Thursday, 16 March, 2023 UTC
Summary
The Little Citizens update for Little Cities adds residents to nDreams and Purple Yonder’s VR city simulator.
Unlike the paid Snowy Islands DLC last December, Little Citizens marks the latest free update in Little Cities for all existing owners on Quest. Following last year’s Attractions and hand-tracking updates, Little Citizens adds tiny residents to the city streets, who will interact with your various creations. The new version is available now and you can find the full update outline below:
Little Citizens adds people to the streets of your cities, bringing the hustle and bustle to your mini-metropolises and an even greater sense of immersion to the game. You’ll see residents interacting with your creations in a whole host of ways including enjoying a relaxing day at the beach, practicing yoga in the park or taking in a game at the stadium – they even wave back to you! You’ll also see these Little Citizens grow in number as your city expands.
We came away impressed during our Little Cities review last May on Quest. Calling it “an impressive effort from Purple Yonder and an accomplished city simulator,” we believed it offers a “succinct yet well-designed experience” and awarded it our Recommended label.
It effectively adapts the genre’s traditional mechanics into a distilled format that feels native and well considered for VR. The focus on immersive city design is the right approach, backed up by brilliant visuals and audio. The control scheme and UI fades into the background, as it should, leaving you to intuitively build your city without it ever getting in your way.
Little Cities is available now on the Meta Quest platform for $19.99, or bundled with the Snowy Islands DLC for $23.99. A Pico version is also available, though the DLC and post-launch updates are currently unavailable for it.