Step off the train into the town of Hokko and get settled into your new home. This quiet village needs your help to turn it into the charming rural town everyone loves. With hammer and paints in hand it's up to you to design, build and decorate homes for all of your new friends. Craft materials and combine them in whatever way you desire to create new and wonderful furniture and items for your town. Collect flowers, mix paints and use them to design wallpapers, flooring and even clothing...

The environments and characters are large and bold

Hokko Life is an entry level introduction to sim games. It opens with you falling asleep on the train. Before you know it you're standing alone on the platform of Hokko train station with the train nowhere to be seen. Rather than wait for the next train, you head on into the town where the locals take pity on you allowing you to sleep on the floor of a spare room in one of the local businesses. You're soon offered a place of your own, if you can clean up one of the derelict buildings in the town.

Once you've established your base it's simply a case of collecting items and crafting useful tools before you'll finally be asked to accomplish tasks by the other townsfolk.

It's a pretty simple game to get to grips with, even if on the odd occasion the tutorial leaves you hanging wondering how to progress. But, a bit of common sense comes in handy.

The game introduces new mechanics at just the right speed

The environments and characters are large and bold and nothing is ever too taxing. The game introduces new mechanics at just the right speed to ensure younger players are never swamped with too many new challenges.

It's a little too twee and a little too simplistic for seasoned gamers, but for young players and those new to sims this is the perfect introduction.

7

Nick Smithson