Parents' Guide to Little Cities

In many ways, city building simulation games can feel like a virtual terrarium, watching the things inside move around and live their daily lives. Little Cities brings fans of the genre closer than ever to their miniature metropolitan ant farms by adding virtual reality technology to the formula. While having a much more literal "hands on" approach to city building does help to get the player more involved and invested in their creations, it also creates a few extra cracks in the game's foundation.

Everything from the tallest buildings to the smallest cars in Little Cities are rendered as these generically sterile models. Instead of feeling like you're building a robust city, the style makes it feel more like you're playing with bits and pieces raided from a preschool kid's toybox. Another issue seems to be more the fault of the platform than the game itself. Navigating in and out of the city with so many tiny things moving around at once in a virtual space can be very disorienting. While it's fun to occasionally stomp through the city streets like an omnipotent kaiju monster, vertigo is likely to keep many players using the more stationary seated option as opposed to roaming the living room in roomscale. None of this is to say Little Cities is without its charm. The game's bright colors and relaxing soundtrack, coupled with simplified gameplay, makes for a much less stressful experience than more hardcore city building games. Instead, Little Cities feels more like a sort of industrial themed Zen garden where players can just watch the world go by, while lending the occasional helping hand.