Theme Hospital is a fantastic and lighthearted hospital simulation game made by Bullfrog back in the late 1990s. It was critically acclaimed and has a cult following that still plays and adores it more than 20 years later. My Hospital feels a lot like Theme Hospital in many ways with the main difference being that the developers have infused the approach with modern mobile game practices—for better and for worse.

Your fresh out of college and have landed the enviable positioning of running a new hospital. The first step you’ll take is to open reception. From there, you’ll purchase rooms for different types of doctors as well as specialized rooms that multiple doctors and nurses will use. Like with Theme Hospital, this isn’t serious business: you’ll have a tummy doctor on staff, for instance. Your job will be to balance the needs of your patients with your expenses. Building up your hospital will be expensive, and as with many modern mobiles games, building a new room or whatever is often time-gated. Gameplay can also be persisted, and if you create an account, you can actually save your game and come back to it later.My Hospital provides you an isometric view of your hospital. The graphics are cartoonish but look great, and it makes effective use of animations to point you to UI elements or show you where a doctor or patient is headed. Despite the great look, the game seems to run fine on netbooks and such.

The theme song is quite good but unfortunately quite short. This is a game you’ll likely play for an extended period, and after about 20 minutes or so, we muted the game. Fortunately, you can mute the music without silencing the sound effects—but you will need an account to muss with the settings!

My Hospital is an impressive hospital simulation that’s fun and lighthearted for kids but sophisticated enough to draw in older sim fans. The game does have in-app purchases, and as the game progresses, your options become increasingly time-gated—unless you choose to pay to remove those limits. The developers really want you to open an account via email or Facebook as well. The game nags you repeatedly and blocks basic access to settings and save files and the like until you create one.