Game: Granny’s Garden

Developer: Cabbit Games

Platform: iOS

Price: 69p

Help Granny plant and grow a range of different flowers in her garden. This simple game involves taking care of flowers by planting them and then watering them, providing them with sunlight and sprinkling them with vitamins until they are healthy, fully grown, blossoming specimens.

Granny offers help and advice throughout and warns you when you begin to over-feed your plant.  Granny even provides you with little flower facts such as ‘Did you know almost all tulips come from Holland’?

This is one of the simplest games I have ever played on the iPhone and that is just the problem; it is so simple it is boring. In fact, I am still decidedly confused about the game for one of two reasons. Either the game’s ‘How to Play’ function is not good enough and I do not know how to play the game properly or (and I am inclined to believe this one) I am playing the game properly and it is just unbelievably dull.

After almost two hours of game play I am yet to see a flower. The game is so restrictive that Granny will not let you over-feed the plant or expose it to sunlight too much. The result is a game where you stare blankly at an empty plant pot, pressing one of three pre-designated buttons only to be told that you are not allowed to press that button yet.

The game might be loosely based on a retro game of the same name that was played on computers in schools during the 1980s and 1990s to teach children how to use computers. However, I say loosely because the 1980s version was an adventure based game where as this game simply offers the chance to help Granny grow flowers – the actual game play has little similarity.

The game boasts good graphics and I agree with this to a point, the graphics are very clear but nothing really moves, there is nothing to hold your attention and over two hours of (accumulated) game play has produced no results.

The game has a piano sound track that becomes as monotonous as the game and I am unsure if the ‘Save Game’ function works – this could very well be the reason that my game has produced no flowers.

All in all this is a poor game, with little to do and nothing to keep you playing. At one point I was told that I had gained a ‘Level Up’ but I am not sure what I did to attain this. The game does not provide any challenge or sense of satisfaction and even Granny becomes annoying as she chips in with inane facts that most would already know.

The worst part is the price – this game does not represent value for money as I do not think that for 69p it provides any form of entertainment. My advice – don’t waste your money.

Verdict: 1/10 – This is one of the poorest games I have played on the iPhone – download at your own peril.