WHATS HOT
   

Simulation games are a niche that has not recieved much attention in the recent past, Plant Tycoon attempts to fill that void. In plant tycoon you start with with an empty nursery and a task to build both a profitable nursery and unlock the secret of the four magical species. Unlike most simulation games, Plant Tycoon works in real time, which introduced new challenges to the genre.

SETUP

   Plant Tycoon’s download consists of a single executable file which automatically starts the active synch process. The program can be run from main memory, built in storage or memory cards and has relatively small footprint. Once installed Plant Tycoon’s icon is placed in the games directory.

PROGRAM FEATURES

   Though most of the mature plants look quite nice, the overall graphics of the game are rather simplistic. The game operates much like the Tomagotchi toys of the late 90′s, in that it runs in real time. Even when your Pocket PC is turned off the plants keep growing. The game definitely requires some patience since even in fast mode things take time to grow and develop. The real time component of the game is both its biggest strength as well as its biggest weakness. If you check your plant too frequently you will find there is little happening, but if you wait too long between feeding and watering, bug infestations and wilt can overtake your plant in a hurry. For busy people, teh real time elements can be a bit too much to deal with. One tip I found was that manipulating the Pocket PC’s clock can speed things up for the busy or the impatient. I found this especially handy for learning the nuances of the game which are not well documented.

   You start the game with fifteen flower pots, dirt, water and a small pile of cash. At the beginning there are three menu options Seeds, Shop and Sell. The seeds screen displays your current inventory of seeds and also allows you to visually experiment in combining different seeds to find which plants will create new types of seeds. Sadly, it only displays the seed itself so the end result is still mostly trial and error. Chasing down the four magical plant species is a daunting if not impossible task since there is no real guidance in reaching the goal. For some this may actually be an attractive feature as it is similar to the unlockable features found in many of todays console games.

   The shop is the players source for seeds and other plant essentials like food and pesticides. Starting funds are rather limited so stick to the basic seeds, plant food early on. Though it is only one dose and quite expensive, I would recommend buying pesticide. Later as you earn more money upgraded soils, foods and even decorations for the nursery can be purchased. Later in the game the upgrades become essential since the hybrid plants require certain soils or foods to grow.

   Once seeds have been acquired the next task is to prepare your nursery by dragging soil, water, and seeds to the collection of flower pots. In the early stages, after your initial plants are potted, there is really nothing to do but wait for the plants to grow. This is the point where I started playing with the system clock, two hours appears to bring a plant to either full maturity or after pollination to full seed production. To the right of your collection of flower pots, the status of the individual plants lets you know when a plant needs food and water, as well as the overall health and maturity. Many times I found the plant looking healthy but the health meter lower than optimal, sometimes feeding plant food brought it up, but many times it just seemed that the exotic plants simply dont grow well in basic soil.

   When the plants are finally mature, you can begin the process of pollinating. Selecting a mature plant then dragging the the pointer from the pollen icon to another mature plant begins the pollination process. By crossing pollen from one type of plant to another new varieties can be created. Cross pollinating is the key to the game, but avoid being too aggressive about it early on since the exotics have higher requirements that are impossible to meet without the funds for better soils and foods. I learned this the hard way, several times in the game I became frustrated by finding most my plants had died after only being away from the game a few hours.

   After new seeds have been acquired, you can begin to sell the plants in your nursery. To sell one, select a plant and click the dollar sign icon. This will then bring up a menu that lets you set a price for the plant. Once a price is chosen, the plant designated for sale automatically appears in the nursery. You can view the nursery by selecting the SELL icon, leaving the nursery requires a simple tap on the screen. The nursery view not only displays all the plants you have for sale, you can also watch shoppers walk about the gardens. When you are first starting out the visitors are few and far between but as you add more exotic plants and upgrades to the nursery like fountains, the crowds will steadily increase. One odd element of the game is that plants only appear to sell while you are viewing the nursery, otherwise they just sit on the shelves. If you are short on cash, leaving the nursery screen up for an extended period will eventually result in at least most plants being sold.

HELP SUPPORT

   At the start of the game, you are presented with the option of receiving tips while starting your nursery. Unfortunately the tips only cover basic things such as potting and watering the plants and buying equipment. The real meat of the game, which is creating exotic plants and finding the four magic plants, is mainly trial and error. There is a help file but it is only a few short paragraphs and does not really go any further than the initial tutorial. Additional help of a more technical nature can be found at the LDW website.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

   Plant Tycoon is compatible with all Arm or X-Scale based Pocket PC’s running Windows Mobile 2002 or higher. Only 700k is required on the Pocket PC to install and run the game.

BUGS AND WISHES

    If I had one wish for this game, it would be a turn based mode of play. The real time method of gaming is great for those that have time to babysit their virtual garden, but for the rest of us it makes the game frustratingly difficult. There is the option to pause the game but that requires you to leave the game active which is not an option for the memory conscience PDA user. I would also like to see the graphics updated a bit, while the game is fun, the graphics tend to give a budget title feel to an otherwise "Maxis" quality simulator. Though a tutorial is provided, documentation could be much better, too much of the game relies on trial and error and much of the initial irritations could be avoided by pointing out the peculiarities ahead of time. Perhaps im asking too much, but I tend to expect more from a $19.95 PDA game.

PURCHASING

    Plant Tycoon can be purchased for $19.95 at the pocketnow store.

PROS

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  Highly addictive gameplay

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  Complex strategies

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  Replay value

CONS

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  Simplistic graphics

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  Real time can be a real pain

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  Weak documentation

• Price

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    My initial reaction when asked to review a game about horticulture was sarcastic doubt. The idea of playing virtual gardener seemed about as interesting as watching plants grow. After toying with the game for a bit it became nearly irresistible, I found myself stealing moment to fire up the PDA just to check on my plants. Though Plant Tycoon may fall short in some areas, in all the ones that really matter, it delivers. If your a fan of other simulation games give this one a try, it can really grow on you.