Star Wars: Tiny Death Star is a tower-building strategy game, made by the creator of Tiny Tower in conjunction with LucasArts.
The property empire strikes back
In Star Wars: Tiny Death Star, Darth Vader has turned property developer, hatching a plot to take of the world of multinational commerce by created a new Death Star.
His plan is to create a tower block space station, composed of housing, shops, businesses and recreation facilities. Using the proceeds from all these commercial activities the helmet-clad villain can fund attacks and assaults to finally put the Rebels in their place.
Construct and conquer
The gameplay dynamic of Star Wars: Tiny Death Star is much the same as in Tiny Tower. You start with a basic building and must build new levels, comprising residential, food, recreation, services, and retail. In Star Wars: Tiny Death Star Imperial levels have been added, which bring with them Star Wars-related missions.
Once you've built apartments, your 'Bitizens' will start moving in, after which time you'll need to find them an appropriate job in one of your businesses, by paying attention to what their skills are. Bitizens will let you know when they're unhappy through the fun 'Holonet' feed, which is like a social network feed for your Death Star's inhabitants.
To build levels in Star Wars: Tiny Death Star you need to spend credits, which you earn by making money through your various business interests. The other in-game currency is 'Imperial Bux', which are needed to speed up construction, or to hurry through stock orders for your shops and services. Imperial Bux can be won in the game by completing missions, but you'll soon find playing Star Wars: Tiny Death Star quite restricted unless you're prepared to wait a long time or spend money.
Other things you can spend your game currency on include special levels, real characters from Star Wars, elevators, and more.
The Death Star in the palm of your hand
Playing Star Wars: Tiny Death Star isn't rocket science, especially if you've played Tiny Tower before. The building options are well signposted and icons will flash on the screen where some attention is needed (usually to do with ordering stock for your businesses). One thing you actively need to do is to operate the elevator so that when a character arrives at the door you take them up to the floor you want. Without doing this you may lose customers or potential new inhabitants.
Return of the franchise
The Star Wars license has been used a lot in gaming down the years, most recently in the shape of the Angry Birds Star Wars games. The franchise is put to good use in Star Wars: Tiny Death Star, with many characters from the Star Wars universe appearing.
Scaling them down into pixelated form sometimes makes the characters a bit hard to make out, but the overall effect is cute and charming. Music from the movies is used in the game too, with a variety of reworked tunes from the original soundtracks playing in the background.
The verdict
Fans of Star Wars will have great fun with Star Wars: Tiny Death Star. However, those who played Tiny Tower might be a bit disappointment that the gameplay format hasn't evolved much.
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