That's right, Mall Tycoon fits into that wide-open undiscovered niche of discount shoppers interested in building their own shops, play areas, escalators, and department stores in an effort to somehow attract legions of customers and rake in the dough. Vintage 1994 graphics and laughable gameplay make this one the first games of 2002 to snatch a deserved one-star rating.

From the first floor all the way up, there's very little entertainment value here. The game allows you to play some mildly interesting scenarios, including the ultra-basic "keep your anchor department stores happy" to the more creative "rid your mall of escaped prisoners." That's about where the fun stops, right after you start the game. The object is to build stores, place various objects around the mall such as statues and water fountains, run advertising promotions to attract customers, and then reach a set milestone, such as a certain number of customers or monetary goal.

There are a few "tycoons" who might find this kind of gameplay mildly appealing, but graphics will be a huge turn-off. The game requires a 16MB video card, which is odd because it looks exactly like some of the early SimCity games from about a decade ago. Many of the storefronts and interiors look blotchy and dated, so zooming in for a closer look (using both mouse buttons) actually reveals less detail instead of more. Colors are washed together instead of crisp, and textures look unprofessional. Worse yet, the areas surrounding your mall is nothing more than a bunch of empty squares except for a few random houses that look like an afterthought more than a way to add atmosphere.

2D animated shoppers repeat the same dull sprite over and over again, making the "action" on the screen seem more like a movie that's stuck on one endless frame loop. You know, there's the one were the child is jumping on the furniture at an office supply depot - 40,000 times. Some elderly shoppers do the same shuffle across the floor while punks saunter by in a jerking, cartoon-like motion. And other than the customers and a handful of in-game characters such as janitors and "men in black" security guards, there's nothing else on the screen that moves or draws you into your retail establishment.

Crunching the numbers is sort of a senseless exercise as well. Tablatures for your monthly successes are directly related to the number of stores you create and how long you're willing to wait until you reach the established goal. Other screens allow you to configure the percentages of target customers, from babies to young punks to senior citizens. Screens for reviewing the attractiveness, security, number of shoppers and other data seem useful, except that it's unclear how to really affect these various factors. For example, you can follow any one customer around and see what kind of shopping habits they have, but you can't really determine how to direct them to a given store.

Most of the features are obviously just intended for the "putzer," someone who just wants to change the look and feel of their store. Obviously, this might be more interesting if the visual effects of your changes were rendered in a more appealing way, but being able to change the front of your music store from puke green to puke orange is just not that fun.

A free build mode allows would-be mall owners to try out various building methods and tactics without any penalties and goals for success. What's really missing, though, is a scenario builder where you can construct a basic mall, set some goals for yourself, and then run your own scenario, or even share them with friends. You also can't create your own store and objects from scratch since the game is limited to those objects included with the game. Compared to the almost endless options and detailed objects found in much more robust titles like the The Sims, Mall Tycoon isn't even worthy of consideration from the most diehard mall rat or shop-aholic.