Pros: The whole retro-feel has always had a soft spot in my heart. The simplicity of taking a step back and enjoying a game solely on pattern...

Cons: For people who grew up after the beginning age of video games, they may find the simplicity a turn off as well as frustrating with all the...

Pros: The whole retro-feel has always had a soft spot in my heart. The simplicity of taking a step back and enjoying a game solely on pattern recognition and music/rhythm/platforming is refreshing.

You play as what appears to just be a "paddle". And your objective is to deflect particles and send them away from your side of the screen. Think of it as a side scrolling rhythm pong.

The game rewards you with more exciting music and effects as you chain combos and perfect scores. At one point my computer started choking a little from all the effects!

Throughout the levels there are sometimes challenges imposed on you such as ones that shrink your paddle size, or others that force you to remember the order of which every particle has approached you, and so forth.

Should you start to falter and do poorly, the game deafens you with some chiptune cacophony as well as stripping all the effects and colors from the game, leaving you with a very blank environment.

Cons: For people who grew up after the beginning age of video games, they may find the simplicity a turn off as well as frustrating with all the stage memorization and repeating the same cycles over and over again to get a better score (or even to just pass the levels).

Pros: I don't think I've ever heard of the term freemium until Tiny Tower. At first I was wary about it because I wasn't sure if the "tower...

Cons: The tutorial suggests you use up your tower bucks to make your supplies restock faster (this is something you will almost NEVER do when you...

Pros: I don't think I've ever heard of the term freemium until Tiny Tower. At first I was wary about it because I wasn't sure if the "tower bucks" were a necessity to the game.

Turns out it isn't! So you can play the game entirely devoid of purchases, as the game strikes a nice balance of gameplay.

There is absolutely NO penalties whatsoever when it comes down to neglecting your game. Your Tiny Tower will still be there, waiting for you to restock the little stores, your customers will just leave blog posts on your BitBook. Which is great for a casual game!

However, underneath this cute pixelated exterior you'll soon learn that it seems to be a game where you are gathering indentured servants to make them pay rent and only work inside your tower (excellent...)

As your tower gets taller and taller, you'll find it takes longer and longer to construct buildings, which keeps you from sitting and waiting 13 hours with the game open. The game continues to play and operate in the background as well which is good so when you come back you'll always have gained something.

Some of your bitizens (as they call their tennants) will have dream jobs. Supplying them with a dream job will net you 2 tower bucks along with a doubled inventory which is great for prolonging the sales of any given shop.

With the latest patch that came out for this game. It included a new elevator that looked like it came out of Tron, along with the inclusion of COSTUMES! Now you can make your victims of labor, look unique and cute if needed.

Cons: The tutorial suggests you use up your tower bucks to make your supplies restock faster (this is something you will almost NEVER do when you actually play).

Pros: The second game released in America by Kairosoft brings about a big change from their first game (Game Dev Story). Now instead of being...

Cons: I found some random issues regarding building placement such as if you place certain rooms in random spots that seemed normal to you. They...

Pros: The second game released in America by Kairosoft brings about a big change from their first game (Game Dev Story).

Now instead of being confined into a single office, you now have an isometric view of a relatively small hot spring which you must help expand.

With the addition to this new perspective, you are given objects which you can place anywhere in this plot of land, which improves the condition and popularity of a given area.

Eventually as you become more popular (your visitors "level up" which gives them a bigger spending allowance) you will be given job propositions which will expand and allow new buildings, as well as new customers.

There are several publications you want to subscribe to to hope to become the #1 hot spring in whatever country you're from and continuously cater to their very needs.

Cons: I found some random issues regarding building placement such as if you place certain rooms in random spots that seemed normal to you. They may never get used. I had a tatami room that never got used in the 5 years that the hot spring was in action. It even had high popularity and fame but it did not help.

I found at times, I was always at the borderline of bankruptcy for several seasons regardless of how well I was doing, the monthly maintenance fees always seem to creep up on you.

I preferred the first game (Game Dev Story) over this one, due to it's simplicity and polish. But this game is still pretty fun, as the game can get very complex fast.

Pros: The very first Kairosoft game published (to my knowledge) and one that I picked up after a few months of it's launch when it was on...

Cons: Not much that I can say for cons. Other than that I wish they had more genres/staff members. But other than that, my War Dating Sims will...

Pros: The very first Kairosoft game published (to my knowledge) and one that I picked up after a few months of it's launch when it was on sale.

This was also my very first app purchase ever, which I have no regrets too!

Your job is to take your unknown game company and become world famous for your games. With your small staff of three you begin to create your games.

It'll start off pretty rough, with the game reviewers giving you 4.0/10 reviews and whatnot, but you'll slowly pick up on it over time.

Money management is incredibly important as well as picking the right staff member (you can even have a teddy bear as a hacker) for your team makes a world of a difference but be sure to not overuse them for the same tasks or they'll lose motivation and inspiration.

By the end of the game you should be so famous that you can roll out any two combination of games and still get on the Hall of Fame. It always makes me laugh when I make my War Dating Sim on the hall of fame, and produce 9 sequels after it.

Cons: Not much that I can say for cons. Other than that I wish they had more genres/staff members. But other than that, my War Dating Sims will live on in my heart.

Hurry up Game Dev Story 2!

Pros: The latest release in the Kairosoft games! For those of you unfamiliar with what kind of games they make, they're basically micromanagement...

Cons: This is also the easiest game they have ever released so far. Which can be a let down for some who loved the challenges that were apparent...

Pros: The latest release in the Kairosoft games! For those of you unfamiliar with what kind of games they make, they're basically micromanagement simulators.

The theme for this one, is owning and operating a mall while becoming the best one out there, tromping your competitors and forcing them to close shop (pun intended).

You start out as a 1-Star Mall with just only a few venues. As you become more popular you'll gain access to new customers, and buildings as well.

Placement of certain stores will boost their popularity allowing customers to spend more money or make more frequent visits. Who would want to go to a sushi restaurant in between a shoe store and a hardware store right?

Investing in your city around you is another way to bring in more revenues in the long run.

Like all their other games, they share pretty much the same engine with some improvements and changes.

Engine Improvements from what I've seen:

They changed the popularity system to function out of 100 points instead of a number that seemingly approaches infinity. After you hit 100 points you go into "Fever" mode, which means you should be expecting a horde of hungry customers itching to throw their money at you.

Shying away from the traditional grid structure that had a z-axis. They resorted to keeping things simple with just a X and Y-axis.

Again, a very easy to play game which does not require heavy time investment is what makes these games so popular. Not to mention a small price tag for this too $4.99, quite a steal for something to carry around with you.

Cons: This is also the easiest game they have ever released so far. Which can be a let down for some who loved the challenges that were apparent in many of their other games (especially in Pocket Academy).

You may find yourself wishing the mall nearest you was anything as awesome as the ones you have designed.

Pros: Final Fantasy Tactics was a very challenging experience for me. It was the first time running into a game that had it's enemies level up...

Cons: If you don't equally level your characters, you will find yourself getting overwhelmed by the group of monsters that have been leveling...

Pros: Final Fantasy Tactics was a very challenging experience for me. It was the first time running into a game that had it's enemies level up alongside with your own characters (which meant that your new characters could be seriously underleveled with respect to your main ones and the enemies).

The job class change system was one of the biggest draws for me. Being able to change the appearance of your character, and acquire new skills and abilities that could be carried over back onto other classes made for customizing to be very key for winning fights.

The story is nicely presented with a few twists here and there and gives you the option to make decisions that will affect how other characters perceive you.

Graphics are brilliantly hand drawn sprites that show a level of detail that I did not expect from a 2d + 3d game.

The battles took place on a grid-like map and each character takes their turn to move. Proper placement of your characters was a big thing for battles, (characters more prone to knocking back an enemy were best suited to chase after enemies standing by cliffs). But you have to be careful about your own characters' lives as it was my first time seeing an RPG with permanent death implemented.

Cons: If you don't equally level your characters, you will find yourself getting overwhelmed by the group of monsters that have been leveling alongside with your highest leveled characters.

A few dialogue quips here and there and poor translation at some parts, but nothing that would be game breaking.