Like all of Kairosoft's other games, Magazine Mogul is a simulation, the theme this time around being a magazine company. One thing that strikes me is that if you have played Game Dev Story, this game is extremely similar in the pacing and gameplay, with a few minor twists. Basically, you choose a specialization for each of your employee, at 40% and 80% completion of the issue, an event happens in which you pick an employee to go scouting or write up a feature, before it gets proofread (i.e. getting rid of typos and you earn research points) and then it goes on sale for anywhere between four to nine weeks. Magazine Mogul is so similar to Game Dev Story that it can feel quite stale and bland in the beginning.
Luckily, there are some new things that gets introduced throughout the game that freshens up the formula and ends up being as addictive as all of Kairosoft's other sim games. The biggest addition is the fact that you end up being the Council of the city. You are given a yearly budget which you spend to enhance the population of the town, such as making festivals, opening up more shops and merging with other nearby towns. It's actually such a significant portion of the game, for something that was originally aimed to be a side activity. The customization of your office is very limited; sadly, the camera is fixed into place so it can get a little bit boring. Stats play a huge factor in the game yet it doesn't do a great job of explaining what each stat does.
There is a text tutorial which you can browse through any time. However, it can get overwhelming in terms of how to raise stats, how to optimize discovering new subject matter for your magazine and managing the council side activity at the same time. Once you get more employees, raising stats is a very clunky and time consuming affair. Nevertheless, Magazine Mogul is a fun game that gets you into the mentality of playing just a little bit more to see how well your magazine sells or the results of your research. Before you know it, half an hour would have passed. This is a very dangerous game in terms of using up large chunks of time in your life... The game is presented in the well-known Kairosoft style of pixelated sprites and settings, which can look very undefined and lacking resolution on bigger screens.
The graphics style carries its charms and these kind of graphics are all you need since the gameplay is more important. One thing that is disappointing is that the game carries a few noticeable bugs and glitches. Considering that Kairsoft's games are usually polished and optimized well, it comes at a surprise when music cuts out, framerate stutters and it even crashed my phone at one point (Xperia Z1 Compact running on Android 4.4.3, so I'm sure it's not the hardware not being able to keep up). Typical Kairosoft staples are included here. There are in-game annual award where you can win prizes for best writing, best design etc which loses the excitement and suspense soon after as you get to the point of churning out magazines with such high stats that you are guaranteed at least one prize each year.
Pumpkin products are still present which allows you to purchase items to use such as changing an employee's job or instantly replenishing their energy. There are a limited amount of tunes that loop indefinitely, therefore it's a good thing that these tunes aren't annoying and can be quite catchy. The game eventually gets boring before your 20th year (in which the game "ends", although you can keep playing on and on, you just don't get more points factored into your high score), there's not enough spice to last for such a long time. It becomes repetitive as you're churning out magazine after magazine with the same motions and the things that keep unlocking are just more of the same (it just has a different name), rather than something significant that changes the gameplay. If you're a fan of Kairosoft, it's still a must play but wait until it goes on sale, especially if you have played Game Dev Story before.
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