Review of Mobile Game "Pit Boss"

Pit Boss by Skyzone is basically a casino simulator in the vein of SimCity, but more of a SimCasino. The game is challenging, but in an unexpected way, due to strange game mechanics, and rather artificial "goals" you must fulfill. Still, it is rather interesting to see your casino grow under your management, and the machines kept busy by steady stream of players.

There are actually two modes of play: game, and challenge. Game mode is where you play sort of a campaign where the monthly quota is raised month after month, and you need to finish the whole year to pay back all the debt you borrowed to keep this running. In Challenge mode, you need get some special requirements instead of merely monthly quota. Things like "upgrade to level 2 interior within 8 months" and so on. The final challenge, extremely tough, is "have NO dissatisfied customer for 1 month". And that is extremely tough.

The game mechanics are not that difficult, actually. You start with a single sector of the casino floor. Rest are blocked off for now. You install new slot machines and video poker machines. They cost money, of course, but they will increase your income. As you accumulate enough money, spend it to expand the interior, which will give you 4 sectors. Next upgrade is to 6 sectors, and finally, to all 9 sectors. Your upgrade menu will tell you which games can you still install.

As your casino expands, you must add facilities, and hire staff. A bar needs a bartender and hostess. Restaurant needs chef. Machines need a technician, and the entire casino needs security guard. You also need janitor to wipe up. In true Sims (tm) fashion, people will complain if they see bad things, like "dirty floors" (you need janitor!), "thirsty" (no bartender / hostess or no bar), "hungry" (no chef / no restaurant). So you have to build those and hire staff, whose contracts last exactly 1 month, so you have to keep rehiring them.

Technicians and Security Guard live more harried lives. You get alerts on the floor that a sector is having problems, either machine is going bonkers, or a player is causing problems. For the former, you call in the technician, before the machine electrocutes someone (which is bad for business!) and the latter you call in the security guard (unless you WANT the disgruntled player to really make a mess, which scares away other players). You do that by pressing 1-9 for the respective sector, then either * or # to call the respective specialist (provided that you *did* hire them, of course).

So basically it's a constant struggle as you deal with one crisis after another, while dealing with other complaints, adding more machines, and upgrades, and basically keep the customers happy. When it's working, it's money keep cha-ching cha-ching coming in. When it's not, you're frantically adding things and spending $$$, hoping you would have earned enough for the debt collectors and higher-up by month's end.

The graphics are acceptable. It could have been better, but the busy floor and lots of objects limits the amount of animation for each. Sound is nothing exciting.

Overall, Pit Boss is a decent casino sim that needs on-the-fly planning as well as understand how one factor mess with the others, and how they affect how you'd achieve the next goal. No violence at all, but it's a mature subject.

Overall: 7.5 out of 10