specific amount of money.  They’re not particularly difficult challenges, but there is a ‘medal’ completion time limit for each level, which can be fairly tough to reach.  I found that in a group of challenges for a city I might be able to meet the medal requirement for one, maybe two of the six, so there’s plenty of reason to keep trying to play if you’re still having fun after you’ve beat all of the missions.

The game ramps up steadily instead of dropping you straight into the challenges without any information.  So for the first few challenges you’re learning how to place and upgrade stores, how to build plans for new stores and buy resources so you can keep building stores or buying upgrades.  Then, at what I felt like was a bit of slow pace, the game unlocks new plans for new stores, entertainments or mall upgrades.  I really found myself wishing that I was able to pick up the pace with new store types at least once I got the hang of things.

One of the nice touches, aside from the different levels of challenges (from meeting the basics of the challenge requirements, or trying to earn the medal), is the ability to earn trophies for Kelly’s office, as well as buy items from the various types of stores she can build.    If you buy clothes or accessories, you can change Kelly’s appearance in the game, which gives a nice customization to her character.

Overall if you’re a fan of time management styled games, or city builders, then this is definitely worth checking out.