Review: Wall Town Wonders
As someone who hadn’t really been blown away by Mixed Reality when Wall Town Wonders was first announced, it sort of went under my radar a little. However, after recently being impressed my Starship Home my interest in the title started to peak. I have now changed my room into a living miniature town, has this swayed me even more towards MR being good for gaming?
Release Date: November 21st 2024
Developer: Cyborn BVBA
Publisher: Cyborn BV
Price: £15.99
Reviewed On: Meta Quest 3
* Access Provided For Review *
Miniature Town In Your Room
Wall Town Wonders is a city builder that is only playable in Mixed Reality, that will see you building a miniature town in your own room. With you expanding the town and seeing it come to life around you. From buildings which are built into your walls, pools on the floor (or in my case on my desk), it really has a charm like never seen before, as the digital town comes into your physical world. With how charming the game is, I was glad to see that they made it more relaxing and casual, by allowing you to build and upgrade your town at your own pace.
Building and upgrading you little town is going to take a number of resources. Where some of the resources will be provided by the residents once you have built their building/shop, some of them will require your help in the form of quests and mini-games. For example the shopping district will automatically earn you coins or the crafting station will provide you some wood. But, in order to help the farmers grow the crops, you will need to find the seeds and water the crops or help with stone and wood supplies by going into the mines (built into your walls) and pointing out the parts that need mining – and in some cases clear obstacles in the way with a little cannon on your hand. Making you feel more connected to this miniature township your building.
Then you will also have some mini-games that will reward you and also are fun to play. You might be navigating a plane around your room, riding a lizard to forage for berries or find another point on your wall to mine, controlling divers at a competition at the pool or defending the farmers crops from beetles borrowing out of your wall. All of the extra tasks and mini-games use the little device on the back of your hand in some way, be it irrigating mushrooms on your floor with a spray cannon, lighting dynamite to blow a hole in your wall for mining or using a bow to kill the beetles as they move towards the farm to name a few. So, you do get some extra little bits of gameplay to mix it up
You can really make this town your own as the near one-hundred buildings, over forty characters and vehicles are all customisable with skins and/or decorations. Meaning you can make it as unique as you want and to suit you. With the team at Cyborn also planning seasonal events for the game, this is only going to keep growing and you will discovering new things to keep the game feeling and your town looking fresh.
Charming Little Town
What is massively charming about Wall Town Wonders is that you creating the town on your own walls, when it comes to the buildings. I was shocked at how nice it looked as well, and how when someone goes inside it looks like they are venturing into your walls – the 3D models are so well designed to look this way. Then the likes of going into the walls when mining, they really have made this town feel like it’s burrowed into your walls. All the models look great from a distance or even if you lean right in for a closer look, allowing that charm to shine.
Then having the little touches of people working in the buildings, walking or just loitering about the town, which really gives the feeling of the town being lived in. Having the likes of planes and hot-air balloons coming into town and having to guide or blow them to landing zone with the little fan on your hand never fails to put a smile on your face. Mixing this with people of the town interacting with the controllers and your hands (hand-tracking mode) at times just adds to the charm – for example: having a member of town jump onto your hand, as you lower them to the floor just adds to connection between you and your miniature town.
For audio you get relaxing background music, sounds that go with the quests and mini-games like mining or the sound of the fan or watering can, the vehicles and the noises of your automatic resources becoming available. This all works well and the 3D audio makes it clear where you need look and what part of the town you need to walk to. However, I just wish there was a little hustle of bustle of the town to bring it completely to life, as people are walking and loitering around town and there is no sounds of it being lived in – this doesn’t ruin the experience I just wish it was there. Also there is no spoken audio in the game, so you will be reading the conversations the town folk are having with you, when requesting help or improving the town.
Comfort
The Verdict
Wall Town Wonders really is a charming game, that bridges the gap between the digital world and reality by allowing you create a miniature town in your own room. This is made more charming and accessible by the fact the game does not rush you and lets you create your township at your own pace. Bringing a relaxed city builder that keeps you entertained by the towns folk needing your support and introducing more mini-games the more you expand and upgrade your town. The team have done a fantastic job of making it look like these people are living inside of your walls, with the 3D models depth giving the illusion the buildings go right into your wall. There is so much charm across the whole design, the towns folk, the lizard mount and hot-air balloons, mini planes and blimps flying around your room. Wall Town Wonders really is a perfectly designed and a fantastic use of Mixed Reality.