Have you been craving for a mix between Zoo Tycoon and Farmville? Well, look no further – the Nintendo Switch has you covered. Dive into the world of My Exotic Farm 2018, a game perfectly playable with your kids (and let’s keep it at that).
Sim-Madness:
I could have reviewed this game with just the above intro. But, let’s elaborate a little bit more. My Exotic Farm 2018 is basically a simulator, combined with some RPG-ish-elements. Whoever is familiar with the old Sim-games (Sim Farm, Sim Safari, Sim Tower etc.) should feel right at home. MEF 2018 is basically a modern alliteration of those games, dunked into a basket of Farmville/Fishdom. It’s this combination that got me hooked. I was like, ‘let’s play this for half an hour and do some chores’. Well, I was two hours into the game, cat sleeping on my lap, when I realized two hours had passed..? Damn.
My Exotic Ostrich Farm?
At the beginning of the game, you get some comical intro about you being a farmer. But you are fed up with normal farm life! So, enter the world of my Exotic Farm 2018! You fly off to an unnamed African country, to your new farm. But there is a catch! All you own is an empty field, a few pennies, and a single little ostrich… You need to feed your ostrich, take care of it and improve its lifestyle. So feed the ostrich, brush it (to clean its feathers) and wait for it too lay some eggs. These eggs can then be sold to the Shopkeeper. With this money, you can buy new animals at the Farmers’ Market. And around, and around, and around it goes. The endless cycle of buying, selling, leveling and creating the best My Exotic Farm 2018 the game has ever seen!
Eggs man, it’s all in the eggs:
So, the aim of the game is to increase your money counter by selling eggs and other farms produce, so as to buy more livestock at the Farmers’ Market and purchase equipment for your farm from the Shopkeeper. Little by little as your farm builds up, you will unlock certain bonuses: a wind turbine, a totem, a guard dog, a jeep, a barbecue, etc. Nothing really special, but it’s nice that you can customize your animals. I bought a bunch of red zebra’s, white monkeys (twelve in total) and a white lion who I named Simba. The game features lots of other animals, ranging from Elephants to Gazelles, but is limited to 50 animals per farm (which kind of sucks).
Exotic Farm Quests:
To expand the life length of the game, My Exotic Farm 2018 features quests. They will give you animals, food or upgrades on completion. Since they are not that hard, I highly recommend you complete these quests as soon as you get them. It makes the game much, much easier! Like I said before, the game is clearly targeted at kids, and they should be able to play this without too much help. The controls are easy and the game reminds you when to feed and clean animals. On the other hand, you can scroll through your animals with the L & R buttons and feed them in sequences (like I did).
Conclusion:
Graphically the game is nothing special. The animals look like they came from a children’s picture book, the music is repetitive and there are some weird mistakes in the game. The biggest one I saw, was the fact that you should feed hay to the giraffes, but they only want fruit (nitpicking, I know). So, yes, My Exotic Farm 2018 is a decent game, targeted at a very specific audience. So pick it up for your kids and create a nice ‘gatorfarm!
