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Rule Your School!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: February 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

School tycoon may be published by global star software, but it was created by cat daddy games, the makers of the skateboard park tycoons, ski resort tycoons, and golf resort tycoon games (among others). It is not surprising then that the game bears a bit of a resemblance to these other tycoons.

If you can't figure out what the premise of school tycoon is about, go sit in a corner with the dummy hat on. It's a simulation/tycoon where you get to run a school. I was thinking it would be in one building, but instead you are given a large plot of land (much like in theme park world) and each classroom etc is its own building (kind of like college). The variety of buildings is large, and falls into the following categories: classrooms, administrative, entertainment, food/drink, and restrooms. But they are not just decorative; these students are demanding! They not only want top-notch education, restrooms and clean pathways but burger joints, arcades, mini golf courses, huge fountain areas and more. Also to keep all this stuff up and running you will need to utilize janitors, maintanence workers, and landscapers.

There are 2 modes of play - sandbox and challenge mode. There are 3 levels of challenges containing a total of 24 challenges. They keep the player occupied for a while, but once they are done sand box mode doesn't seem nearly as fun. There just isn't enough depth compared to other management/tycoon games.
The score is kept by time (you can go back and try to beat your time on the challenges) as well as a little box that tells you what grades you have in each category (academics, athletics, obedience, moral etc).

The graphics are cute and colourful, a bit cartoonish, but detailed. You can zoom in and out, and when you click on a building you are usually able to expand the view inside that building and watch your students in action inside. You will also see them trolloping around every time the bell rings, and can direct them to goof off or go to a detention center. Yes, sometimes your students will get out of hand and have to be sent to a detention center to get some obedience back!
You can hire all sorts of staff, with the most important being teachers. Lot's of different looking characters, with the looks generally reflecting the attitudes and skill. The 3 important factors to take into consideration when hiring a teacher are strictness, fun, and skill. All of these are important, so a balance is the sought after goal. Although some types of students (they have very different personalities as well) will complain about the teachers being too boring, too stupid etc. You can even create your own student (giving them the attributes and looks you want) to influence the types of students frequenting your school.

The game isn't exactly going for realism (I mean common mini golf courses and pizza restaurants?) but its fun for as long as it lasts. Which might not be super long, given the fact that it lacks the detailed management of a lot of other tycoons. But it's still a fun game, especially for the young at heart. And if you like this game, try out some other cat daddy tycoon games as they follow in the same style most of the time (although dealing with very different subject matters).

Ready to go back to school - now you can!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 58 / 66
Date: February 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I remember as a kid wishing I was in control of the high school, what changes I would make. Well Global Star Software has given everyone the chance to run a school of their own. Be careful, I thought it was going to be a snap and found out that planning ahead will certainly cut down on headaches later on.

You choices from the very beginning are what building to put and how many will you need. From there you have to create a school system that works and hire teachers, make sure you have everything looking good because the better the school looks I found the more students that will attend.

I also found too that if you forget to add a cafeteria you find the student revolting. The cool thing about this game is what you get to add to the school from a skateboard park to an arcade. While there user manual is a cute design, like a notebook, it lacks serious details about playing, but if you have played any "tycoon" games than you should be able to pick this up quickly.

The thing that reminded me most of my youth in school was the student body and how you can create the groupings like cheerleaders and preppies, to the athletes and those who like to get in trouble. If you really want some fun, you can even customize characters and add yourself to the school, virtually anything you can think of doing in or to a school is in this game.

While I do not get to play games all that often this one is captured my attention. Overall this one is great.

If I only had this game when I was in school!!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 50 / 55
Date: February 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was all around a blast to play...I would agree on the side that it does not have the depth as some other tycoon games have, but for twenty bucks it was a good balance between gameplay time and $$$$. Besides, you can play freestyle mode until your face turns blue...so ultimately it could go on for ever. The thing I liked the most, especially over most tycoons is that you get much more up close and personal with the carachters..they're not just random clones running around. I mean you have jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, etc. And every character has his own personality which really creates a feeling of social classes. Lots of teachers to choose from, each have pros and cons, so pick em wisely. The fun happy teacher isn't always the best choice=slacker students, etc. The graphics are creative and colorful, maybe not something you'd expect in a real sim, but once you've got a school built up, you'll be a proud principal. There's lots of little details, I could go on and on, but you can make kids goof off, go to detention, watch the trees wither and die with lack of maintenance crew. And watch out for those TORNADOS!!!! If you're looking for a game that's fun, lighthearted and easy to get into, this is one for you.

what a great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: March 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

if you like the sims you'll love this one. so many things in it. overall it's an awesome game. If you are thinking about buying it. BUY IT!!!

O.K. Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 14
Date: April 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is o.k. It was o.k. because there was always kids goofing off. Now that was not a problem. There is a tornado once every like 10 minutes. You can make students go to the nurse,go to detention or even you can expel tham. It takes me 10 minutes every time to get to the game so watch out.

THE GREAT DEBATE

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 18
Date: April 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER! MY FRIEND AND I ARE SITTING IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER DUH, PLAYING THIS AWESOME GAME. I WILL GIVE THIS GAME FIVE STARS. IT IS THE BEST.

Didn't Work

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 9
Date: May 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just got this game about 3 days ago and I was really excited to play it. But everytime i try to play the game it will open and it will say that its loading, but then after about 5 minutes of loading it will exit out of the game.

THIS GAME SUCKS

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 12
Date: June 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I JUST GOT THIS GAME AND IT SAY IT IS LOADING AND PUT YOU BACK TO DESK TOP... SAVE YOUR MONEY DONT BUY

Crashes and stuff...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 19
Date: July 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have Windows XP. If you have Windows XP, TAKE GREAT CAUTION! I bought the game, and I installed it. I tried to load it the first time, and this blue screen came up, and my computer restarted (aka: crashed). It did that about every other time I tried to play it. I, personally, thought the game was sorta worth it... until my computer crashed over and over when I wasn't even on the game.

I uninstalled it, and reinstalled, that didn't work. I downloaded the thing that was supposed to stop the crashes: no result. Finally, I took all the files I wanted to save and moved them to a new computer screen name. Every game I've ever put on the laptop is on this name, except School Tycoon, and it hasn't crashed for me yet.

In conclusion: DON'T BUY IT!

And an end note: I shoulda known it was crap, it was made by GLOBAL STAR SOFTWARE, after all...

actually worked

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game actually worked on my computer when i tried it i have to say, and ive been saying for many a year (dont i sound old!) that someone should make a school tycoon game. This one however - whilst it may be the first one at least i know of to do it is - as you can see - riddled with bugs, for me it was mostly whenever a building began to smoke from not being fixed it would crahs the game. Apart from this the gameplay was farely average, but didnt ever really get past the simple 'build this, then build this and you can build this'. So it got boring really quickly. Overall only 2 start, and i wouldnt recomend it - although at least i can actually say it worked which seems to be more than the others here!

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