4/5: Short and all most no replay ability, but still a really fun game.
DEVELOPER(S): RELEASE: 2008
Premise: Howdy there, farmer, and welcome to our humble little village! There's not much here, bu'chu know, I bet with you and your farm around this place'll grow into quite a town. Anyway, see ya around. I'm looking forward to some fresh products. Especially potatoes. Everyone loves potatoes, don't they?
Gameplay: While the game's title suggests that the game is a simulation, it's more of a time management game than anything else. You don't take care of the animals or your fields. Instead, you're just the delivery guy, to the point where the whole game title is totally misleading. Instead of being called "Youda Farmer," the game should be christened with the title "Youda Fresh Produce Delivery Guy." But of course that wouldn't attract many people. And it's a considerably long name for a "casual" game. I'm guessing the game wasn't called "Farmer's Dash" because the word "Dash" has been trademarked.
While the paragraph above suggests that the game is just a knock-off of Flo's success, it is not. You receive orders at the bottom of your screen, click on them, and then you are taken to the part of the farm where you have those products. You drag the products into crates, and the truck will pick them up. After the goods have been picked up, you click on the order once more to check them off. There is a quota as to how many products you need to pick up, along with a number of how many orders there will be in all in this part of the level. Orders stack up quickly and they don't wait unless the truck is coming to pick them up; this can be particularly frustrating for younger children, but they will definitely get the hang of this game. My younger cousins have, anyway.
After everything has been gathered, you drive into town and deliver all that needs to be delivered. Click on the orders and you'll be brought to the establishment that needs your products. Hovering over the owner of the establishment will be a visualisation of the order. That is, if the baker wants three bags of flour, three bags of flour will appear above his head. All the bags of flour have to be clicked, and after that, the order, presenting your payment, has to be checked off. As time goes by the amount of money you receive drops, and of course, if everything takes too long, the order will be canceled. If you don't make the delivery quota, you utterly fail.
When the level ends (gathering and delivering products are two halves of a level), you can choose to buy upgrades for your farm and/or truck. As you upgrade your farm, the village grow—if you get sheep on your farm you'll attract the tailor, if you get pigs eggs and bacon can be served, et cetera. There are also upgrades that speed up your truck or the processes of making certain products.
Every so often on the farm you'll see "Party Products," or, your products with party hats on. Collect them, and once you get to the village, you'll be able to deliver them to the pub. After you deliver enough party products, you'll earn a piece of a puzzle. Complete the entire puzzle, and you'll play a mini' game where the truck drives through the whole village (including your farm), and you'll have to collect as many of your products as you can. Get enough and you'll unlock new paint jobs for your truck. Along with that, the completion of party mini' games is mandatory to complete the game. At least, the last mini' game is.
Graphics: I used to have this assumption that all "casual" games could be played on a slower and/or older computer. Woo, did this game prove me wrong. While it seems to me everything has been prerendered, the game is a really graphically busy game. Fish are jumping out of the pond, wheat is growing, and a few of the shopkeepers are sweeping here in there. I'm not sure, but everything is done in real time. It may be a pain to some with reasonably cruddy computers, but I've got a piece of consolidation to offer: at least you can still click on stuff as the camera moves from area to area. No, really.
Almost everything has been prerendered in 3D (aside from order illustrations and such). It's quaint, good, maybe even great. Except for the fact that everyone has four fingers. Or, [u]specifically[/u], the women in the game have four fingers. Start up the game and take a glance at the main menu. You'll know what I'm talking about. But, aside from the creepiness of these alien humanoids, the graphics are really quite something. Like what happens when you check off an order at your farm? The products do little pleasant things. My personal favourite is the milk order.
Sound: The music personally was very irritating and very repetitive. Luckily I was too busy go to and fro' to notice. As for the SFX, thankfully they're not as annoying. They're realistic, and sometimes it can be a bit funny to hear a few "moo"s here and there.
...Err, yeah, that's it about the sound. What else is there to say?
Overall: The game has its flaws, but it's original, very enjoyable, and a great, great stress-reliever. Unfortunately, the game's short length and lack of replay ability really knocks the game quite a few notches. Though this can bring joy to anyone who has a decent mouse and hand-eye coordination, I really recommend this for the youngsters, because I'm sure they'll be able to milk more out of this than more experienced gamers who finish the game insanely fast. -coughs-
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