X City

Summary

Create and design your own city with X City. You have to make sure that the people living in your city are happy and well fed.
If you’re feeling imaginative X City might be the thing for you!

Paulina is a high school student and the author of today’s review. Thanks, Paulina!
 

Test device: HTC Desire Z
Root: No
Runs as of Android version: 1.5

If you’re playing for the first time you will have to register using your Googlemail account. Once you hit ‘Play Now’ you will found yourself at an intersection situated on a small plot of land. There are a few houses, a church and some farmland—the rest is up to you. First things first: you have to name the little town. Then it’s time to meet your personal assistant: a young lady named Anny (find her by tapping the button indicated by the arrow on the left). Anny is there to assist you in your urban planning endeavours. Your first mission is to build a house; to do so you must hit the ‘Buildbutton’ and then select a house model from the menu.
As soon as you’ve made your selection the house will appear on the plot of land and you can relocate to wherever you’d like to have it. When the outlining turns to yellow you will know that you have enough space to build the house on the location you’ve chosen. If you want to speed up the process you can click on the house and then pay a small fee; the house will then be completed straight away.

Once you have completed this first task Anny will show you what’s next on the list… And that is to buy a field which you will then have to plant in order to harvest fruit. The fruit can then be sold to the citizens.
‘Building’ a field is very similar to building a house (same menu, different category). The plants will grow automatically once you’ve selected and sown the seeds. Just tap on the screen to harvest them once they are ripe.

You will receive money as well as bonus stars every time you sell produce in the store. You can earn extra money buy collecting rent. A bag with a dollar sign lights up above a building every time a rent is due. You can click on the house and pay a small fee if you want to collect the rent straight away.
Most of the game’s functions and features are self-explanatory seeing as tell-tale symbols light up for most things.

When the time is ripe and your town or city is pretty much under control you can check out the menu that harbours information about the town/city. To do so tap on the name of the town/city located on the top left. You can then see how many people live in the town, how much money you have and how your citizens feel about their town.
You can also change the sound settings here.

Throughout the course of the game you will receive friends and have the opportunity to visit their cities so that you might help them and receive gifts in return. Your reputation will grow each time you help one of your friends, and in turn you will earn more points that will allow you to make more building.

Bottom line:
X City is designed very loving and with great attention to detail. There are lots of fun functions and buildings to play around with. The game is diversified enough to keep you entertained for a while.

 

There’s no read to read tedious how-to instructions when playing X City—Anny is there to assist you and to tell you how things work bit by bit. Every time she tells you something new a window pops up revealing an illustrated explanation of what to do next.

The game is in English only but there are lots of symbols to help guide players.

The ‘Buildbutton’ is your main gateway for making new buildings. Buildings are split up into categories.
There’s also the information button (the name of the city on the left) and the friend button on the right. Hit the friend button in order to check out your virtual friends and see how you might help them. You can also invite real friends (via Yahoo! Or Gmail) to play with you.

Hit the envelope in the bottom left corner in order to view your messages.

X City runs very smoothly—it didn’t crash or lag at all.

X City can be downloaded for free from the Android Market. It’s a great game with lots of details and it’s free—what more could you ask for?!