Will Farmville Addicts Enjoy Farm Frenzy: Animal Country for the Nintendo DS?

I am a Farmville addict. It's a shameful little addiction of mine, and yes I probably work on my virtual farm more than I really should be, but man, I want to collect everything and this is what keeps me coming back for more and more.

Sadly I do not have an iPhone so playing Farmville on the go is impossible for me to do at this time. When I came across Farm Frenzy: Animal Country for my Nintendo DS though, I have to admit I was intrigued. The games case showed off neat graphics of farm animals and barns, and all that good stuff that I see on a regular basis on Farmville.

Without knowing anything about Farm Frenzy, I went ahead and coughed up my dough and brought the game home.

Unfortunately it failed to peek my interested the way Farmville does. In fact, it's nothing like Farmville.

Plot:
 
Well I started the game off by creating my user profile so I would be able to quickly come back to my saved progress. Unfortunately after that I was left on my own to figure out exactly what was expected of me. There is no tutorial and I was thrown into game play without even getting the point.

Was I to save a farm? Raise cattle? WHAT!?

I have to admit, it was frustrating for the first few minutes of playing. Finally I began to grasp it, but still did not get the point of why I was playing. Apparently it is to feed animals, throw eggs, and throw flour? At least that is what I think it is.

Game Play:
 
The game starts by showing you a birds eye view of your farm. It has blue bubble with an arrow pointing to it. You click her and begin your first mission.

Quickly I got an understanding of what this game entails. It is a compilation of mini games that grow more difficult with each mini game you complete.

The first one I was to collect 4 eggs. I did this by placing grass on the ground for the chickens to eat. I then had to sit around and wait for them to lay eggs until I had collected 4 eggs.

Easy!!!
 
However as the game goes on, you will be collecting more than just eggs. You will need to at times collect eggs, chickens, coins, and trap enemy animals to keep them from eating your animals.

Each mini game will have a time limit in which you have to complete the mission with a gold trophy. If you need more time, which you will, as always, you level down to a silver trophy, followed by bronze.
The game is basically a lot of touching of the touchscreen, and waiting.

As it goes on, it gets more difficult, but you grow quickly bored with the repetitive nature of the game play. Granted the challenge gets more difficult and will be fun for awhile, you get a little sick of the repetition.

Granted game play does have its fun moments, it grows old fast as each mission seems like the last, only they will ask for more objects, such as more chickens for you to buy, more flour to mill, and so on.

Graphics:
 
The graphics are nothing like what the box displays. Your animals are pathetic galloping 2D like creatures attempting to look 3D in their environment. I always get angry when games look nothing like what the box cover looks like, and Farm Frenzy: Animal Country is just one of those games. What you see, is not at all what you will be getting.

Sounds and Music:
 
Sounds and music in the game resemble what you would imagine farm music would sound like. It has a deep southern like farm-ish tune that plays in the background, and the animals all make realistic sounds as well. I liked the music and sounds in the game, no complaints from me.

Controls:
 
The controls are all basically made up of your stylus tapping away at the touchscreen. When you need to add grass to the dirt, you tap the dirt and wallah, grass grows. When you need to fill up the water well to make grass grow, you just click it. When you need to collect eggs, the same goes for that too. Simple right?

The problem is, they grow unresponsive at times, and if you are not fast you could end up losing an egg or collectible object, which will disappear if you do not collect it quickly enough. If the touchscreen decides to fart out on you, losses add up. It does happen quite often, but it truly does not distract from the game all too much, an annoyance to say the least.

Overall:
 
Farm Frenzy: Animal Country is a decent game, but definitely not worth the asking prices, which primarily sit around the $20.00 range. For $7 however, this one would be a good pick, so look for it in bargain bins at local game shops if you really are addicted to the farm life.