Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of variations on the freemium sim game on Android and iOS, with notable examples like Smurf Village, Tiny Tower, and so on. Happy Street is part of the same tradition, but in my experience, the very best one. Why? - The linear one-dimensional layout of the Happy Street city eliminates the two-dimensional "fiddliness" that a lot of these games have. You're not making clunky buildings fit on a map and building and re-building roads and paths; you just have to figure out what sequence you want to arrange the buildings and other monuments along the linear street, buying new land at one end or the other when needed. In fact, because of the bonuses that many buildings provide to neighbouring ones, it makes for some really interesting puzzles: Do you optimize your village for maximum income? Fastest levelling? Prettiness? Swapping the buildings around on the street can be interesting. - Like all freemium sims, there's a basic "coin" currency and a premium cash-based currency, in this case called "Flooz." However, *unlike* most of the others, the developers have been very conscientious about making sure you can progress just fine without feeling forced to pay real money at some point. The little bit of Flooz you need to do some high-demand stuff is easily gained through quests and mini-games, and the rest is really if you want to build the special holiday buildings which become available from time to time (Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Year, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and so on). The special buildings are fun, but not at all necessary in the game, and I found that through skillful play of the minigames I could even earn enough to buy a lot of the premium content. - It's cute. Really really cute. The dialogue in the quests is occasionally slightly off-colour, but nothing I wouldn't put in front of most kids. - It's huge. I'm at level 37, continue to level up at least once every week or two, and the new quests keep coming. A nice change from all those games where the levelling curve becomes almost vertical at some point. - It's fun. No other game like this has held my attention for even 10% as long as Happy Street has. At any rate, I highly recommend it. And if you don't end up liking it, it was free to download, so nothing lost.