Keeping up with Kim in Hollywood
Whether you love her or can’t stand her, Kim Kardashian is one of the most popular celebs Whether you love her or can’t stand her, Kim Kardashian is one of the most popular celebs around. Now she’s created a (sort of) sim where you can hang out with her and climb the greasy Hollywood ladder to become an A-list star.
Life in La La Land
Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (KKH) is a difficult game to describe because it doesn’t fall into any set category. It’s something of a mix between a sim game and a choose your adventure book. To begin the game, you select an avatar and “Kustomize” it. The clothes, hairstyles, and accessories are all ultra-stylish and can be changed at a later time.
After creating your character, your story begins as a shop assistant for a high-end boutique in downtown L.A. After closing, none other than Kim Kardashian asks you to reopen the store to help her with a fashion emergency. After helping her, you two become fast friends and she takes you under her wing as you gain fame.
For the rest of the game, your goal will be to move up from being a scummy E-list celebrity to a glamorous A-lister. She will set you up with agents, publicists, and photographers who will give you tasks to complete. The tasks include photo shoots, folding shirts, and modeling down the catwalk. In reality, most of these tasks consist of going from point A to point B and tapping some buttons when prompted. There’s virtually no strategy in KKH.
Throughout the game you’ll get caught up in storylines that could be pulled out of a papparazzi mag; people will gossip on a Twitteresque social network about who you went on dates with and what designer you were wearing. As you progress you unlock more outfits, hairstyles, and accessories that can be purchased with ingame cash or an (mostly) inapp purchase currency that’s in the shape of a star and the letter K.
What it lacks in gameplay, it makes up for in design and detail. There are loads of characters and places to go and there’s something oddly addictive about it. Shockingly, the dialog for the game isn’t half-bad and there’s some clever writing hidden away.
Becoming famous is just a few taps away
Like Simpson’s Tapped Out or Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, there’s little to no skill involved and you’ll mostly be tapping various parts of the screen. A clearly marked button will pop up on various parts of the screen that will prompt you to tap. Simply tap away on these buttons until you have no energy left.
Work it work it work it
The design for the game is impressive. Levels are carefully crafted, giving each a unique feel which is especially impressive since your avatar barely walks around. The characters look similar to Facebook’s social cartoon app, Bitstrips. There’s also enough variety that you don’t see too many of the same character models being used.
KKH is loaded with sound effects that prevent the game from being boring, but the music is mostly just a few looped EDM tracks.
Not as bad as you might think
No, there is no real strategy other than logging in and tapping some buttons. Yes, the game is ridiculously vain. Having said that, it’s bright and colorful, and is much better designed than most you’ll find on the App Store. Plus, it’s very likely a realistic depiction of the famous socialite’s life. Die-hard Kim fans will love it and even the Kasual Kim fan will get into it.
