Azito
When I was a kid, I really got into SimCity. I always liked building things and seeing the minute details in the graphics moving around on screen. As I got older, I didn't get into the increasingly complex sequels, but I still break out SimCity from time to time. When I was a teenager and got into anime, I started to enjoy giant robots as well. So, when I found Azito for Playstation, a couple of heart strings were tugged, and I had to give it a try!
Azito is very reminiscent of Sim Tower at a glance, with its cross-section view of a mountainside, upon which you can build cities, businesses, etc. However, underneath that mountain, you get to build your giant underground lab, complete with research facilities to start new shell corporations, power stations, and HANGERS TO HOUSE YOUR DAMN GIANT ROBOTS YOU GET TO BUILD TO SAVE THE PLANET!
Yeah, forget the disasters like plane crashes, earthquakes, and nuclear meltdowns of other sims... we're talking giant monsters and aliens attacking, and your base is the first line of defense! Different robots arise from your research. I wish I could get into what parameters lead to what result, but there is a language barrier that makes all of that a little random to me.
Most of the menus are icon based, so it's not too difficult to get started building your base, but for a non-Japanese speaker, a lot of the final options are kanji, and that's where I have to guess and try to memorize results. This can make getting started tough, because running out of money does result in a game over, what with the imminent threats to earth and all. You make your money through your surface companies, so balancing between your underground operations and your surface work is vital to success. You can also sell robots you develop for cash, or trade them with other players on their memory cards.
This was actually the first game of 3 on the Playstation, and the series was recently resurrected on the 3DS in Japan, apparently. This original version features nice anime art, a fun, dramatic opening with robots and kaiju monsters, and nifty detailed 2D sprites representing your creations, with little scientists running amok. I should mention, you do assign scientists to research positions, and in a very basic way have to allow rest periods and manage the occasional interpersonal conflict. Breaks are easy enough, but the only way I found to really solve the conflicts was to reassign scientists to different work areas.
I really, really like this game, but it's still a bit of a crap shoot for me to do really well due to the language barrier. I'd really recommend this to anyone who is a big enthusiast for simulation games if you're willing to suffer through some growing pains in the learning curve and language barrier. It's a neat anime twist on an also-ran genre, and I dig it.
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