Developer: Incuvo
Publisher: 7Levels
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Crowdy Farm Rush – Review
There’s certainly no shortage of video games themed around farms these days. Most of these games are based around, well, farming, such as Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, and there are also plenty of tractor simulation games out there. Compared to those, however, there’s a significant lack of titles that are aimed at the younger crowd or revolve around farm animals. Crowdy Farm Rush tries to hit both of those goals. Read on to find out whether developer Incuvo’s attempt was successful.
Story
There’s no story to be found in the game itself. The eShop description tries to pad itself out and make the game seem far more exciting than it actually is, by giving colorful descriptions on how the game is about building out your rancher career, but in actuality, the word “rancher” isn’t even mentioned in the game itself. Adding insult to injury, the limited in-game text is written in broken English, with numerous errors in both spelling and grammar.
Graphics
The graphics are probably Crowdy Farm Rush’s best feature, although that really isn’t saying much. The game attempts to appeal to the lowest common denominator by providing images of cute and funny cartoon animals and bright colors. The simplistic art style and basic animations should draw the attention of young kids fairly easily. However, we can’t help but feel that even when it comes to the simple designs, the bare minimum effort was put in with all of the animal models being simple copies of one another. A little more variety in cow colors and spot patterns would’ve gone a long way, for example.
Sound
In order to understand just how awful the soundtrack to Crowdy Farm Rush is, you have to experience it. (Un)fortunately, you can actually do this by looking up the trailer for the game on YouTube. It’s only about a minute long and it features an ear-grating 12-second MIDI-loop. That very same loop is the game’s entire soundtrack. Now imagine having to sit through that loop for hours on end. Needless to say, we weren’t fans of Crowdy Farm Rush’s music.
Gameplay
In Crowdy Farm Rush, players must get farm animals back to their homes. This is done by drawing a line between the animals and where you need them to go. Depending on the type of level, you’ll either have to guide a set number of animals or just get as many animals as possible in their stable within a limited amount of time. There’s a constant stream of animals coming from the surrounding woods and they are continuously moving around, so the challenge lies in keeping an eye on all of the various animals on screen to make sure none of them collide. When two animals bump into one another, the game temporarily freezes and you lose a life. At first, you’ll only be herding cows, but as you progress through the game’s 100+ levels, more animals gradually are introduced.
Of course, these all have their own little type of housing: cows don’t belong in chicken coops and ducks don’t belong in cowsheds, of course. The animals all move at different speeds, so part of the trial is in figuring out how to manoeuver the various species so that they don’t bump when their tracks cross. The game also attempts to introduce another level of challenge by adding wolves into the mix in later levels, and you’ll have to make sure your farm critters aren’t eaten – although there’s very little difference between two animals bumping into one another or a wolf grabbing one of them. Finally, there’s also a multiplayer mode where up to four players compete to guide as many animals as possible.
The above is a comprehensive description of the entire game. It’s a repetitive and barebones experience that offers virtually no satisfaction. There’s no rush of excitement, no feeling of challenge, and most importantly, no fun to be found here. We really hate to call a title shovelware, but this game fits that description perfectly. It’s cheap, tries to entice kids with drawings of cute and funny farm animals and although it’s functional instead of a glitchy mess, it’s also incredibly boring to sit through. But wait, you say, this game is just aimed at younger kids, right? Maybe you’re just not the target audience? That’s where the game’s other problem comes in: this is a Switch exclusive. Sure, plenty of kids own a Switch but the majority of the younger crowd plays games on a phone or tablet.
Given how Crowdy Farm Rush works, you’d expect the game to be available as a mobile title as well but here’s the catch: the game doesn’t support touch controls. It’s a very counterintuitive experience if you want to play the game in handheld because when you realize the core mechanic is about drawing lines between an animal and its home, your first instinct is to do this on the Switch’s touch screen. Instead, you actually have to draw this line with your controller. This would be an odd choice but fine if the controls were accurate, but they’re ever so slightly off, resulting in yet another reason why Crowdy Farm Rush is more frustrating than fun. A tablet release, with touch controls, would’ve felt more at home for this game, and it would’ve reached a far more suitable audience as well.
Conclusion
If it wasn’t clear by now, we recommend skipping this game. We’re not against simplistic games per se, but in this case, all the elements blend together to create an incredibly dull experience. Developer Incuvo clearly didn’t try to put out a game that was good, but a game that looks just good enough to attempt to squeeze some money out of the pockets of gullible parents in order to shut up their kids for a while. Unfortunately for those parents, the soundtrack is worse than the sound of kids nagging for a new game.
Crowdy Farm Rush - Review,
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[…] games that have catchy music that gets stuck in your head -even if it’s in a bad way, like with Crowdy Farm Rush– but we can’t recall any of the music that we heard during our time with the […]