Bee Farm is an easygoing, cute and fun little app from Vivid Games which will test your line-drawing skills, your digital dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination. Guide your bees with a swipe of your finger to collect the pollen and return it to the beehives before the day is out. Keep an eye on the trajectory of your bees, and adjust on the fly, as there will be hazards to navigate if you want to get your pollen back safely. Aimed at younger gamers, Bee Farm will keep budding apiarists busy coordinating the actions of their various bees to successfully complete all the stages and achieve the highest ratings.
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| I hate rainy days |
The first thing you’ll notice about Bee Farm is how aesthetically attractive it is. The graphics are gorgeous; cute bees, comical enemies and bright colours all suggest that this game was developed for a younger generation of gaming enthusiasts. Accompanied by a suitably melodic score, Bee Farm is a game you’ll be playing with a smile on your face. A gradual introduction to the different aspects of gameplay gives the player a chance to get to grips with how the game works and how to make the most of your bees. There are five bees to unlock the further you progress into the game and each one has its own unique capability, though ultimately their main purpose is to collect and transfer pollen from the flowers to the hives.
To do this, simply place your finger on a bee and draw a line to a flower. Your bee will follow this line and alight on the flower at which point it will start gathering pollen. At any point after the collection process begins simply draw another line from the bee back to the hive and, as soon as your trusty worker has gathered as much pollen as it can, it will buzz back along it’s predetermined path. The concept is pretty basic so the creators have decided to spice things up by providing you with enemies to dodge. Carnivorous plants, mini-tornadoes and angry wasps will all attempt to strip your workers of pollen or delay them in their grand quest. Circumnavigate these obstacles by re-charting your paths and your bees should stay safe and productive, industrious to the very end.
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| The flytraps look like they’ve been hit by a stroke |
Race against the clock to fill all your hives with pollen and get a three-star rating on every stage with bonus points being earned for speedy completion. Admittedly, the stages are all basically the same in design apart from the types of bees you get to work with, the number of hives you need to fill and the number and type of enemies out to get you. Despite this, the progressive nature of the challenges means that things do get harder the further you go, and with plans to provide more stages via free updates, there should be enough there to keep most people entertained for a reasonable amount of time. Also, play in Survival Mode and compare your score with other players through integration with Apple’s Game Center.
All in all, Bee Farm is a fun, cheerful, easy to play game. It might not be the most challenging game in the world but its enjoyable to look at, well executed and has an addictive element to it that will keep you playing until you get three stars on every stage. Not everyone’s cup of tea due to a lack of replayability but if you’re bored and have some spare time, Bee Farm is certainly worth a look.
– Dom S
