Strictly speaking, does the world absolutely need another Farmville clone? Probably not, but with so many of them out there, I’m glad that a few have taken the time to make really outstanding iPhone versions, like Farm Story.
While not quite as dynamic as Zombie Farm, Farm Story is definitely one of the smoothest and best looking farming sims available. The bright, stylized graphics are imminently well-suited to the iPhone’s small touch screen. Farm Story’s visual design isn’t especially original, but it is beautifully rendered and creates a look that is similar to, but definitely distinct from Farmville.
While you don’t get a friendly little farmer running around, the overall farming controls are beautifully smooth. I really appreciated how they remember your last action, so you don’t need to keep reselecting for each plot of land, and the touch controls work very nicely for navigating around the farm. Easily collapsed menus help preserve the limited screen real estate, and while scrolling through the many menu screens can get a little tedious, the actual scrolling mechanism works perfectly.
Farm Story’s social networking system may be my favorite for this sort of game, since it’s NOT on Facebook and doesn’t even require an email address. Instead, all you have to do is choose a nickname and then you are free to browse the community, visit other people’s farms, and add friends. Although you can’t water your own crops, you can visit other farms and fertilize or water their crops up to 5 times. Fertilized/watered crops give extra XP, so visiting other farms and leaving comments helps increase your chances of other people returning the favor.
Making friends and visiting farms also lets you see all the different kinds of layouts available and help you plan for the best looking farm. In terms of crops, trees, and decorations, the game has quite a lot of spiffy options available, no doubt with more on the way. Items cost coins and diamonds, although the cheaper amongst you may be dismayed to learn that you cannot earn diamonds, only buy them. That said, the game is now entirely free after starting out at $4.99, so it’s not worth complaining too loudly.
Farm Story doesn’t reinvent the wheel or even add any particular innovations, but sleek graphics, fluid controls, and Push notifications make this one of the best and most affordable farming sims out there. Unsurprisingly, the game is very repetitive, as are all farming sims, but if you’ve been wanting Farmville for the iPhone, Farm Story is most definitely worth a try.
This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.
Welcome to AppSafari. Our team loves apps and is dedicated to writing iPhone app reviews to help you find the best new & free iPhone apps in the App Store. You can browse the site in either gallery or list layout. Check out our giveaway page to win free apps daily.
Got mail? Subscribe to AppSafari by Email. Watch funny and interesting iPhone Videos gathered from around the web. Pimp your iDevice! Shop for Accessories in the AppSafari Store
I am not getting missions anymore…
Farm Story was a nice alternative for me since my droid is my only internet connection.. now I am annoyed. I have almost a hundred diamonds… I payed two seperate orders for in the last two weeks. Now it say’s I am not connected to the internet when I am. Usually I reboot my phone when this happens and am able to get back online. Now I can not open app right after my last purchase of diamonds. Which I only bought because this app was freezing up on me before and I accidently bought something I didn’t want with my free diamonds I earned, like by down loading the other games, leveling up, etc. I am annoyed!!!
Hmm, that is rather unfortunate. Well, if I ever come across apps that deal with real money in such a way, I’ll make sure to emphasize it in the review as a warning.
No she did not have authorization I was not with her when she downloaded this app her mother was and they do not know my password the money was taken without authorization and i have downloaded plenty of free apps without this occuring. When I have downloaded any paid app it asks for my I tunes account and password my daughter has said this is not the case with this app I guess I hace lost my money I guess lesson learned although I will try my best to have these kind of deceitful games stopped so it cannot happen to anyone else
@Patti Martin
I’m so sorry that this happened to you. Farm Story does have Gem purchases where you can download, essentially, graphical items through real money. A lot of free apps do this.
Unfortunate that you didn’t discuss the dangers of app usage with your granddaughter before hand. These games connect to the internet so dangers will be present. Keep in mind that other apps have features like public chat, which are usually riddled with people trying to ask for young girls pictures and locations of where they live.
Depending on her age, this could be an oppritunity for you to teach her the value of money by making her do chores or work a job and pay you back. Otherwise, she did need your authorization. The AppStore password was what she needed.
You could cancel payments and file a dispute against them to get them, but if you allow her to be on the internet or if you ever handed her a credit card, you really need to speak to her about financial responsibility too.
My grandaughter downloaded this ap for free apparantly then my credit card had 4 X 199.99 charged to it as well as 150.00 and numerous 30.00 charges totaling 750.00 an so angry she was able to this without any authorization at all. Still trying to get my money back this app should be gone.
But there is no section to type anything???
Where do you type XxXzrekXxX? To get. A lot money & gems
My 11 year old got this App 5 days ago and enjoyed it. But I have a concern. She met a “boy” on her who now has her email, her picture, and her friends cell phone. (she does not have a cell). We check her email and saw this. She thought nothing of it but we stopped it. I gotta feeling he is not who he says. What can/should we do. If he’s bad he’s gonna find other girls ..
Where do you type it?
Type in XxXzrekXxX to get 500000 coins and 100 dimonds
Add me: jagmeister
Two issues. First, I hate the pop up to sell chests. It is very annoying. Stop it! Please! Second, I get knocked offline more and more. Is your system overloaded?
add me Quangsang thanks
I love this App way better than Farmville
Rubbish Guys, nothiin wrong with the app