Metropolismania

Mankind is searching for a new hero. People no longer talk to each other. Everything is done by electronic technology. In the town, talking has no meaning, only electronic communication.

Quirky, bizarre, and utterly Japanese?this is what life is like in Metropolismania. While Natsume?s endearing little import bears a striking resemblance to Sim City, it shares more in common with Nintendo?s ?communication RPG? Animal Crossing. No economics come into play?this is a city built mostly on relationship meters, chatting about sports and/or carrots, public approval ratings, and not-very-careful city block planning.

As the universally lauded Metropolis Maker, all togged up in a spiffy banana yellow suit and top hat, it?s your job to fight against ?convenience? by making friends and bringing people together to communicate. You accomplish this by building a city, chatting with all the inhabitants to placate their social needs and?in turn?convince them to invite their friends (lawyers, sushi bar owners, cavemen, aliens, etc.) to move in, too, ?til your city reaches its ?population target? and you progress to the next stage. Most of the game essentially involves extended errand runs?going from family to family, trying to figure out who can help you find the right businessman to move into town to solve another character?s complaint?and focuses on lots of repetitive (and weird) menu-driven chatter.

Compared to what you?re used to seeing on your fancy little PS2 device, Metropolismania will seem technically inept?the controls are awful (the already-unintuitive scheme changes depending on what item you have selected), the menu system is haphazard, the graphics are elementary PlayStation-level stuff, and whoever wrote the score clearly spent a lot of time in an elevator?but that?s obviously not the draw here. Once your city gets on its feet, and individual complaints about the lack of adult entertainment start kicking into bizarre high gear, the game can get pretty hectic and absorbing; and it?s actually kind of surprising how well you eventually ?get to know? certain personalities in the city. The game?s worth a visit for anyone whose ideal night of TV involves The Simpsons episode where they go to Japan followed by two Iron Chef episodes back-to-back. It is, however, potentially baffling to anyone else.

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