Game: My Downtown
Genre: Puzzle, Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, Windows, macOS & Linux) & Google Play
Developers | Publishers: Seven Sails | Green Sauce Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $19.99 | UK £17.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: November 24th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to Green Sauce Games.
My Downtown is an architectural adventure game in the style of match-3. If you have played Hope’s Farm, you will be familiar with some aspects of the gameplay in My Downtown.
Unlike Hope’s Farm, where you matched 3 to build a farm, in My Downtown, you help the mayor build a city. By playing through more than 100 challenging match-3 levels, you’ll earn coins and gems to open up new buildings to build in your city.
Match-3
The match-3 gameplay is the standard affair; match 3 or more tokens the same on the board to remove them. Matching lines of fours, fives, or other unique tokens earn you extra points and can give you items like bombs that blow up many lines at once. There are also different power-ups you can use; swapping two bombs on the board creates dynamite which removes more tokens from the board.
After each match-3 game, you are whisked back to your city, and depending on how well you matched 3 in the puzzle, you unlock a new building to place in your town.
Build a City
It’s a fun match-3 game with the bonus of building a city. Although you can only place buildings and watch them be constructed, you can also move and demolish them. In addition, there are various service buildings to place, like police and fire stations, and there are parks and decorations to spruce your city up.
Furthermore, as you play through the game, more residential buildings become unlocked to place in your city. You start with only tiny houses, and eventually, you earn enough gems to open up other larger residential homes to place.
Three Game Modes
There are three options for choosing how to play My Downtown. They are timed or limited movements or untimed/unlimited moves to build a perfect Downtown to your liking. The timed and limited modes are challenging. There is a bar that depletes every time you make a move, and you must keep it above the three stars. If not, you will lose the lead for the perfect round.
The game plays well, and the timed and limited movement options should give you plenty of challenges. I like the game, but it wouldn’t be one I would play constantly. Instead, it would be the perfect game to have a coffee break with or to play while waiting for an appointment.
Visuals and Controls
Visually My Downtown is bright and colourful, with the colours popping out of the Switch. The control system is simple and easy to use. Either use the A button and the stick to move the tokens on the board or use the touchscreen. I tried both control methods and preferred the touchscreen to the controls.
Conclusion
Overall, My Downtown is a typical match-3 game with the added element of building a city. It will not blow your socks off with anything new or exciting introduced to the match- 3 genre. But it is passable as a fun game to spend some time with for enjoyment. So if match-3 is your go-to genre, you should find what you are looking for in My Downtown. One word of caution, the game on the Switch is priced at $19.99, whereas on Google Play the game is priced at $5.49, I know what format I would choose to play the game on, the cheapest one!
Final Verdict: I Like it 