Farmtopia is a cute little time management/simulation game along the lines of Diner Dash, but with less importance placed on the timed aspect. Here, you'll control your cartoony livestock, protecting your stock from deadly quacking bears, making sure they have grass to dine on, eventually selling their produce off to make money. The graphics are cute and the animals are very easy to distinguish, but the products they make can sometimes be a little confusing, especially since in at least one instance, they are named differently than in the manual. It doesn't really matter, though, since you'll figure things out on your own pretty easily.

The music is happy and upbeat and I never felt the need to mute it. It almost has a bit of a magical flair to it when you are in the Menus, like something Harry Potterish. Although you can certainly play without the background music and sounds, having it on adds to the feel of the game. The sound effects are pretty minimal and the only one that really stands out is the bear that makes a quacking sound when he removes your livestock from your farm. Actually, he sounds more like The Penguin on the old school Batman series. It's truly odd.

You'll have the opportunity to interact and care for geese, sheep and cows and you'll have cats and dogs at your disposal to help you, but more on that later. On your farm, you'll have the opportunity to purchase various processing plants and although each one is distinguishable from the next, they didn't stand out enough such that I knew which plant was which once I had purchased them. What this means is that I simply had to tap all of the available plants to get them to process my eggs, milk and wool, since I didn't remember which was which, at least early on in the levels. Again, not a huge thing, but one which caused more clicking than was necessary.

Farmtopia has 48 levels to work your way through with semi-branching paths on the map. First off, the tutorial is somewhat lacking, so I suggest you read the manual before playing because you will gain insight into what you need to do rather than taking the extra time to figure out what you need to do. While I hate it when games don't have a sufficient enough tutorial such that you are forced to read the manual, in this case, I advise that you bite the bullet and read. First off, when you select a level, you'll see the processing plants needed for that level pop up on the top screen. Then you'll see your goals, which could include a monetary goal, an animal goal, a product goal or a combination of the three. You'll also see the time that you need to complete the level by to earn the Gold Medal. If you go past this time, you'll see the time for the Silver pop up and if you go past this time, you earn no medals. Other processing plants may be available for you to use, but may not have anything to do with your goals. They are there in the event that you want to purchase other livestock and make additional money, or they could simply be there to distract you. While there is pretty much one way to accomplish your goals in the strict time limit for achieving the Gold Medal, there are many ways to play and enjoy the level, especially since the only penalty for not completing your goal in the time limit is the loss of a Gold or Silver Medal. Sometimes it's fun just to rack up crazy amounts of money and to upgrade everything you can, but sadly, those upgrades only last for that level and you'll have to buy them again in future levels.

There is a Shop button in between levels and sometimes, you can't progress along a certain path unless you visit the Shop and purchase upgrades. Each processing plant has 5 stars that indicate levels it can be upgraded to and the other items like your car, watering well, cage and storehouse, have 4 levels they can be upgraded to. However, upgrading in the Shop doesn't mean that those things will be waiting for you when you jump back into the level. Instead, what it means it you'll have the opportunity to buy those upgrades in your level once you have earned enough money in that level to do so. It's a bit confusing and convoluted, but it works well enough.

Ok, so now you are actually in the level and what happens next? You might start the level off with one goose or several. You might start off with a ton of animals and no money, so while it might seem like a boon at first, you have to keep them watered and they will die off quickly without it. You will almost always begin the level with a little bit of money, but this game is a puzzle in and of itself as far as how you will play out the level, so you don't want to go in guns blazing. You'll want to plant a bit of grass to water your livestock and then see what processing plants you already have and which ones you'll need to activate by purchasing upgrades. Just because a plant is there doesn't mean you'll need it and if you made a lot of money and went crazy in the Shop, then all of the plants will be available for purchase, regardless of whether they factor into your goals or not. Once the livestock starts producing foodstuffs, you can click to pick them up and load them into the storehouse, then click on the correct processing plant to begin processing them. Eggs convert into Milk Solids or Powdered Eggs (according to the manual) which can be converted into Cakes by the Egg Solids Plant and then the Bakery. Wool can be converted into Threads and finally Clothing using the Spinnery and then Weaving Mill. Milk gets converted to Butter then to Cheese using the Churn and then the Dairy. The more processed an item, the more money you will collect for it.

Sometimes, the bear will come to attack your livestock and you can click on him several times to build a cage around him. If you have room in your storehouse and you click on him enough times, he converts to this little black item that I can only assume is a bear pelt and that goes for $100. If you are hard up for cash, sometimes this can be your only way of making money, especially if the level started you off with no money and no livestock. Once you have enough in your storehouse, you click to send the car to town to sell your goods and the car comes back with cash.

Some levels are more difficult than others and getting the Gold Medal is always a bit of a challenge, but since the timer is only there to see whether you qualify for the Gold or Silver Medal, you can take as long as you want to complete a level and this really takes the pressure off. As I said earlier, each level is like a puzzle and there is one correct way to accomplish getting the Gold Medal. Be sure to look over your goals when they are presented to you and keep them in mind when your level first begins. If your goal is 5 threads and you begin the level with 10 geese, you'd be wise to go ahead and sell off all but a couple of geese before they die of thirst, because this is just what will happen if you are given lots of livestock you don't need and no money for water.

The further you progress on the map, the more difficult the levels will be and the more will be expected of you. One level actually gave you 40 minutes to get the Gold Medal and this gives you an idea of just how tough that goal is to accomplish. I'm not really sure why chickens, pigs and horses are depicted on the front of the box because you don't ever get those on your farm, but there will be plenty of challenge with just the geese, sheep and cows, rest assured.

You'll use your stylus for everything in Farmtopia. You'll click to purchase livestock, click to plant grass and click to refill the water well. You'll click to pick up foodstuffs (at first, anyway), click to trap the bear and click to select which items you'll send to market. You'll also click to upgrade all of these things as well.

Your HUD is pretty easy to understand and will show the available livestock and helper animals in the game. If you have enough money to purchase something, it will appear on the HUD, but will otherwise be grayed out to you until you can afford it. Geese, sheep and cows are available to you, with geese costing $100 each, sheep costing $1000 and cows costing an incredible $10,000. But the foodstuffs they produce rake in according cash, so that one cow will bring in milk that fetches $1000 at the market. A dog or cat is also available for purchase for $2500 each and they are your helper animals. The cats will meander around your field picking up foodstuffs and products which will automatically be placed into your storehouse. This can be a huge help if you are focused on doing other things because it sucks to lose out on a high-dollar product simply because you picked up a $10 egg instead. The dog can be purchased to guard your livestock against the bear, and while I played a few levels that already had a dog in them, I never really took the chance with not caging the bear for fear the dog would screw up. There were times when the cat missed items, so I decided not to risk it with the dog.

Each processing plant can be upgraded a number of times if you have the right amount of cash and you'll know you can upgrade by the tiny little hammer that appears... right under where you collect your product. Many more times than I'd like to admit, I accidentally upgraded a processing plant instead of collecting the product. Again, the cat doesn't make this error, so here's another place he comes in handy. While upgrading is not a bad thing, if you were stockpiling your money for purchasing a different available processing plant or even some high end livestock, when you make an unintended upgrade and your bank drops by say $600, it stinks. Especially if one of your goals was monetary and you were close to getting it, because then you have to start over. On the upside regarding goals, if your goal is to obtain 5 geese and you get 5 geese only to have them all die of thirst, once you've met that goal and received the all-important check by the goal, you're good. On the other hand, if you have 4 geese and your goal was 5 geese and the 4 all die, you do have to start over from scratch again.

Overall, Farmtopia is a fun jaunt if you like time management/sims that have a strong puzzle element to them. It's far from perfect, but I have beaten the game and find myself trying to get a Gold Medal on all levels, so they are obviously doing something right. While it did bother me every time I'd see the word dairy spelled as diary (which happened every level that required the Dairy processing plant), aside from the few flubs, I really enjoyed my time with Farmtopia and it's not over yet.