Rip Them Off

[h1][b]★★★☆☆[/b][/h1] First and foremost: this is a mobile game, so its interface and the pacing is build as one. It is also cheaper on iOS (4 euros). A stylistic tower-defence game that lacks a lot of room for the player to explore, leading to a lot of trial-and-error. Each level consists of a street or more with adjacent buildings. You've to figure out which store will be active in the preset buildings so that every customer eventually emptied its wallet by the end of the street. There are no differences between the pedestrians. If they walk on the same side of the street, they'll all have the same amount of money and they'll walk at the same speed. They'll go into the store if there's room. The differences between the stores are the capacity, speed and income. How do you know what kind of store you'll need? Just choose one and see if it did great or not... Or just click the '?' and click the lightbulb for the hint... Without any notification of how many pedestrians are ...

This game bills itself as a puzzley tower defense game, but is none of the above. The way to solve each "puzzle" is to guess correctly at what kind of shop should go where, and when to upgrade them. There is no strategy or clue decoding. There is a help button that tells you the correct answer, and that's basically it. Tower defense games give players choices and tradeoffs. Puzzle games give players the tools they need to solve the puzzle. This game gives players a bunch of things to try. Pros: The music is nice. The flavor text is sometimes amusing. Cons: It's not fun. I have trouble imagining anyone finding it fun.

It's a short game with great flavor and great music. Gameplay can be confusing and lacking depth, the abstractness requires more to go on before it just leads to frustration. Get it if it's sale or if you like the flavor on the box.