Astro Ranch

I remember reading late last year about an iPhone Game in production which took inspiration from the likes of Animal Crossing and Farmville. Well, that game is finally here, Tag Games released said title into the AppStore just over a week ago. It’s name, Astro Ranch.

The premise of the game involves your choice of character (male or female) crash landing on an alien world after a bit of an altercation with the character you didn’t choose. Fortunately, the locals are a somewhat friendly, yet sarcastic, bunch who are willing to show you around and set you up with a house, a barn and a plot of land on which to grow various crops and raise a bizarre collection of livestock. Aren’t they generous?

But don’t think this game is just about growing crops and raising livestock, there’s far more to it than that. There are a variety of mini games within the game which include: fishing, panning for gold and treasure hunting with use of a metal detector. There are also a number of quests to be undertaken for the inhabitants which makes each day varied and interesting. You don’t just wake up, grow crops, sleep, repeat. This game is beginning to look less and less like Farmville with every passing minute.

The controls work well, to navigate the world, simply touch where you want to go. The various minigames all have their own controls and the game makes good use of the accelerometer to achieve specific goals. For instance, panning for gold involves shaking your iPhone or iPod touch to sift out the dirt. That’s not to say they’re perfect, on occasion it seemed that I had to shake my iPhone a little harder than I would like but presumably these minor issues will be resolved in future updates.

Given the number of various crops and livestock that can be raised in the game you need to know what’s selling high right? Well, the computer terminal in your house can help you there. This will show you the current sale price and your potential profit (or loss). You need to be careful raising livestock, just like in real life, if you don’t take care of your animals, they will get ill and die. But if you care for them, the returns can be high, not only can you sell them for profit, but some animals can be sheared for wool, or milked for, erm, well milk.

Almost every aspect of the game is upgradeable, from your fishing rod, to your home. It’s safe to say that there’s plenty to keep you occupied in this game. If you ever manage to get a bit of downtime you can check out your scrapbook of fish you’ve caught or see what trophies you have managed to achieve.

Did I mention that all this gaming goodness is presented entirely in 3D. There’s no doubt that this game is a beautifully rendered world, colourful and varied. The graphics were definitely inspired by the likes of Animal Crossing, but when it looks this good, you could hardly say that was a bad thing.

Now onto the part of the game that will probably be most criticized. The Downloadable Content. Yes, DLC is available in this game. But if you’re not a fan, don’t dismiss the game just yet. It is a complete game in its own right and every feature is available from the go. But, if you want to really personalise it, you can buy new clothes for your character, or perhaps new furniture for your house. This is purely for cosmetic changes and a nice way to say thanks to the developers who have put in a lot of work in getting this game out.

The initial release had a few issues, but an update has been released which fixed all these problems. With such a colourful world in which to immerse yourself (I’m not even sure if I mentioned half of the things you can do in this game), this really has something for everyone. It’s so good and addictive in fact that the wife hasn’t moved from the couch in a week.