Parents' Guide to

Mafia City: War of Underworld

By Neilie Johnson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Sloppy strategy game full of sex, violence, vulgarity.

Mafia City: War of Underworld Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

Community Reviews

age 10+

Based on 25 parent reviews

age 18+

Made for mature and adult players mostly.

Great game, but I give it an adult rating in my book because of violence, sexism and a plethora of other content.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
age 13+

Mafia City : An Honest Review by an Adult

Let's begin with the obvious. The name of this game is Mafia City, so parents should already know to expect the content to include elements of crime, vice, violence and mayhem along side of the more mundane organized crime tasks of investing, building properties, collecing resources and training crews. Some other reviews here have mentioned concerns over what they see as stereotypes of some of the characters in the game, which I will address here as well, but minus the fog of "wokeness" some seemed to be under the influence of when providing their reviews. This is a game, with cartoon characters, all ficticious, in ficticious settings and in ficticious situations. Yes, some of the women characters are portrayed as overtly sexual, but to a point of being exactly what they are - cartoon characters based on every stereotype of the girls gangsters would have around them. There is no nudity nor graphic sex by the way, and I think most parents would laugh at how silly most of em look and act. To those uptight about the depicition of Mafia babes for being sorta emptyheaded groupies, please note that MANY of the most skilled, intelligent and fierciest fighters in this game, are female. Also worth noting that every skin tone seems to be represented here, ditto for nationality, etc. In fact, the game even offers special events that focus on cultural diversity and celebrations. Many of those involve gathering and donating foods and gifts as one learns about holidays and traditions around the globe. I have met many people on the live chat included with the game, from all nations and cultures and that is another aspect of this game, some others seem to have purposely left out of their negative reviews. Bottom line, this game is probably best suited for adults because most kids would find it boring and way too complex. It's a slow, building game, with little action and lower end graphics (from what they are used to). But, for some mature young adults, looking for something a little more cerebral and SIM like, this may be a game worth checking out. Aside from some PG-13 language, some fairly tame blood effects and maybe a few sexually suggestive female characters, this is hardly anything most parents in 2022 should overly worry about content wise. And despite what the "woke" reviews elsewhere are lamenting about, not a single human being who plays Mafia City, will walk away a misogynist, racist or hater. That is psycho babble and I doubt such people even played the game much, if at all. Full disclosure, I am 57 and have played this game daily for nearly a year and a half, so I know the content and the context very well.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (25):
Kids say (5):

At first glance, there's lots to do in this raunchy strategy app, but the farther you get, the more you realize that the gameplay is incredibly thin. Mafia City: War of Underworld seems to have hundreds of buttons to click to control your empire, and you'll see lots of screens packed with pictures of weapons, tantalizing upgrades, muscular henchmen, and scantily clad gang molls. But once you dig through these screens, you start to realize there's not much there.

The first problem is presentation. Developer Yottagames tries its best to emulate the gangster movies we're all familiar with, but to poor and often comic effect. They've thrown in all the prerequisite violence, curse words, and misogyny (all of the game's female characters are busty and scantily clad, and a closed curtain + sound effects implies that you're having sex), but they still come up short. The story is tissue-thin, and thanks to clumsy English translation, the dialogue is stiff and awkward. Odd text can also make game processes unclear. Mafia City: War of Underworld joins the app store ranks of so-called strategy games that are no more than a reason to mindlessly tap buttons. There's little sense of strategy or accomplishment; you tap once to finish a mission and tap again to get a reward. It's admittedly addictive (n the same way that bells are used to get lab rats addicted to cookies), and Yottagames is counting on that to drive players to cough up loads of real-world cash. They've even taken the reward idea a step further, giving players in-game currency in exchange for a five-star review. Take that into account when you're in the app store, and don't be fooled. The only strategy here comes from a cynical app contriving ways to separate you from your money.

App Details

  • Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
  • Pricing structure: Free (Contains optional in-app purchases.)
  • Release date: May 16, 2017
  • Category: Strategy Games
  • Publisher: Yottagames
  • Version: 1.3.105
  • Minimum software requirements: Requires iOS 9.0 or later; Android 2.3 and up
  • Last updated: October 7, 2021

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