by Adam Sprott

Created on: September 09, 2008   Last Updated: March 04, 2011

Farm Frenzy 2 is a good game for children. It emphasizes management skills necessary for school, later games, or other activities. As a children's game, I would give it a 3/5, as the strategy is simple enough to learn and the game gradually builds up to higher levels and helps the player learn as they go. At the same time, the game is unrealistic and a few simple changes would make the game better.

Farm Frenzy 2's game play involved a large amount of micromanagement, as each product and stage must be done repeatedly by the player. This creates a fair deal of repetition in the game, but keeps the player involved. The graphics are very well done and ideal for a children's game. The same can be said of the sound, which provide the player with some warning and also queue the player to do some things.

The game is somewhat creative and innovative. It combines the money-managing aspects and skills of some games with the farming theme to make a different and engaging children's game. However, it does go too far in several places. Since I live on a farm myself, I can say that farming is not so idyllic. The game has bears dropping in to destroy the player's livestock and produce; bears hardly ever come near farms. Also, I have never heard of a bamboo-eating Panda Bear rampaging through a farm, crushing eggs and sending animals flying off the screen. I also have never heard of bears being sold in markets. I'm sure that the bears add excitement to the game for any children that are playing, but the bears are totally unrealistic and present a totally incorrect view of the world. The game also goes a little far with the idea of a plane that drops off needed supplies the player orders. Every farmer would instead go to a local feed mill, something I would have thought just as interesting and more engaging to the player.

If I was my 5 to 9 year old self again, I would probably enjoy this game for a while, before I mastered the skills it requires and was ready for something more "grown up" and challenging. I would recommend it to someone looking to buy a game for someone of that, or a similar age, as it will help build some simple and necessary skills.

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