Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon (Mobile)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.2 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Avery Score
• Reviewed on: 10/26/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon (Mobile) Review

Although Airborne's new Series 60 game (which we played on an N-Gage QD) doesn't specifically feature The Apprentice brand, it puts you in a role similar to the one faced by the contestants of that series: You're one of Donald Trump's latest hires, and you have a chance to prove your mettle to one of the most prominent developers in the world. By employing the simple formula of "buy low, sell high," you'll be able to advance in the Trump empire and make a mint yourself. Despite Donald Trump Real Estate Tycoon's unique branding, it is--at heart--a typical tycoon game that doesn't depart in any way from the conventions of the genre. While the game could have benefited from more-varied gameplay and smarter rival artificial intelligence, Real Estate Tycoon's strong presentation makes it an offering worthy of notice by fans of business simulations.

Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon starts you out with a relatively small amount of money (in this case, a few million dollars), with the idea that you'll build this meager sum into a tremendous fortune, receiving promotions along the way. The game begins in an underdeveloped city, so you'll spend the first two "years" of play competing with your fellow entrepreneurs to buy up empty lots--hopefully ones adjacent to property-value-boosting items, such as parking lots--and turning them into thriving business ventures. You can choose to build hotels, residential complexes, office buildings, or malls. These buildings both provide you with revenue and require maintenance to stay in top shape. The idea is to attract enough customers to each establishment so your income exceeds your expenses. Nothing complicated here.

Of course, your rivals, one of whom is, strangely enough, Donald Trump himself, will sometimes nab a property before you can. It's possible to later buy that building directly from its owner, although he'll invariably charge you about twice its market value. It's better to wait until the owner decides to auction off the property, which results in a bidding war between several real estate moguls. Even if you've longed to don a power tie and partake in such tension-laden dealings, you'll find Real Estate Tycoon's auction sequences incredibly boring. The involved parties will bid lethargically, raising one another's offerings by seemingly random amounts. Whether you choose to mirror this air of indolence or proactively devise brilliant bluffing stratagems is inconsequential. For the most part, your AI opponents simply have a predetermined spending limit, and can't be fooled into bidding less than they ordinarily would have. Raising the current bid by large increments won't intimidate your rivals, although it might advance the asking price beyond their respective comfort levels more quickly. Fortunately, when you offer one of your own properties up for auction, this entire process can be skipped, and you'll just be informed of the outcome.

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