by Xiang Xiang Liew

Created on: April 23, 2008   Last Updated: April 27, 2008

You are surrounded by richly textured greenery, the leaves and bushes shimmering in emerald, chocolate, viridian, and all the other shades of green. You see red shiny apples being attacked by a yellow pudding; you hear their pathetic yet heart-rending cute little screams for help. You see pink squishy blobs hovering, colorful caterpillars crawling, and ponds of bubbly blue highlighted with silver. Color is splashed cheerfully across the screen. You can even hear pigs grunting in the distance. The fantastical, cute graphics and sound effects combine to create the feeling that you've walked into a fairytale land.

And indeed you have. Welcome to Bloomland, a magical world filled with excitement and adventure! The graphics of this game are simply exquisite. The texture of every single thing in the game is crafted so beautifully, with such care. You can see every single crease and wrinkle in the logs and trees. The creators have done a wonderful job in creating an unique setting for the game. But hang on, the graphics and sound effects are just part of what makes this game so great!

In BloomBusters, you play as a gardener living in Bloomland. You can choose between Jimmy (higher strength, moves slower) and Jessie (high speed, low strength). In the first few levels, you'll have to protect your fruits and veggies from various cutesy monsters, armed with nothing but your swatter and your water hose. The tutorials help you to learn how to use your weapons' easily. And when you swat a pesky yellow blob or squirt out a load of slime to pulverize it, the accompanying sound effects are extremely satisfying; you almost feel like you're really there, squirting those monsters to death!

But there's much more to this game than just beating up vegetable-stealing monsters. The makers have been really creative when designing the game play. You'll have to do stuff like growing cabbages, feeding chickens and pigs, guarding flowers from the monsters while watering them The levels most often combine multiple gaming elements, which results in rich and varied game play. Every level is always different from the previous one, so you never know what to expect. Plus the levels get more and more challenging as you progress. All of this combined makes for a very entertaining, addictive game. I would purchase it instantly if I had the money. I give BloomBusters a definite 5 out of 5.

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