Zynga's CityVille Hometown on iOS: A small town for small screens

CityVille Hometown iPhone
While the lot of us has been hankering for some CityVille on the go, it would be almost a chore to manage a mobile metropolis. And with Zynga's newest mobile game, CityVille Hometown, it's clear that developer Zynga Mobile has achieved telepathy. The company's brand new, bite-sized version of its runaway city-building hit will be available worldwide as early as this week. And here's the clincher: it's the first Zynga Mobile game to launch in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. But that's far from what might make CityVille Hometown your go-to game on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The game tightens its focus on a small town, and it's laundry list of characters (most of which you'll have a hand in creating). Players will first be greeted by Bert and his grandmother, Gilda, who will show them the ropes of creating and managing a bustling small town. This includes building new businesses, sprucing up the place and, most importantly, getting to know its citizens. As you continue providing your inhabitants with more places to live, work, shop and hang out, you will learn more about their stories.

Gallery: CityVille Hometown

It sounds like CityVille Hometown plays a lot like its Facebook predecessor, and you'd be right in saying that. However, this game is not like FarmVille for iOS in that it's not an extension of the Facebook game. This is a brand new, stand-alone game--for now, as Zynga Mobile GM Justin Cinicolo hinted at to us today. Though, CityVille Hometown incorporates your existing CityVille friends to exchange resources, Energy and other gifts with. And while the game appears to take place in another locale than the city you're used to overseeing, Cinicolo told us that some CityVille favorites might make some cameos in Hometown in the future.

CityVille Hometown
CityVille Hometown will be a 100 percent free game to download and play, and Zynga will support it the old-fashioned way through micro-transactions like Energy and other items. The game will be available to play on devices that supports iOS 3.2 and above, and it will launch first on the Canadian Apple App Store with a global release to come later. We know you want to play the game now (expect a full preview when the game launches), but let these first images hold you over until then.