Saturday Casual Gaming 239: Merge Farm

Merge Farm from Gram Games

By now, you'll have noticed that I really, really like merge games. There's something about the "condense two or more of the same item into a new one" gameplay that I find soothing. So I like to move things onto themselves and turn them into new, better versions of themselves. You may recall that I've recently covered an otherwise inoffensive merge game with absolutely unacceptable permissions requests on the Android store?

Well, this game has no such issues.

Also, it's heckin' cute.

If you recognize the name "Gram Games", then you may recall that I've played and enjoyed another of their offerings, Merge Dragons, before. It was a nice three-in-a-row merger that I still like to play now and then, so I was not exactly trepidatious when I downloaded Merge Farm.

It's a cute little game where you merge two of the same crop onto each other to improve how much you harvest from each one. Then, when there's a bit of shine (and/or movement) to your crops, you can easily harvest them by swiping the basket over the crop! Once you collect enough of certain crops, you can sell them to customers near the top of the screen for money, which you can use to buy more crops, buy more space, or eventually buy new and interesting buildings, manufacturing spaces, or farm animals!

Don't want to spend money on crops? Don't worry! The game is gentle with you and will periodically drop leaves from the top of the screen. Tap those leaves to collect them, then match two leaves to get a seed! Match two seeds to get a random crop at level 1! You'll get a lot of tomato plants that way early on, but I use the leaf > seed > crop connection to spawn free crops all the time. More crops mean more sales! More sales mean more money! More money means more space! It's agricultural capitalism at its finest!

On the other hand, things are a bit crowded.

If I have one complaint with this cute, fun game, it's that you can't always click what you want. If the leaf is near the banner ad at the top of the screen (which you can pay real money to remove), then you can't click it. If it's near a customer, you can't click it. There's a big cash shop button in the bottom right that I keep accidentally clicking when I want to check my storage (the gray-and-yellow button) or to shop for new buildings/farm animals (the red-and-yellow button). I also bump the cash shop button when I'm trying to scroll through the available crops to buy more of them.

On the other hand, it's 100% free - you don't have to pay real money for anything if you don't want. The game functions perfectly well on its own without any cash buffs. I actually kind of like having the (mostly) unobtrusive banner ad up above, since I know that supports the developers long-term, and if they're being supported, then they can keep making such cute, fun games!

Overall, I'd have to say that Merge Farm is an excellent choice to pick up for free in the Android or Apple stores. I think it may be on Facebook, as well!

That'll do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 238: Mergical

Mergical by Betta Games

I love the concept of Merge games. It's basically Marie-Kondoing a game board and there's something wonderful about that feeling of gratification when you've consolidated dozens of similar items down to a few disparate things spread much further apart. You feel like you're cleaning, but you don't get as overwhelmed as if you were cleaning, say, a hoarder's house...

Anyway, that's all a long-winded way of me letting you know that I've been playing Mergical, a mobile game by Betta Games.

And yes, weird dolls are an important part of this game.

Mergical is a lot like Merge Dragons in a lot of ways. You merge groups of 3 together, you're unlocking parts of an island covered in clouds, you're healing land, you're collecting currencies and magic power, etc, etc. Instead of collecting and merging dragons, however, you collect and merge... people. Not sure how to feel about that. Especially since you merge dolls to get people.

Are they golems?

Am I summoning actual people who are desperate to escape?

Am I a monster?

Whatever's going on, you want to match things in groups of three, and you want to do it a lot.

I mean, this is only a couple of unlocks into the game. If it was zoomed out, it could feel overwhelming.

So far, I've only unlocked two or three sections of island, but it's enough to give me a feel, I think, for how this game plays.

Here's the good:

• The graphics are adorable - everything looks good and cute!
• The clouds are precious little hearts!
• Items progress in a way that seems to make a lot of sense (fruit tree seeds > fruit tree saplings > fruit trees > apple trees > pear trees)
• Your helpers respond when you drag and drop them or when you double tap an item for them to collect
• The challenge levels (which are located in the bottom left corner) are quite reasonable (so far)
• The "quests" (located on the left hand side) are fairly straightforward and not impossible without spending real money
• The game is very generous with its rewards, granting you gifts for time spent in-game, specific in-game tasks, and more.

But there are some problems:

• Items don't like to be told where to go - sometimes I'll tap on something to move it and it won't go where I say, other times I'll brush by something to move the screen and an item will move where I don't want it.
• It's very limited gameplay so far
• It's easy to get overwhelmed with so many items in one place
• It takes a very, very long time for seeds to sprout on their own.
• For some reason, this game wants permission to make calls from my phone. That's a big no-no, Betta Games. Fix that. It's not okay or cool. It shouldn't ever have a reason to ask that.

If they can ditch the incredibly nosy permissions they ask for, I would unreservedly suggest this as a game for your younger kids (even with some cash shop items available - just don't give your phone access to your finances and they can't charge these things to you).

6/10, could be a lot of fun.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC