Fish Tycoon still holds mysteries to me, since I haven’t found all the magical fish nor all the possible breeding combinations. But now, Plant Tycoon takes a good deal away of my time, and I’m always running it in the background as I work on other things, constantly checking my progress.
Plant Tycoon is basically Fish Tycoon, with flowers. The game takes place in the Island of Isola, where you have a nursery. You manage seeds, plants and flower pots, pollinating them with one another, and trying to find the six magical plants of Isola.
Your basic tools are soil, water, pruning sheers, a butterfly net and a seed box. And of course, the 15 flower pots to plant in. Planting something is very easy: fill a pot with soil, water it well, put a seed in it and wait for it to grow. A plant is fully mature once it’s in bloom, and you can’t sell them until they reach that state.
To discover new plants and produce new seeds you have to pollinate your mature plants. Fully grown plants will have pollen, which you can drag to any other mature plant to start producing new seeds. But you can only pollinate a mature plant once.
Some things can make your gardening job a lot easier. You can purchase seeds and upgrade your tools in the Supplies store, as well as decorations to spruce up your nursery and chemicals to help your plants grow faster, bigger and healthier. There is bug spray to get rid of pesky bugs buzzing around your pretty flowers, vitamins to make your plants healthier, mutation liquid to completely change a plant from one species into another, fertilizer to grow bigger plants and insta-grow formula to advance a stage in the plant’s growth.
Any plant you don’t want anymore can be sold in the nursery. Just like the store in Fish Tycoon, you will see the typical Isola inhabitants (Virtual Villagers) come in and roam around, admiring your plants and your decorations, eventually buying something. You can adjust the price of your plants too, so if something seems to be left behind every time, lower the price a bit. On the other hand, if a particular plant seems popular, raise it a few bucks for a little profit.
Plant Tycoon also gives you a bit of a “side quest”, to collect all the little bugs that appear. That little butterfly net is used to sneak up on passing bugs (spiders, beetles, butterflies, moths and more) and catch them. Catching a type of bug for the first time will place it in the Collect showroom, in its special little jar. There are 48 bugs to collect, and any duplicates you catch will be sold for a little extra money.
Now, with all the seeds and plant species I was able to produce in such a short period of time, I wish I had a bigger seed storage (I love seeing all the colorful seeds in there) or a way to exchange seeds with other players. I think that would have made my day! A way to track a plant’s “family tree” would also have been excellent, but I guess that would make it too easy.
The game also has an online leaderboard feature that tracks your ranking in a series of things, just like Fish Tycoon did, and a snapshot function where you can arrange your flower pots the way you like it and pick a background to go with it. The game also keeps working even when you’re not playing, like Virtual Villagers and Fish Tycoon, so don’t forget to adjust game speed if you can’t check in on your plants often.
Overall, Plant Tycoon is very entertaining. I like seeing my plants grow, discovering new ones, even the little bug hunts. The music is very pleasant and the visuals are quite nice, so it’s always refreshing to see a new hybrid bloom into something you haven’t seen before.
For those with a green thumb or anyone who enjoyed Virtual Villagers and Fish Tycoon, Plant Tycoon is the way to go. You will certainly enjoy the watering, pruning and genetic manipulation of it all.
Special thanks to Linda Meyers and LDoW for providing the full version of this title.