She's got the whole world...in her hands.
She's got the whole, wide world...in her hands.
She's got the whole world...in her hands.
She's got the whole, world, in her, hands.
It's Gardening Mama 2: Forest Friends.
Come play with us, forest friends.
So, uh, I'm not gonna lie to you.
This is the most f*cked up, terrifying video game I've ever played in my life.
It's like Dead Space, Fatal Frame 2...Wii Fit, this.
I should also mention I have this weird fear of fitness trainers.
Surpassed only by my fear of gardening mamas.
Specifically, ones who have glassy, soulless eyes and mouths as wide as their torso.
You harvest tomatoes, she harvests souls.
Gardening Mama 2 is both a sign of the apocalypse...and a game about flowers.
Actually, it's about lots of crap that grows.
And that's the thing.
You have this garden, and the whole game is about tending to it.
Restaurants will order vegetables, floral shops will order flowers, and that's basically
the game.
Grow stuff, ship it out, learn to grow new stuff...ship that stuff.
Get rewards.
Play minigames.
Obey.
Like a lot of farming games, it operates on a daily schedule.
So every day, you kind of get to choose what to do.
There might be a friend outside, waiting to place an order.
There might be a letter in your mailbox, which usually leads to minigames, that unlock new
seeds.
And of course, there's your garden.
That's where the bulk of the game takes place.
That's where you plant, grow and harvest more than 50 kinds of plants.
So it's a lot of daily upkeep, as well as management.
You only have a certain amount of space to work with.
So you can only plant so much stuff at once.
It's a really simple game, but it's also a lot of fun.
And what I like about this one, compared to some of the Cooking Mama games...is all that
management stuff.
So instead of just a selection of minigames, it's all placed within the context of operating
a farm.
You have to pay attention to orders, you have manage your garden...and as do that, and have
successful harvests, your garden actually levels up.
Which means it gets bigger, and there's even more to do.
So it's, like...the minigames of Cooking Mama, but combined with lots of farming simulation
elements, and all placed within the framework of what is really a game about management.
So I love the concept here.
I love the design, I love the simplicity...all these individual parts really come together
well.
But there is room for criticism in terms of the individual parts.
I mean, some of the minigames, in particular...they're not always great.
They're always designed with the touch screen in mind.
And sometimes, they knock it out of the park, but...
As with lots of touch-based games, some of the ideas fall flat.
Fortunately, the interface is generally well done.
Working with your garden is a breeze, it's simple to move around and access all the different
parts of the farm.
And the presentation is good, too.
It has that same colorful, distinctly Japanese style that has always defined these games,
and it looks great on the 3DS.
Very cheery.
Maybe a little too cheery, especially in terms of the sound, and music.
Then again, all that cheer...it's hiding some pretty dark sh*t.
Games like this always amaze me, because...they somehow find a way to make mundane busywork...fun.
Like, most of the time, you're just planting seeds, and watering plants...I mean, this
is manual labor.
Manual labor is never fun.
Mama has a way with words, though.
And with indoctrination.
Don't ever question Mama, is what I'm saying.
It's Gardening Mama 2: Forest Friends.
An awesome, adorable and addictive 3DS game...about cults.
I mean farming.
It's a game about farming.
Run.