a Developer Review: Kairosoft

September 9, 2012, 6:18 pm
a Developer Review: Kairosoft

By Rico
For those of whom are fans of handheld simulator games, whatever the theme, then Kairosoft will definitely be a company that they will be familiar with. The small 9-man company who originally created Japanese mobile games in the late 90`s recently found massive success in porting them over on to iOS and Android devices and currently have 15 games translated into english over the two operating systems.
All Kairosoft games have a similar atmosphere to each other which is created from the use of retro style graphics, recurring characters, like King Ackbar and the Kairobot, and even from the simple one click controls. Each game has a similar premise, where the objective of each game is to grow your business/town and beat all contests/challenges associated with the theme and just attain the highest score you possibly can. Each game places you in different situations which can vary from creating the greatest video game developers, to making the biggest shopping mall and building your own RPG town.
The game that started the `KairoCraze` off is easily one of their strongest titles; `Game Dev Story.` The secret to the game`s success was a very well balanced mixture of addicting gameplay, rewarding challenges and the fact that 90% of the people who play video games secretly wants to own a multi-award winning games developing company. The graphics for the Kairosoft games are all very similar, with the developers opting for every instalment to use their signature retro graphics with a birds eye view over the environment.
Game Dev Story puts you as the head of your very own development company, you choose which employees to hire, what platform your video games are on, the genre of your video games and everything else imaginable. The game place you right into the deep end with little money and absolutely no reputation, with the only way of getting known early on is by releasing games and using cheap advertisement, once you`ve earned a comfortable sum of money you`re given the option of expanding your company, attending video game conventions and also the ability to hire talented designers. The primary task of the game is to obtain the prestigious `Game of the Year award` with one of the games that your company has made, the game uses `Game Center` leaderboards and achievements to extend the re playability, at the end of the day though with the main motivation comes from the players who want to smash records and get the highest scores.
The appeal of Game Dev story comes from it`s charm, there are tons of references to the real video game industry whether it`s the video game consoles that are available to develop on or the competing games that participate in the annual video game awards. There really isn`t anything to complain about in this game apart from lack of objectives post game which means that once you`ve grabbed the `Game of the Year` trophy you`re going to find it hard to keep the motivation going, but that shouldn`t stop anyone from enjoying this app whose addictive capabilities rival that of the infamous drug `heroin.`
After their spectacular iOS debut, Kairosoft decided to port and translate a handful of their other then-exclusive Japanese games, each one taking on a theme and `Kairoforming` it in to an addicting simulator.  The next game that was released after was `Hot Springs Story,` this time the game places you, the player, as the head of an up-and-coming spa complex where the primary objective is to be the greatest spa complex in the country.
There are a lot of similarities between the two games, the aesthetics and sound are the two most notable and obvious ones, but there are a lot of changes as well, with the difficulty being one of them. `Hot Springs Story` is significantly harder than KSoft`s previous game due to a number of additional factors that were implemented which can drastically affect how great and amazing your spa complex is. The game adds in a seasons feature where the attributes of the decoration that you have placed increases or decreases depending on the weather. Target demographics have also been put into the game which gives the player the ability to tailor their Spa to appeal towards people of certain ages and jobs. I`ve only touched on the surface of the game, and has a significant amount more depth than Game Dev Story, and is just as addicting! 
After the release of Hot Springs Story, Kairosoft decided to create timed-exclusive games for both iOS and Android, with games like `Dungeon Village` and `Cafeteria Nipponica` being currently exclusive to iOS while others like `World Cruise Story` and `Kairobotica` are exclusive to android devices. For those, like me, who only have one device, it is incredibly irritating only being able to play 50% of the Kairosoft library.
It seems that with every game released Kairosoft seem to be adding in different gameplay elements or expanding on existing ones, and because of this every game looks and feels exactly the same, but the experience is a completely original one, it`s a difficult thing to comprehend.
Here is an example,
Gran Prix Story
and Pocket Academy are two other Kairosoft games, they have completely different settings and completely different gameplay mechanics, but the games looks similar and have the same feel that only Kairosoft can evoke. Some may find the formula gets stale after a few games but I`m certain that i`m not the only that enjoys looking forward to every instalment and finding a completely original adventure with each one.
 
Sponsored links