Natasha Stronganoff. Fried Krueger. Never Met Your Mom. With so many pop culture references to sink your teeth into, it’s worth investing in a game such as Hollywhoot. By iCandy and Joyseed Gametribe have given players a chance to become the next best Blockbuster director, similar to other games such as Vlogger Go Viral and Epic Party Clicker.
Lightning Struck!
Whilst leaving home for Hollywood to pursue his dreams, a young boy and his pet accomplice get struck by lightning. When he wakes, the young boy finds himself in the land of Hollywhoot, with enough money and resources to begin making his own movies and TV shows.
The land is divided into different sections that focus on either producing films and shows, or training actors at the Academy, or unlocking new perks that come with them at the Research Factory. With each actor you unlock, they can have certain perks where they are most suited to a specific genre. When you make a film with that character, you earn more bonuses.
Money! Money! Money!
To earn even more money, you use the money you’ve been saving up to level up your actors in Physical, Charismatic, and Acting skills. By doing this, not only are you increasing the income from the films you make, but you also unlock different tiers for your actors, where they can go from a talent such as Sickass to Danbox. This is all part of the Evolution Tree that has a significant effect on the way your characters level up.
Then the Research Factory is where you use the stars that you earn from reaching different points in the Evolution Tree. The stars are used to unlock boosters, such as a percentage boost in genre films you make or stars you use in these types of films.
Finally, there is the TV Studio option where you can produce TV shows that will earn an income whilst you are offline from the game. Unlike the films where you have to set up the production, the shows reset automatically, and then you spend money to either reduce the time or increase the income.
And The Oscar Goes To…
The overall aim of this game is to earn as much money as you can. When you think that you’ve earned plenty of money to upgrade actors and shows, you lose the money fast because of how much it costs to upgrade actors you buy later in the game.
When it comes to Tap games and pop references galore, I wanted to feel invested in a game such as Hollywhoot. The humorous references to film and TV added a certain charm to the game was well thought out, and was a push to play more to find as many references as possible. One of the features that were appealing as a game component was the use of the actors and how you assign them to different genres.
Upgrading the cast in the Academy increases in price for each actor you unlock, with the latest actor earning more than the others. Then when unlocking perks in the Research Factory, it gives you a greater chance of earning a massive income. Therefore, money is not as scarce as you think from when you start out in the game. This is also increased by the use of the TV shows to earn money whilst not playing the game.
Be The Auteur
However, one of the main issues I was that I didn’t find myself committing to it on a daily basis. There was no issue with the fact that you could skip the waiting time on movie production by watching advertisements that only lasted 30 seconds. It was a more thoughtful alternative than paying and using gems to skip times. The issue was watching these 30-second ads and immediately losing interest in making another film, because of the thought of watching another long advertisement.
The game does have redeemable elements, such as its charm and its use of upgrading actors through different skills to earn bonuses. However, whilst Hollywhoot is driven by its use of ads as a way of progressing, it can be considered one of the game’s downfalls. If you’re interested in a game such as Hollywhoot, then do check it out on the iPhone and on Android!
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Sarah Johnson
Sarah ia a 20 year old Drama and Film student from Manchester, UK. Writing and reviewing video games is something that she enjoy's doing, particularly indie games. She's been playing games all her life, but when she played Bioshock in 2010, it got her back into gaming and since then, she's been playing a vast amount of games.
