we rule from plus+

first i want to say that it’s radian’s fault that i’m hooked on this now. I wasn’t sure if this post should be an iPhone app review or if it should be a ‘favorite (or just new) time suck’ (see last one here). it’s a little of both.

we rule is a pretty cool little game created by plus+, that is basically a virtual kingdom that you build and manage. think of it as simpler sims for the iPhone. it’s pretty easy; you have land, a castle and some gold to begin with and you just start building. you add farms to grow and sell veggies for gold coins. you build houses so you can tax the residents that move in. you add shops, schools, mining camps  - that all make you money in the end - and decorate your land with trees, fences, banners and other medieval accoutrements.

my kingdom on we rule. don't let my handle fool you.

the funny thing about this game - and the one that draws you back - is that it takes time for things to happen. if you plant carrots it takes 24 hours for them to grow in order for you to sell them. strawberries take 12 hours. it takes 12 hours to mine gems and a few hours to produce clothes at the tailor’s. i find myself logging in just to collect taxes from my lowly peasants (work harder you bums, i need a bigger castle!) and to make sure that my crops don’t wither and die before i can sell them.

as all games on the iphone, i showed this to my daughter and she loves to play it although the time factor doesn’t give her quite the instant gratification. plus, she doesn’t actually have the phone in her hands when she needs to maintain the land. she was, by the way, the one who chose the user name when we registered for the game together.

radian's kingdom. all nice and orderly

we rule has a nice little interface and there’s also a social networking aspect that allows you to ‘hire’ your friends (or soon to be new virtual friends). new friends show up on the map and you can visit their kingdoms and see how they have them set up. radian has a wizard in his and i want one too, dammit. overall i’d give this game 3.5 stars out of 5. so come on, you know you want to join and be my medieval friend in our virtual serfdoms.