DS Review: Gardening Mama

With the success of the Cooking Mama series (which yes, I will get around to reviewing one day), it comes as no surprise that they'd expand the franchise further into other arenas to broaden their fanbase. It did surprise me that they chose gardening of all possible avenues to choose as their next endeavor, but hey - who ever thought the cooking games would become such a hit? If anybody would know how to make gardening into an entertaining video game, Majesco would.

The opening screen looks like any given one of the Cooking Mama games, style-wise. (The whole game does, naturally, which I LOVE and scores it major points with me. I'm a geek for their animation style.) The music and sound effects also follow suit with their predecessors...and with the exception of Mama's accent, I like them. That accent though, maybe it's just me, but it sounds like a horribly racist attempt at a Japanese accent. C'mon..."butterfry"? I've known MANY folks of Asian descent, and never once have I encountered one who pronounces L's like that. But I guess if nothing else, it's almost free entertainment. I just couldn't help but feel that it's pretty inevitable that I'm sure somebody's offended somewhere over it.

In this game, you grow a variety of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Of the flowers, it's a pretty fair array of the most common flower types, and then some. I was a little disappointed that there were no calla lilies, but hey, can't win em all. The fruit and vegetable varieties, I wish they'd of broadened their range. They had the absolute basics, and that's it. But the ones they did have were still fun. Better still though are the special unlockable plants ;) I won't give away the surprises here because that would defeat a lot of the point of playing the game. But trust me, they're pretty. (Also, if you get a perfect score in the special garden, you get peacock butterflies to visit your plants instead of swallowtail butterflies. As I am a stickler for perfection, I never stopped at anything shy of a 100 rating, so I have no clue what else shows up if you don't get a perfect score.)

I was also impressed with the level of detail paid to to process of growing each plant, even if some of them were more than a little unrealistic in their approach. Also, despite the game's simplistic style, there's a lot of complexity to the game. You'd be amazed how tricky it is to get a perfect score on a lot of the levels! I had some difficulty in most of the levels that involved digging, and the ones that involved drawing specific shapes - namely the watering and fertilizer levels - had tricky parts. Am I the only person who can't draw a star to save their ass? And unless you get the spiral JUST perfect in the watering level, it won't count it. They should've allowed for a little more leeway as far as perfect precision goes in drawing these shapes. Speaking of the fertilizer levels, I'm also annoyed by the ones that involve waiting for the right color to pop up...but that's just because I'm very impatient. I don't like having to catch the mice either, but...I don't particularly like mice to begin with. (Sorry to any mouse lovers out there.)

I was also very impressed by just how customizable the gardens themselves are! You can add in all sorts of decorative fixtures all over the place. I wasn't patient enough to do it with all my gardens, but it was nice just knowing I could if I wanted to. It serves no real purpose in the game other than aesthetics, but this customization does make it feel more like a real garden.

You also have the opportunity to customize Mama's appearance. I had much more fun with this than the garden customization, but then, I love almost any game that allows me to play fashionista ;) By the time I was done though, I noticed something... Mama had suddenly taken on an uncanny likeness to Sarah Palin! (I swear it was unintentional.)

Here's a nifty little trick that I discovered entirely on accident, but turned out to be pretty handy: While playing the levels where you must break up the clouds and blow them away, if you don't feel like wasting your breath, sit in front of your stereo speakers and have some loud music on. The beat of the music will literally scare those clouds away!

Overall, even if you're not a particularly outdoorsy or gardening person (which I'm not), you'll more likely than not enjoy this game. There is something inherently rewarding about watching things grow that you've cultivated, even in the virtual world. If you like simulation games, give it a try!

I'm going to go ahead and rate this title an 8 1/2 green thumbs out of 10. :)