by Stanley Richards

Created on: April 24, 2008   Last Updated: April 27, 2008

When I first saw this game, I must admit I was not impressed. The graphics looked lovely and cutesy but it was about flowers. With a name like Bloom Busters, I thought I was about to endure some low standard farming gameplay. I couldn't have been more wrong.

True, watering flowers is a part of the game, but only as a quick mission to achieve while busy with the game's main objective; smack monsters to Hell! Yes, this game is a beat-em-up and I must say, I fell in love with it. The simplicity is wonderful. You progress through levels, given various objectives to help your farm and though these little activities are a nice break, they became a lot more difficult when you realize you don't just have to, water some flowers and feed some pigs, but beat off enemies while you do it. These enemies will attempt to eat everything, the animals and the food you're feeding them. To 'scare off' these creatures you have to give them a very satisfying 'whack' with your fly squasher or squirt them with a powerful jet from your 'goo hose'.

This is controlled simply by clicking where you want to go, clicking on an enemy to attack it and pressing the space bar to change weapon. Though simple, the control handles beautifully, the characters very rarely getting stuck on obstacles and if they do, it's not big deal to click them away. Picking up items is easy but the main problem lies in dropping them. To drop an item, you have to click where you want to use it and your character walks to that area and drops it. Clicking again stops the action. However, that can get frustrating on all sides when you are trying to feed a pig, yet an enemy suddenly appears and out of excitement, you click and suddenly, you are no longer dropping the item. This happens repeatably and can get frustrating when the game gets hectic, which it definitely does. The difficulty curve is fair but harsh so new game players have a chance to learn and get better while veterans are also presented with a challenge. There are also three difficulty levels that can be unlocked though that is impossible in the trial period. This and high scores gives the game replay value.

A nice feature is if you press z, a 2nd player can appear to help fight,. They are controlled directly with the keypad,z and x. They can do nothing but fight and limit the screen's movement with distance adding an important tactical side to the game. In conclusion, this game is original, innovative with it's lovely 'farming' sections, easy to control yet challenging to play and it's lovely graphics and sound effects make up for it's rather lacking music. If I had the money, I would buy this because despite the very occasional shortcomings, this is a lovely game intended for, but not limited to families. 4/5

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