Create A Mall is a $3.99 game in the App Store.  It reminds me of a cross between Sim City and a Tower Defense game.  The premise is that you have to build a successful mall.  Starting out with small shopping centers as a 3-level  tutorial, you build, and then upgrade, different types of stores in order to balance revenue with popularity.  It is this upgrade option that reminds me of upgrading towers in a TD game.  You can also destroy a store so that you can put something new in its place.

The game is going to offer the casual gamer a lot of play time.  There are a total of 30 different “levels” in six different cities.  As you complete each level, you are awarded money that you can use to upgrade or build stores as well as spend in the stores that you create.  You are also given trophies for meeting different goals.  These can be displayed in your office.

The unfortunate part of this game is that it seems to be geared solely to female players.  Doesn’t matter if you give your player name as “Daniel”, you will be referred to in the game as “Kelly” and playing as a girl for girly things.  When it comes time to purchase things, it seems geared towards women’s jewelry, women’s shoes, women’s blouses, and so forth.  Makes it kind of hard for a guy to get excited about. :)

I like the concept of the game though.  Although I’ve never played Sim Tower, I’d think that the game would appeal to more of that type of audience if it was either gender-neutral, or offered playing as a male character with sporting goods stores, electronics stores, hunting/fishing stores, and so forth.  If it added this, I could really see justifying a $3.99 price point.  As it is though, I’d only recommend it to those that really like things like Diner Dash or other girl-friendly time management games.