MetropolisMania $19.99 at EB!

[Scourge]

Has anyone heard of this? I was perusing Natsume's website and ran across it. Then at lunch I went by Electronics Boutique and saw it new for $19.99.

It looks to be a little more advanced than Animal Crossing, in that you have much more micromanagement control of your town, like say if you were the Mayor of your town in Animal Crossing. Here's Natsume's description:

"You’ve been given the job to create and maintain an entire city! You must create a city that attracts new residents, while keeping your approval rating in good standing! To do this you must interact with each and every citizen of your city. It is only through befriending the people in your town that you will be introduced to new possible residents.

Each member of your city has their own unique name and personality, as well as various issues that you must help them solve. Communication is the key...Metropolismania offers much more than just friendly greetings...conversations contain topics of discussion, quizzes and clues on how to help accommodate the other people in town. There are five different stages, each with their own unique theme.

Metropolismania offers a wide range of establishments to build…various businesses such as book stores, restaurants, banks, hospitals...residential housing such as apartment complexes, houses, condominiums...amusement facilities such as night clubs, parks, sport stadiums. There are over 200 different buildings!

· Over 200 unique businesses, residential houses and amusement facilities!
· Each member of the city has his/her own unique personality and wishes!
· A simple command set-up that makes the game playable for everyone!
· A 3-Dimensional environment with different viewpoints that make building and exploring easier!
· A variety of citywide issues to solve!
· Five different Game Play Stages!
· A challenging and humorous dialogue filled with riddles and quizzes!
· The game moves in real time with different seasons and weather conditions!"

I don't think the trading aspects of AC are very apparent and there certainly isn't any handheld crossover elements, but they are playing up the communication game angle. Sounds pretty cool. Anybody have any impressions?

--Scourge .

[Kidnemo]

Never even heard of it.

Would love for somebody to post impressions though.

[Andy]

Wow. No idea.

[burgundy]

I thought Natsume's take on Animal Crossing was Harvest Moon.

[Kidnemo]

Originally posted by burgundy
I thought Natsume's take on Animal Crossing was Harvest Moon.

Animal Crossing is Nintedos take on Harvest Moon you mean.

[Scourge]

Originally posted by burgundy
I thought Natsume's take on Animal Crossing was Harvest Moon.

Well, I think this sounds a bit closer to AC tho. I'm a Harvest Moon nut, which is why I was at Natsume.com to begin with.

--Scourge .

[James]

Been out for about two weeks, now that I think about it I guess it is kind of odd that nobody here had mentioned it. We're obscurity central and we let one go. Oh, the shame!

It's $20 and not too hard to get. Now all we need is someone with a spare $20 and free gaming time (ha!) to give it a go and write up some impressions. It's the "free gaming time" thing that's stopping me from doing it.

Passed on Road Trip ($20) too, thanks to the lack of time thing. Only seen the one copy, anywhere. I'm beginning to think that may have been a mistake, but once again I've heard absolutely nothing on the game.

James

[Scourge]

Agreed on that whole "free gaming time" thing. I'd have gotten it today if I wasn't up to my chin in games I'm playing right now. Might be worth getting for possible future play...

--Scourge .

[jiji]

I found GamePro's review (which I didn't pay much attention to - I mean, come on, it's GamePro), along with some screenshots:

http://www.gamepro.com/sony/ps2/game...ws/26364.shtml

Is it just me, or does this game have a seriously broken translation? Half the dialogue sounds like it came through the web-based translator at http://excite.co.jp/world/ . It looks kind of interesting otherwise, even if the art style isn't quite as pleasing to the eye as AC.

[Scourge]

:jest:

Man! That translation makes me want this even MORE!! That and that cute cop chick. Yowza!

And what the heck are you doing at gamepro.com??? For shame!

--Scourge .