The more cash you make, the bigger your farm grows and the bigger the farm, the larger the chaos and fun.Īlright, Farmer Steve, let’s pick up those eggs while they’re fresh and don’t forget to build a water trough for those thirsty sheep, but, oh no, your chickens are spooking your cows and watch out! UFOs are stealing your alpacas and a twister ruined your fences! Now all your animals are roaming around going feral – they hate you and each other, life sucks and you wish you stayed in the city and never inherited this barn of funk from your gap-toothed hairy uncle. Once you master the harvesting of one type of animal or plant, you add as much as your budget allows you to.
You buy a food pen and a coup within a few virtual days, and you’re already feeling like Farmer Steve. You click and drag eggs to a machine and maybe pet your chicken every once in a while. For the most part, it succeeds in this, starting off at a simple slow pace that you set for yourself. To be fair, Funky Barn doesn’t need to blow you away in the aesthetics – it just needs to be a fun, hypnotic multitasking affair. However, that this is placed in the price range with other retail titles is rather disappointing. It’s obvious this is a low budget title, and it’s perfectly acceptable for a lower priced indie download. But the models, music and sound effects are passable at best, and the presentation is extremely minimalist. It’s certainly cute enough, with adorable critters and creative gadgets that eventually fill the screen with a funky farm life. Speaking of not showcasing potential, Funky Barn doesn’t aim to do anything spectacular on the Wii U. Instead, Funky Barn plays like a mobile or 3DS title that does little to showcase the system’s potential. If you were able to actually perform tasks like milk cows or sheer sheep with a mixture of motion and touchscreen via the Wii U’s gamepad, this would make it more like… oh, I don’t know… a Wii U game. There’s definitely missed opportunities with animal interaction seeing as how the touchscreen is limited to merely petting your animals. Interaction with the farm is functional as animals are easy to pick up and move around and the menus are intuitive enough, but control wise, this barn doesn’t shine.
Chickens lay eggs, sheep grow wool, cows give milk and trees drop apples as long as you keep doing your job right. In Funky Barn‘s circle of life, you essentially feed the animals and plants, maintenance them to keep them happy and healthy, protect them from natural disasters, and then reap the rewards of your hard work. You’ll be interacting with animals and objects via cursor and trigger buttons on the gamepad as well as menu navigating with the touch screen. Just like in real life, you’ll start off with a baby chick, a plot of land, a small budget and a pipe dream of being the best damn farmer you can be.
FUNKY BARN WII U FOR SALE SIMULATOR
Much like any perky farm simulator you’ve ever played, Funky Barn lets you live out the dream of a simple and earnest farm life without all the backbreaking labor or heavy manure smells. This week, though, we’re traveling back to the launch window and putting 505 Games’ Funky Barn, a farming extravaganza of bubble-eyed animals and crazy gadgets, to the test. Titles have been as plentiful as I’d like, but there have been some standouts.
Six years after the launch of the Nintendo Wii, I found myself once again putting aside my skepticism and decided to give the Big N my money – I took a chance and picked up the Wii U.
If this barn is really so funky, where’s Mootsy Collins!?