Marcus Albers writes: "While there are those out there for whom making money is almost second nature, I am not one of them. I admit that freely. It is this deficiency that has challenged me the most while playing the newest game from Rusty Axe, Big$hot (herein referred to as BigShot because I hate it when people substitute symbols for letters). At first I thought I would be in for an experience akin to that of games like Flip or Flop and Build-a-Lot. But I soon realized that it takes some business savvy to make your way successfully through this big-business simulation, and not just an eye for property improvement."
Out of Eight writes: "With the fantastic shape the U.S. economy is in, it's difficult to make any money in real estate these days. Of course, we can always resort to the wonderful world of computer gaming for escapism during these troubled times. Instead of shooting aliens in the face, you could resort to trying your hand at developing commercial property. The developer behind the house-flipping game Real E$tate Empire is back with another "$" title: Big$hot. Instead of improving houses, now you are snatching up businesses and turning them around to reap large profits. Well, hopefully."
The real estate business is probably a puzzling, incomprehensible section of the economy to the average citizen, and the events of the last two years surely did not add to its popularity. Big$hot, a new strategy game by Rusty Axe Games, tries to bring out the real estate broker in all of us by urging the player to juggle various companies while trying to understand the current state of the economy.
Big$hot is a straightforward tycoon game, so there is not much of a story. In the beginning you name your alter ego and choose a photo to represent yourself. Then you can set basic preferences, such as the difficulty level, from easy to pro, and the length of your game. Big$hot is turn-based, and one month equals one turn. Players can choose whether they prefer a very quick game round of about 12 months, or a more complex round consisting of 96 turns.
