Akroview

Who knew that running the Death Star was so tough. No wonder Darth Vader was trying to lure Luke over to the Dark Side, he wasn’t trying to rule the galaxy he was just trying to spread the workload of the Mos Espa bar.

TDS is essentially a business building game set in a universe far far away. Emperor Palpatine has come to realise that the Dark Side isnt earning enough revenue to keep the garrison running, so he enlists Darth Vader to turn the Death Star into a thriving residential area, complete with recreational floors, bars and lounge areas.

The game has gone with the current trend of 8bit graphics, I guess they are trying to say, oh look at us embracing the retro! Well, that’s what I think they say anyway, and that goes for all other games with an 8bit style,not just TDS. But in TDS it actually seems fitting to have this style. To see some of the most iconic characters in the universe stripped down to such a basic form of pixels is actually quite delightful to look at. It gives the game the humor that it sorely needs.

The gameplay itself is generic and doesn’t really have much to offer except that it has a Star Wars theme. It’s a simple tap this, wait x amount of minutes, collect money and repeat. The only thing that breaks the monotony sometimes is the snippets of scenes that you get to watch. One of my favorites being Jar Jar Binks latching his tongue onto the ceiling of the Mos Espa bar, breaking the ceiling and bringing Jabba the Hut crashing through the roof. All these scenes can be rewatched again at any time.

One neat little feature that can be a little unnerving at time is the inclusion of a background continual play mechanic, I’m not sure of the technical term for this, what I mean is, the game plays in the background whilst your doing other stuff. During the write up for this review I am also earning some credits, which are the games currency, these can be earned easily throughout the game, then there are Imperial Bux, this is the games most precious commodity. They are used to speed up building plans, and purchase luxury items. It costs real money to add more Bux or you could save money and just wait!

There is a ton of different levels to add to the Death Star ranging from the bars, karaoke, residential and even an ewok themed apartment! But it isn’t all about building the Death Star into a five Star residential area. You need to set up lower levels where the Galactic Empire conducts their evil business, this changes from time to time and usually involves a lot of credits!

The soundtrack to the game is great! A simple rendition of the Star wars theme song done in an 8bit polyphonic ringtone style. It blends perfectly with the game and is thoroughly enjoyable, after hours of play I still start humming the theme over and over!

Overall it is quite an impressive game, for an android app it boasts a wide array of scenes, characters and levels that any self confessed Star Wars nerd would love! Every time I tap into the menu to look at the rooms I’m gobsmacked at the vast array of levels, from every film in the series might I add!

A Star Wars game with a great soundtrack, cute little graphics, compelling and addictive gameplay and hours and hours of playability this is definitely a must download for those long bus rides to the Imperial Summit or Pod Races!

Tiny Death Star – 8/10

Android Play Store – FREE!