Disney City Girl on Facebook: Life in the big city is expensive, but fun

After growing up and going to college in a small town, it's time for country girls (and perhaps boys) to move to the big city in Disney City Girl on Facebook, a new life simulation game that feels a lot like the Sims, but is way more girly. Aimed specifically at the female audience, Disney City Girl focuses as much on fashion as it does home design, as characters will guide you through life in bustling New York City via a continuous storyline of quests.

From the beginning, aspiring fashionistas will be allowed to dress their avatar in both casual and high end fashions. Hair and makeup design is also allowed, but there unfortunately aren't any true accessories like glasses or earrings to make avatars really stand apart. As it stands, hair color and style are the two biggest ways to make your avatar stand out from the thousands of others that will eventually be created in the game, so hopefully Disney increases the game's customization options in the future.

After the initial character creation process, the game kicks into high gear, as you're introduced to your avatar's needs system, career, home design opportunities and more. Like the Sims, your character's fundamental needs like hygiene, hunger and rest must be accounted for at all times, and you'll use items like beds, coffee makers, microwaves, bathtubs and much more to keep those needs filled. You'll spend some of your limited (but rechargeable) energy to interact with all major items, so you can quickly run out of energy if you let those needs drop into the red zone all at once.

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All characters will be given the opportunity to enter the work force, but there are thankfully multiple careers to choose from, with more being promised for future updates. The Fashion Designer and Chef careers are unlocked from the beginning, and they'll introduce new characters with appropriate storylines, depending on your choice. In the Chef career, for instance, you'll work from the very bottom as a dishwasher and eventually become a talented chef, all by completing jobs that can be mastered with repeated attempts.

These jobs can technically be completed instantly, but there's a cooldown timer between each shift that must elapse before you can earn additional paychecks or mastery points. As you go along, some of these jobs can take hours to cool down between shifts, leaving you to go shopping or work on your home's design while you wait. Unfortunately, your starter home is microscopic in the grand scheme of things, as the game quickly asks you to purchase appliances, furniture, electronics and more. The starter home has no technical kitchen, so your refrigerator will end up in the living room, the exercise room becomes the bedroom and so on. It's cramped quarters early on that limit the fun that can be had by purchasing furniture items in the first place. Still, with the promise of larger, swankier pads in the future (which are unlocked by advancing in your career), there's definitely incentive to keep going.

You can play for about 45 minutes before hitting a pay wall in Disney City Girl, as you're left to either ask your friends for materials or pay Gold to advance instantly. That's a decent amount of time, and it allows for players to get "hooked" on the game, but the more time they actually spend playing, the less there is to do. Money quickly depletes as you purchase new clothing items for your avatar or items for your home, and until the game's user base starts to grow, there's very little in the way of social opportunities available for your character. As it stands, you'll have the game's computer character Jenna to keep you company. You can use your own energy at her pad after your daily visit bonus energy runs out, but hopefully, Disney will do enough in the way of cross-promotion to eliminate the need to add strangers to actually make progress without spending money.

Disney City Girl offers crisp, vibrant graphics and an upbeat/modern soundtrack, and some of the character animations are quite good - like your character trying to find her balance why rolling on an exercise ball, for instance. There's a lot of polish to the experience here, and we're sure that the game will become even better still once more people actually start playing. Then, the struggle to earn building materials for appliances and furniture will lessen, and we'll actually be able to make progress in our careers. If you'd like to get a jump start on the game, you can now dive right into your new life in Disney City Girl on Facebook.

Play Disney City Girl on Facebook >

Have you tried Disney City Girl? How do you think this game compares to similar titles like the Sims Social or the Ville? Sound off in the comments!