5 Reasons Why City Builders Are Great Games

I’m an avid player of city builders, I just can’t get enough of building towns. Not half a day goes by that I’m not checking on my Quahog or Springfield, and I’m constantly trying out others. My phone is literally filled with Angry Birds and city builders! So trust me when I say…

They allow you to express your individuality
The first few missions or goals usually force you to place certain buildings in specific locations. But when the tutorial ends, your personality can shine! You want the trees all placed to shape out a love heart? How about all of the houses being on one half of the map and the shops all in the other? It’s entirely up to you!

You get to spend time with beloved characters
With the success of The Simpsons Tapped Out, many IPs have joined them in the genre. And so we get to play with characters written by the writers of Family Guy and The Simpsons, as well as familiar characters such as The Flintstones and Spongebob Squarepants. We don’t have to watch reruns or wait for new episodes to air - we can just load up the app. And let’s face it, you would have a long wait if you’re awaiting new episodes of The Flintstones…

Sharing with friends
Most city builders allow you to visit other peoples’ towns, usually via Facebook-integration. This is great because you get to see how hard your friends are working, compared to you. You think you’ve done a great job making a garden for Adam West? Well your mate happens to have made an actual hedge maze and carnival for the Mayor of Quahog. Sure it might give you some ideas you’ll want to put into your own cities, but oftentimes you’ll just want to pop over and laugh at the fact that guy from school only has three houses and a shop, therefore you’re better than him.

Regular Events
Coinciding with holidays on the Gregorian calendar, many city builders (and many mobile and MMO games) hold events. Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day are three of the most popular days to base events around, where characters dress up or just have themed quests to do. These keep the game interesting, as you never know what might happen at any given time of year - perhaps one game will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, or another might celebrate Convention Season.

Quests help teach you restraint
I often want to fill an area with buildings - they’re the things that generate income, why wouldn’t I? Well, some quests require you to have a certain number of flowers or statues. If you blew all of your money and space on buildings, you can’t do the quest and get the reward! So you need to keep space free and funds available - it’s all a balancing act. You can’t run in guns blazing - there are no guns! So learn some self control!

If you’re one of the few people who honestly haven’t played a city builder before, I hope this list entices you to do so. They can be rewarding - or just a great way to waste time.