When playing a Kairosoft game, it's easy to see the influence of the sim games that have come before, especially Will Wright's Simcity. Venture Towns feels very close to Simcity, just with more of a personal focus... and don't get us wrong, this isn't a bad thing at all.

Instead of just building a city, you're behind the reins of a mega-conglomerate, creating a community for its employees to work, live, and prosper. Through building vacant lots, shops, amusements, and offices to find jobs for your citizens, the town attracts more people and grows. The interface is similar to all Kairosoft games, as well are the majority of the mechanics. You spend research points and money to research new shops, combos can be created through shop placement on the street, and the citizens themselves have stats that grow as they spend more time living their day to day lives.

Unlike some of the other titles, there aren't really goals to work towards here. Oh sure as you grow, your community changes name and new options become available, but there seems more of an organic discovery to how the game progresses, which will probably please some, but frustrate more goal-orientated players. Also like their other games, because of the detail and size of the screen, you can find yourself placing items where you didn't want to, and tapping on the wrong person or building to access their information.

In the end, Kairosoft has a reputation for making addictive sim games that contain an astonishing amount of depth. Fans of the genre will find themselves yet again glued to their iDevices, and if you're a new comer to these games, wondering what all the fuss is about, well Venture Towns is as good a place to start as any.