Star Wars: Tiny Death Star review: there’s good in this, I’ve felt it.

Similar to Darth Vader’s conflicted conscience during the final part of the original Star Wars trilogy (Episode IV, V and VI), Star Wars: Tiny Death Star has a conflicted position as both a game app, and as a licensed Star Wars product.

At its core, this game is Nimblebit’s successful first freemium game, Tiny Tower, that came out back in 2011. Aside from the freshly nostalgic Star Wars paint job and some new things, both games are basically the same.

Gameplay

The premise is simple: build an endless structure that house Bitizens (Nimblebit’s signature pixel characters) and assign them to work at various stores and service providers within the structure. Those Bitizens have different traits and dream jobs. Assigning them according to their preference, along with making sure that the shops are well-stocked, is micro-management at its best. It’s simple enough to understand but complicated enough to keep you busy. There are also missions, such as finding a certain Bitizen among the floors, completely stocking a floor, building a certain type of floor, and so on, that reward the player with Bux, Nimblebit’s signature premium currency. But compared to most freemium games, Bux are not hard to obtain, making the game fairly playable, even without a single in-app purchase.

I just basically explained both games in the same paragraph. Yes, that’s how similar they are.

The major difference is in Star Wars: Tiny Death Star, we also create Imperial floors, and instead of going up, we’re building it downwards. Each floor produces a unique resource that we can redeem for rewards, but we need special VIP Bitizens to supply the floors.

There’s also a collectable element in this game, in form of collecting the various alien races that comes to the Death Star, iconic characters and their various costumes from the movie, short, in-game short cinematics and levels. But it’s more of a Star Wars fan service kind of thing, rather than something that enhances the gameplay. For most, especially those who have played Tiny Tower, the collectible element will probably be the only staying power of the game.

Graphics

The game features sharp and beautiful 8-bit graphics, which is a Nimblebit signature. It did a pretty good job in visualizing the various the characters: Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Admiral Ackbar, Lando Calrissian, etc. Even though it’s in pixelated, 8-bit style, you can immediately recognize them. The backgrounds, items and little touches such as a small AT-AT Walker that acts as a glass holder are nicely done. I love the pixelated LucasArts logo that shows up as we load the game; it’s been a long while since the last time we all saw that logo.

Sound

Timeless classic Star Wars music; the Star Wars Theme, The Imperial March and even the Mos Eisley Cantina music can be heard in the background. Even though they’re not exactly 8-bit style music (more like a 16-bit era music), they’re still a nice companion as you go around, managing your retail-powered Death Star.