Management sims sit at the busy intersection of stressful and fun. Now joining the pile-up is Go-Go Town, a city builder from Australian dev Prideful Sloth (Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles). It certainly is stressful in parts — hustle is implied in the name — but somehow manages to make that stress fun.
When the game boots up, you can opt for Story mode or Create mode. In Story, things unlock when you meet certain milestones. Meanwhile, in Create, everything is accessible immediately, so it’s more relaxed and open.
In Go-Go Town you play as the Mayor of a city. Your objective in either mode is to create and run a town. The town is ranked based on tourist happiness – i.e. your ability to accommodate their many needs. You cultivate farming, fishing, mining, and forestry areas to generate items that you use to build.
You build shops and food stalls. You build homes to convince tourists to move in (at which time they become ‘Townies’). Tourists litter and you build a maintenance building to clean up. And a courier building so someone can cart items to where they need to go. The cycle continues.
And, oh, what a cycle. As the town morphs from fledgling fields to monstrous metropolis, its needs grow, and with it, your serotonin and stress levels. All this felt very familiar in parts: I had a lot of deja vu of the real-time building from SimCity and the Two Point series, and the heart-pumping of Overcooked, as well as echoes of Animal Crossing and Pokopia’s collect-build loop.
In Story mode, initial progression feels out of order, and things spiral out of control. I had an early task of catching 25 fish, but they filled up the inventory really quickly. I didn’t have anywhere to sell, craft, or cook them, and not enough money to buy storage crates. Lo and behold, that task (and others) unlocked a new tier with fooderies using fish. And that’s just one example. The game presents problems but locks solutions behind a long grind.
If you can thrive in the chaos, or sit back and laugh at it, you’ll find yourself going to town, building new outfits, turning tourists into Townies, and reaping the rewards. Once you hire Townies, you can delegate tasks to them. As with any ~artificial intelligence~ you need your human eye to keep things in check. I found it tricky initially to control my workers (obviously I’m a very easygoing Mayor), so I spent some time making tweaks like ‘locking’ storage bins so Townies will only stock a certain item, or toggling courier deliveries so they’d focus on a particular store. You can even close the station to stop tourists from coming – only so you can catch your breath.
That said, you’re never stuck. In both Story and Create mode, there is simply SO MUCH to do. More than once I found myself literally running around in circles, I was so overwhelmed and overstimulated.
My town also fell vulnerable to Garbirds (annoying trash-feasting fowl), so I spent several hours as a garbage collector – a bummer when you need to take out the bins IRL too. So even when the game doesn’t give you a mountain of tasks, your brain does.
And yet, it’s SO MUCH fun. One task leads to another, and another, culminating in a firework-party-blower sound and a dopamine hit. It’s a neverending, all-consuming, intoxicating loop.
Speaking of all-consuming, this wouldn’t be a management sim without the main objective: money. In true capitalist fashion, Go-Go Town features two main currencies: Coin from selling items, and EGO (yep) from tourist satisfaction.
It’s Coin and EGO that drive the story. You become Mayor by being hired (kidnapped) by TownCo, a conglomerate run by the ‘Boss’. Like every good evil corporation, TownCo is interested in expansion over exhaling – they’d rather you open a second Mining Zone before you’ve fully staffed your first. That’s also why you work day and night, and no one ever sleeps; why you build a home for yourself but don’t set foot in it; and why building anything costs you both EGO and Coin. TownCo’s secrets are also hidden beyond the town’s perceived borders. I won’t spoil what you can find if you dig a little deeper, venture a little further, and expand your paved paradise. But I will say: it’s worth it.
If you are off exploring, you can still oversee the town’s machinations. You have a phone which allows you to view your Townies’ jobs and whereabouts at any time, like the dictator you are. You can even view the number of items in circulation and where they’re needed. This is useful if you know what you’re looking for, but it can also be a bit of sensory overload – the lists are long and it could take a beat to work out how best to use them.
Your town might not run that smoothly, but Go-Go Town does – no small feat considering the sheer number of minuscule assets here. I only experienced a few little frame rate drops. The game also has options to help tamper its stress. You can toggle things like UI elements, insects, speech bubbles, and audio. There’s also a generous sprinkling of camera movement settings.
Unfortunately because of all the UI on screen, the text is quite small in handheld mode and I was surprised you can’t change it, given the otherwise solid range of settings. I also couldn’t see any touchscreen or Switch 2 mouse capability – both would’ve come in handy when building and terraforming.
Everything in Go-Go Town is painted with a bright and colourful sheen, from the bobblehead characters to each individual brick and stone. Items bounce into your inventory with a cheerful pop!, bikes zip across streets, tourists get knocked over with dizzy stars around their heads. The music takes you to Funky Town, with upbeat dance tracks and electro vibes – at very fast tempos to suit the panic of cleaning up after your tourists.
Go-Go Town blends SimCity and Animal Crossing into a whirlwind of a management sim. There is so much in this game. From transporting merchandise to begging tourists to live in your town, not to mention the oddly satisfying feeling of picking up other people’s garbage, Go-Go Town is packed with things to do, and while they can be overwhelming, each is gratifying to complete.
Story mode pumps the adrenaline a bit, although it’s haphazard and grindy at times; those who prefer a more laidback pace will enjoy Create mode, though. So if you take pleasure in controlling something as big as a city — whether for relaxation or challenges — go to town on this. Just be warned: you might neglect your real-life chores.
