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Looking good!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 21
Date: January 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First, I must make my disclaimer...I HAVE NOT PLAYED THIS GAME! I have only viewed the box and demo inside of Electronics Boutique at the mall. It looks like a very fun game, along the lines of Monopoly Tycoon. THere are a few alien like creatures, people who spray paint your stores, you direct mall promotions, designs etc. It looks good to me!! For someone who LOVES the mall, why not take it home!! Hope it lives up to the coolness it generates!!

Nothing like the quality Tycoon or Sim Game; it [is bad]!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 35 / 37
Date: February 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game appears to have mixed reviews, but all things considered this game [stinks]!

I was excited when I first heard about this game. Now I own it, and I'm severly disappointed. It's certainly a great concept in the world of simulation games, (the creation of my own shopping mall) but there is so much lacking. The graphics and sound/music are very poor in quality. The game interface is tough to get used to and the action of the game is extremely boring and controlled mostly by the AI, which takes away so much fun from the game.

The game is lacking in how much detail the user can control, (as said before) most of it is controlled by the AI.

This game ranks right down there with Airport Tycoon, Snow Resort Tycoon and Skatepark Tycoon... If you want good quality sim and tycoon games, check out: Roller Coaster Tycoon, The Sims, Sim Golf,the original Theme Park, Theme Hospital etc. You are bound to enjoy anything made by Maxis, Interplay, Bullfrog, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft. These games allow you to have control over the most minute detail, not just broad things with no depth; ie. what type of store you put in.

The characters walk around in the stores without bags, and you don't even see them pick up things to buy.

Maybe if Mall Tycoon was [low in price] it might be worth buying... Play the demo first, or get it from a friend who's already wasted their money.

a rare tycoon that works, and has tons of replay value

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 34
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game just because i love the mall, and have been waiting for a game like this for a long time. But there are so many tycoon games that have ripped of the success of Roller Coaster Tycoon and put out horrible, confusing games. well you will be relieved here. this game is not only very straightforward, but one of the most addictive and fun tycoons ive ever played. sometimes the load times get really long, and the game slows down, but other than that its a great game. you can choose from so many different types of places to put in, and research more. there are also atriums you can put in to put on special events like fashion shows, car shows, roller coasters, train rides, santa claus, and more. you can choose differnet layouts from boutiques to department stores, and choose from a vast number of wallpapers and tiles for the floor. the graphics are good, but not great, but shouldnt be a problem. it is also chock full of scenarios to keep you occupied, as well as freeplay, to build the mall from scratch with plenty of money to build a great mall. its not too easy or too hard, and its just a solid game over all. you can also put in restaurants, playgrounds, movie theatres, etc. its great! you gotta get it!

Not quite a winner!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Overall, it's a fun game to play, but the graphics are extremely poor, especially when compared to older sim games. The game is good amuesment for a few weeks, but it's definetly not one of those games you play forever. This company tends to produce great concepts but they are unable to bring them to life as well as some of the other simulation devlopers. But hey, for ($) you can't be too picky.

What a disapointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I waited for this to come out, ordered it a month before it was to ship, and when it got here, I quickly installed it, only to find that its AWFUL! The user interface is not easy to learn, its choppy, blurry, freezes every few seconds then starts again, and Im running it on a two month old 800mgz computer with the newest video cards, etc. I even installed it on my older computer running win98, it still sucks. The people dont look like people, its not even remotely what I hoped for. Once the mall is done, there is absolutely NOTHING to do but watch little robot like people wandering around from store to store. For a tycoon game, I really expected better. I only gave it a 2 star because the idea was a great one. But boy can someone do a better job. I think they were in way too much of a hurry to get this product out on the market to give it the attention it needs. The developers could still take this game and fix it! But until and if they do, I wouldnt waste my time or money buying this yet.

One of the poorest tycoon-type games

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: February 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I enjoy sim and tycoon games, notably the Sims series, the Transport Tycoon and Airport Inc. Simulation of a mall is also a nice idea but this Take2's production has significant flaws making the game simply unplayable. The biggest problem is user interface, complicated menu and difficult way of constructing the mall facilities. There is a potential in this simulation but the current retail version should not have been released in my opinion. Do not waste your time and money on this one.

Avoid this Mall at all costs

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

After Rollercoaster Tycoon's success, there have been an enormous amount of games with the "Tycoon" name. These games are trying to cash in on the success of Rollercoaster Tycoon and nearly every game has been an utter failure. Mall Tycoon is no exeption....The interface is horrendous, it involves a random assortment of multi-colored buttons for various tasks. There is no cohesions to the interface whatsoever. The graphics are very bad, and the game runs very poorly, often slowing down or crashing on fast systems.

In addition to a multitude of other flaws, and those listed above, the game just doesn't work. The concept is a novel one, unfortunately Take2 released a bomb here. Even the...price doesn't justify the horrible game, avoid this mall at all costs!

Poorly Set-up, Poorly everything

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I was excited when I was at the window of my local Electronic Botique store, but I was dissapointed when I tried to play the game. The game would freeze and come back to the desktop and what poorly graphics they have. Not a dependable game to buy. Each one of it will have a problem. It is not the best simulator game but has a great hook to getting you the game.

1. POORLY GRAPHICS------
2.POORLY DONE-----
3. FREEZING TRIED IT ON ALL OF MY COMPUTERS!!---------

fun at first but got boring fast

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game looked cool after I read about it a month or so before it came out. I bought it and I do admit it was fun when I first played it but there's not much to the game after the first few hours. The graphics leave much to be desired with simple polygons and such and the zoom levels aren't that good. You start out with $20,000 or so to build your mall. You will be lost without completing the tutorial which is tricky. I needed help from the game's message board (provided free on-line) just to finish it. You build walls, entrances, atriums and of course stores. There are four types of stores to choose from with a good selection of products such as clothes, electronics, housewares, etc. But once the mall is built it gets boring. There are only like 5 or 6 types of shoppers and it does not show them in your stores. They simply walk up to the entrance, disappear and then reappear with bags. I built an ATM and pay phones and no one even used them. There are also basic repeating animations such as clerks inside each store which get very boring. The game has little replay value. It is a cool idea but could have been a lot better.

Fun game, but a few technical issues....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: March 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'll admit, I am a mall-nut. I always enjoyed going to these places since I was real young, so to have an actual 'mall-sim' game released was quite exciting when I found out about it.

This is my first game review, so I'll categorize things.

Graphics:
This isn't no FFX (Final Fantasy 10) style graphics here, but they function for this game. The thing a lot of people look for these days is flashy 3d animations and what-not. Well graphics aren't everything, just look at the NES for example. Games are meant to be fun, and this one 'is' fun, flashy graphics or not. Whether your PC has a high end DDR type video card, or even on lower-end ones (not 'too' low end), the graphics should pretty much be the same.

Sound FX:
Sounds range from typical construction sounds (when building / demolishing) to the sounds of people chattering & walking through your mall, and the fountains when you have the game unpaused.

Music:
If there was a seperate rating for this area, it gets a definite 10 +. 16 tracks, ranging from typical mall 'Muzak' with a 1970s sound to it (the heydays of the dimly-lit enclosed malls), jazz, a bit of modern Latin, and even a couple holiday tracks. (Little trick: You can pop this CD right in your audio CD player and play the music righf off it, since its Redbook audio, just be sure to skip track 1...the music starts on Track 2).

Control:
Lets just say, so-so. When you start out, its quick, but the more graphically involved your malls get, the mouse (pointer) will slow to a crawl. It does get a bit tedious to have to go back to the main menu each time you want to do a lot of things.

Stability:
Where this game hurts most, and this is typical of all first-released games...which is why they make update patches to rid the said game of any bugs, is that it's a bit buggy. It's also prone to booting you out, and back to the (Windows) Desktop. Lets hope for a update patch.

The stability and control issues are the reason why I docked off 2 stars for a 3 star rating.

Other things to Note:
The land area you're given is quite small. Most of today's mall models wont fit on a 48x48 grid. A bit more land to work with, or start out with various sizes like with Sim City 2k/3k, wouldnt hurt. You can, however, build up to 3 levels of mall area.

Overall, not bad of a game, but the occasional boot-outs and the few bugs it has will frustrate some. If you save often, and can live with getting booted out of the game every so often, go for it....it's really a fun Tycoon sim. However, if you hate glitches, and expect flashy 3d animation and graphics, this one isn't for you.

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