Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra takes the familiar Mob Wars formula from the late-2000s Facebook era and repackages it as a faster-moving, more accessible crime RPG. You start small, running street-level jobs, then gradually build power through heists, upgrades, and steady income sources until you are operating like a true boss.
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Publisher: Kano Playerbase: Medium Type: Mobile RPG Release Date: 2009 Pros: +Very light hardware demands. +Faithful to classic Mob Wars-style progression. +Progression and skill points come quickly. +Daily tasks and rewards add routine goals. Cons: -Monetization can create power gaps. -The core loop can feel repetitive over time. |
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Overview
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra follows up on the original Mob Wars, a Facebook standout that reportedly reached over 2.5 million active users in 2008. This version broadens access beyond Facebook, letting you play via browser or on mobile, while also speeding up the pace with quicker skill point gain and a more rapid sense of progression. The structure is simple and familiar for the genre: complete jobs and heists, grow your stats, and reinvest your earnings into better gear, vehicles, and protection.
The early game focuses on building momentum, while later play tends to revolve around optimizing your routine, expanding your income, and competing for power through player conflict and group activities. It is an RPG in the sense that your numbers matter, but it is built around short sessions and steady accumulation rather than long story quests.
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Key Features:
- Pick a Boss Style – Select from 3 Boss types with distinct advantages: Insomniac (faster energy gain), Tycoon (faster cash gain, or Bulletproof (heals faster)
- Player Fights and AI Targets – Challenge other mobsters or cooperate to bring down AI bosses for additional rewards.
- Build Passive Income – Put money into city property to generate hourly cash, including while you are offline.
- Syndicates – Form or join syndicates (up to 25 players) and push together for weekly leaderboard positions.
- Raid Bosses – Coordinate against tougher raid bosses to chase better loot, with difficulty tuned toward teamwork.
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Screenshots
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Featured Video
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Review
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra is built around a classic social RPG loop: spend energy to run jobs, get paid, improve your loadout, then repeat with bigger numbers and higher stakes. It is an intentionally lightweight experience, designed for quick check-ins, and it succeeds best when approached as a long-running routine rather than a narrative-driven RPG.
One of its biggest strengths is pacing. Compared to many older Facebook-era titles, progression here feels brisk, especially in the early stretch. Skill points arrive quickly enough that you are regularly making decisions about where to invest, and that frequent feedback helps the game avoid the “stuck grinding” feeling that can set in with slower browser RPGs.
Combat, as expected for the genre, is more about preparation than execution. Your effectiveness is largely determined by stats, gear, and the size and quality of your overall setup. PvP adds tension because it turns your progression into a social comparison, but it can also be a source of frustration when you run into players whose power is far ahead of yours. On the cooperative side, AI and raid bosses provide a more structured reason to team up, and those encounters typically feel like the most “eventful” moments in the game since they break up the solo job cycle.
The property system is another highlight because it gives your play sessions a clear economic backbone. Investing in real estate for hourly income creates a steady sense of growth even when you are not actively running jobs. It also adds a simple planning layer: deciding whether to keep liquid cash for upgrades or lock it into long-term earnings.
Where the game can lose players is repetition. The core actions are intentionally streamlined, but that also means you are often doing similar tasks with larger numbers rather than learning brand-new mechanics. Daily rewards and tasks help provide direction, yet they also reinforce the “log in, do your route, log out” rhythm.
Monetization is the other obvious pressure point. The game is playable without spending, but power progression can become uneven when paid advantages enter the ecosystem, especially in competitive contexts. If you enjoy the genre and are comfortable treating PvP as optional or secondary, the experience is easier to appreciate. If you want a perfectly level competitive field, the pay-to-win perception may be hard to ignore.
Overall, Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra is best recommended to players who miss the old social RPG era and want a modern way to scratch that itch, with faster progression and cross-platform convenience, but with the same grind-heavy foundations and familiar monetization trade-offs.
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Online Links
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Official Website
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Android
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra iOS
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Wikipedia Entry
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Facebook Page
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Android 4.4 and later, iOS 9.0 and later
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon…
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra Additional Information
Developer: Kano
Publisher: Kano
Lead Developer: David Maestri
Release Date: 2009
Development History / Background:
Mob Wars was an early breakout success on the Facebook applications platform after launching in January 2008. Not long after release, it was reported to be generating over $1 million per month and reaching more than 2.5 million monthly active users. The project’s lead developer, David Maestri, later entered a legal dispute over ownership with his former employer, Freewebs, which eventually became Social Gaming Network (SGN). After the ownership issues were resolved, Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra arrived as a spin-off released outside of Facebook.
La Cosa Nostra is playable in a browser and on Android and Apple iOS, and it is tuned for quicker skill point gain than the original Facebook Mob Wars. The original Mob Wars is also widely cited as a key influence on Zynga’s Mafia Wars, which popularized a similar crime-themed social RPG format.