Sim type games have been around for awhile and seem to be very popular for phones and other small devices. So, when I checked in the Android market to see which games were popular, and "Pretty Pet Tycoon" came up as a high rated, highly downloaded one. So I decided to take the Halloween Edition out for a test drive.
The idea for this episode of Pretty Pet Tycoon is that you're helping a cartoon pig (Piglina, who has moved to a farm in the countryside) set up a business that grows and sells fruit -- as well as (if you choose to go there) running a juice bar. Later levels unlock the candy factory section as well along with a mysterious competitor who seems bent on driving her out of business.
The instructions are... well... hard to find. I figured it out after a bit, but it took some doing.
The scene begins with Piglina on her farm and boxes of vegetable seeds coming down a conveyor belt. You use the touch-and-drag method to pull these plants to a certain box (red or blue... the plant will have a red or a blue box around it.) Then you tap the planting box and Piglina comes over to tend the crop. A few seconds later it's ready to be harvested, so you you drag it to the scale and tap the scale icon. Piglina trots over and boxes it. You drag it onto the truck and tap the truck. Piglina starts the truck and it heads off to Pretty Pet Tycoon Town and sells her merchandise.
As the days go on, the seeds come down the conveyor belt faster, and if you don't get them planted quickly enough they will go bad. If you don't harvest the crops quickly enough, they'll go bad. If you leave the packages sitting on the scale too long, they'll go bad and she'll lose money. My early mistake was buying plots of land rather than hiring workers -- as it turns out, workers are only hire-able with "Pet Points"... an in-game currency. You start out with zero pet points, by the way.
I played this one to level 8, but found that I could only hire one worker for Piglina with the money she had. There is the option to buy enough Pet Points for workers and automatic machines with Paypal, but I really don't care for games that rope you into paying for extras. The quick pace of the gameplay wasn't enough to hold my interest -- frankly, it was a bit too much like some jobs I've had.
For people who've played this style of game (Soda Shop, Waitress, Hair Salon), this one will have a lot of charm. The graphics are clean, and visuals are decent on an Android phone.
As for me, I deleted it and went back to "Dragon, Fly!" I've almost mastered swooping now.
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