Nico is a cat who has moved out to a remote island to start a new peaceful country life.  Help Nico plant crops and harvest them, as well as ship goods, gather materials, and craft them into new things in this simplistic retro pixel farming sim.  Sprout Valley is available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

Like most farming sims, the game runs on an in-game clock and you must do what you need to do in the short amount of time each day before it turns to night and you must sleep to replenish your energy and save the game.  During the day you can use tools via a ring menu (like Animal Crossing) to till the soil, fish, mine rocks, chop wood, water plants, and more.  Harvested and mined goods can be sent via your mailbox where you’ll get money for them at the end of the day.  Everything you do costs energy, but you should still have enough by the end of the day to do most of what you need to do.  Later on you’ll be able to use the things you’ve gathered to craft new things, too.  You can also choose to go to a randomly generated island to gather more materials, too.  But you’ll need to buy travel supplies to do that.  Other things you can buy via the book at your desk include seeds and other materials.

And that’s pretty much the game.  It’s about as bare-boned of a farming sim as you can get.  No other people to interact with besides the penguin who sends you letters.  I think most people may find this game too simplistic.  I also think the days don’t last long enough and they don’t explain some gameplay aspects as well as I’d like.  But most of it is pretty easy to figure out.  If you want a farming sim without all the extra fluff, then you might want to check this one out.

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent or objectionable here.  Reading skill is a must as everything is text based, though.  Sprout Valley is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews