TouchArcade Game of the Week: TheoTown

The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best” thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.

These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.

Without further ado…

TheoTown

The “premium city builder” has been something of a unicorn in the mobile world. The nature of simulation games just lends itself too well to the free to play style of gaming, and even the granddaddy of the genre SimCity is only available in a supremely free to play form on mobile. Those who have wanted to simply plunk down a chunk of money for a city builder and get everything in one package have had very little choice over the years. And then last summer Pocket City arrived bringing with it a fully premium, no IAP, made-for-mobile experience that, while not the most challenging or strategic of games, did offer a lot of city-building fun with none of the free to play filler. I actually LOVE Pocket City for what it is, but if you crave something with more strategic chops and a heartier challenge, TheoTown ($5.99) has finally made its way to iOS after a five-year run on Android to answer that call. This is the trailer for the Android version which is essentially the same as the iOS version and should give you a good idea of what TheoTown is all about.

The funny thing is that on Android TheoTown actually IS a free to play game with ads and IAP, but on iOS it’s a one-time purchase with no IAP. I’m not sure if it used to be paid on Android and simply switched to free to play because that’s more conducive to that market or what, but I appreciate that the iOS version is a pay-once title. As for the game itself, this is very similar to something like SimCity 2000 with hints of Cities: Skylines, and is filled with pretty much any of the features you could want from a full-blown city building game. It can be a bit overwhelming when you first start out, but you can check out the official website for a few hints as well as a link to the game’s Discord where I’m sure you can find an answer to any questions you may have, or you can hit up the game’s thread in our own forums too. I’m a total TheoTown noob so far but I’m still having a blast, so if you’re the type that’s been wishing for literally years for a full hardcore city building simulation on iOS, this is one you’re going to want to pick up.