Pat Logsdon
08-05-2004, 12:30 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ldw.com/pt_ppc/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.ldw.com/pt_ppc/index.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Plant Tycoon sets players on a journey to create a virtual nursery of wildly diverse plants, cross-pollinating numerous varieties along the way to discovering the genetic codes for four magical plants. To finance the research necessary to pollinate and harvest the four magical plants, players must sell their discoveries along the way to earn the financial resources vital to acquiring special enhancements— such as exotic seeds, soil upgrades, radioactive plant food, and Insta-Grow fertilizer. Unique among games for mobile devices is the "real-time" nature of growing a virtual plant nursery in Plant Tycoon. Unless a player pauses the game, plants will continue to grow and thrive, or wither and perhaps become bug infested —depending on how often the player monitors and nurtures the plants in the nursery."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20040804_plant_tycoon.gif" /> <br /><br />Magical Plants? Exotic seeds? I half expect Cheech and Chong to make an appearance in this title, which I'm SURE has nothing to do with the favorite past-time of those gents. Rather, it looks like this is a "<a href="http://www.jitterbug.com/gvt/gvt.shtml">Tamagotchi</a> in a garden" sort of thing, which means that these digital plants actually have a chance of surviving what I like to call my Black Thumb of Death. My uninterrupted string of floralcide includes 3 bonsai trees, innumerable ferns, and a Venus Fly Trap that somehow managed to eat itself. :mrgreen: <br /><br />This game was released for the Palm platform in November of 2003, so it's had a chance to be thoroughly reviewed by such esteemed publications as <a href="http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/games/PlantTycoon.htm">pdabuyersguide,</a> <a href="http://www.pdarcade.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=271">PDArcade,</a> <a href="http://www.pocketgoddess.com/reviews/palmos/software/20040227_1730_Plant_Tycoon.htm">PocketGoddess,</a> <a href="http://www.bityard.com/article.php?sid=565#Adds"> bityard,</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=plant+tycoon+review&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8"> and more.</a> All told, this looks like a very fun, extremely addictive game. To celebrate their first foray into the Pocket PC world, LDW software has hacked $10 off the price, which means you can pick up a copy for the <a href="http://minibrand.handango.com/minibrand/basket.jsp?addItem=128989&code=7EE8BB0&siteId=707&bNav=1&continueUrl=http://www.ldw.com">almost criminally low price of just $9.95.</a> If any of you Palm converts out there have played this, pipe up and let us know what you think!