Happy Street Review – Building A Bountiful Boardwalk Of Smiles On iOS

Editor’s Note: AppleNApps and AppTudes are venturing into a new partnership, so both sites can bring you more of what you love. This review is written and reprinted with permission by Trevor Sheridan.

There are so many freemium simulation games in the App Store, and sadly, most of them all blend together. Happy Street (universal) from Godzilab, dares to stand out with a charming design, and plenty of personality. The game comes from the makers of iBlast Moki, and begins with a fox setting out to start a village in the forest. Your Happy Street then begins as new animal friends move in, and you start to add businesses to create a bustling street.

The best aspect of Happy Street is that it gets rid of the tedious nature of the genre, and strips out the feel of being a time sink. Happy Street is a very enjoyable simulation experience that lets you focus on the real objectives: building the most awesome street around. From the very first building, players are given a constant stream of objectives to shoot for, so there’s always something to do when opening the game.

It’s great to see the street expand, and come to life with animal characters moving about. Every single character and building is packed with detail and style, so it’s always exciting to see what comes next as players complete tasks, level up, and expand your street.

There are tons of intricacies that distinguish the game from the crowd, including buildings that offer mini-games. As your street expands, new areas are unlocked, including the forests and mines, and open interactive places like a kitchen and workshop. Players can craft and cook items that can complement and enhance the street and characters. There are also animals that drive by on the street, which can be tapped on, so they will interact with your street. As more animals visit, a love meter builds, which when full, unleashes fiesta mode where there’s a spending spree at all of your businesses.

The game is just packed with things to do, and there’s just so much to keep coming back to and looking forward to with each new item you can build. The animal character collection is reminiscent of Animal Crossing, and the entire experience is a breath of fresh air for iOS.

The game also packs personality into every pixel with a cute art design, and tons of creativity in the building choices and text bubbles. It is a freemium game with in-app purchases to increase the rate of expansion, but this is the most optional implementation I’ve yet seen in the genre. The game’s plentiful objectives and generous rewards keep players busy without having to experience the annoying pay walls plaguing iOS games of any genre.

Happy Street (universal) is one of the best simulation games in the App Store that delivers a wonderful iOS experience that will bring a smile to your face like no other in the genre.