by genkicoll Sun Sep 09, 2012 12:51 pm
Review by Cordia, Nov. 4, 2010
Farmers Market was developed by Fugazo, a company who has released a
great many games- and many great games, too! You will recognize them from Cooking Academy, World Mosaics (of which there are three now), and Fiction Fixers: Adventures in Wonderland, among others.
This is a time management game with two modes of play in it. I have not finished it yet, so I haven’t tried the “Challenge” mode, but in the “Relaxed” mode, the timer is only there for the purpose of achieving the expert time. I suspect that the “Challenge” is to finish it within the time given or try again, but I will update this when I am sure. I think this game would appeal to a fairly large audience because of the option to take as much time as one needs.
The quality of this game is fairly high- pretty much what you would expect from Fugazo, if you have played any of their games. I am not a huge fan of the graphics, but I don’t mind them. They don’t inspire love or hate, which is perfectly fine. I like the little sound effects and the music is not too distracting. It’s a little intimidating, but I keep reminding myself that it doesn’t matter how long I take to finish a level, yet. I will worry about that the second time I play through. And only then will I attempt “Challenge” mode.
The game play is quite to my liking. The customers are secondary- I need them to buy stuff, but they do that (or not) on their own. I can build some things to make my market more appealing to customers, but that’s it. I don’t have to sit and watch their patience drip away until they are red in the face and then see them storm off. This is a key point to my preference in Time Management games. I know that the customer pleasing games are very popular, and I am in no way advocating that they should be abandoned- this is just what I enjoy. I think that, perhaps, Farmers Market qualifies more as a strategy or builder, and that is why I like it more.
There are two basic categories of stalls which may be placed in the market; Farmers and Vendors. The third category is for special stalls, and I’m not going to go that far into the game to explain what’s in that category. I liked being surprised when they were introduced, actually! The farmer stalls make the basic ingredients that the vendors need. Some vendors need ingredients from both farmer stalls and other vendors, so the priority of things to build can get fairly complex at times. The items in the farmers’ stalls are always available for customers in the market to buy, but it is more profitable to have the
ingredients delivered to the vendors and to sell their product. The goals and the stall space are pretty limiting as to what can be built, but there are quite a few levels that have a lot of flexibility.
The story is typical of Time Management games, in that you’re starting your business from scratch and gradually working towards making it a huge success. For me, the story is less important in Time Management games than other genres, because it is incidental to the actual game play. With Hidden Object and adventure games (especially the former!), the only thing to really engage me is the story. If it doesn’t interest me, I’m probably not going to lay down money for the game. For Time Management titles, though, if the game play is to my liking, I will overlook flaws left and right.
Too Long; Did Not Read: I am really enjoying this game. If you can believe this, I actually find it kind of relaxing. Good game play is more important to me than the story in this genre. The art is good but not particularly to my personal taste, and it is does not decrease my enjoyment of the game. This was a good purchase, for sure.
Have you played Farmers Market? If so, what did you think of it? Did I miss anything important? If not, did my review effect your desire to try the game?
