When it comes to building sims, most mobile games go as big as possible. We're talking about designing entire cities, countries, planets or what have you. It's not that often that you get to focus in on a more micro level, but that's exactly what Project Highrise [$3.99 (HD)] has you do, zeroing in on just one building at a time and seeing if you can handle the economic and logistical challenges involved. If Tiny Tower and SimCity got together and had an offspring ? which would probably involve lots of drafting paper and nothing carnal ? this game would likely be the result.
Though you're free to leap right into the sandbox mode or individual scenarios, your time in Project Highrise is best spent first going through the five short tutorials. Each one introduces a different important concept, beginning with basic construction. The interface works quite nicely on touchscreens, as you can simply tap and drag to move around your building, pinching to zoom in and out. The graphics are stylized but clean, and there's never a time when you're confused about what you're seeing. A series of icons laid out in a bar across the bottom of the screen let you jump quickly to different construction options, while important information about your skyscraper is displayed at the top. Time can be sped up (something you'll find yourself doing often) or paused with buttons in the upper-right corner. As in just about any building sim known to man, money is a big deal in Project Highrise. You'l...