Did you play SimCity on a floppy disk? Don’t feel comfortable with the ‘theft’ part of Grand Theft Auto but do you like to run around and play mini games? Have you stopped checking Twitter and suddenly find yourself looking for things to do on your phone?

Boy, do I have a game recommendation for you. I would like to introduce you to my latest guilty pleasure: Pocket city 2.

I’m not actually a big mobile gamer. And despite spending $7 on a single cup of coffee semi-regularly, I’m pretty stingy when it comes to paying for apps. But when I read the description of everything you could do in Pocket City 2, I couldn’t pay for it fast enough. I have not regretted this $5 purchase ever since.

It is a mobile city building game of the classic SimCity genre: you build roads and residential areas, police stations and parks – everything your citizens need. You do all this in a floating God mode, like in SimCity, but you can also jump in and explore in delightfully low-fi 3D. As your city grows, you’ll unlock new buildings and features – and must balance a budget while your citizens complain about traffic and push for things like “schools” and “functional waste management.” It is awesome.

This game goes deep, especially when you enter “free roam” mode. You can play a mini-game where you are a driver, pilot a helicopter, walk into shops and buy food or clothes, adopt pets from the animal shelter and decorate your own mayor’s house. I’ve been playing it, uh, let’s say a lot, over the past week, and I feel like I’m just scratching the surface.

The $5 price is actually one of the things I like most about the game. You don’t have to wait to generate certain resources. There are no in-app purchases. You pay once and you participate. I’ve played EA’s own SimCity Build it for a while, and sure, you can ignore the microtransactions and play for free, but it feels a bit icky. You may also run out of things to do if you are not willing to pay to speed up resource generation. Not so in Pocket City 2. I’m too embarrassed to admit how long I played the game after everyone else in my house went to sleep.

The thing about this game is that it is also really damn delicious. There are funny little details everywhere; citizens walk through your city saying things in speech bubbles like “I don’t trust birds” and “Do you want more money? Get another credit card!” A building sign shows a bookstore called “Page against the machine” and there is a bakery with a sword logo called “Bread of the Wild”. Bread of the Wild! You can eventually build a public transportation system with subways and elevated trains , the last of which really walk on and drive through your city. It’s an armchair urbanist’s dream.

I could go on and on about the fun little discoveries you can make throughout the game or the delightful ways you interact with your city, but I think it’s more fun if you just download it and see for yourself. And anyway, I have to get back to my town – I heard Bread of the Wild just opened.