If you have tyke age six and untried in your theater who love the big equipment find on farm , you might want to bring out them to Welcome To Merriweather Farm . It ’s a magical game that lets child play with combines , plow and other gear on a pretend farm .
It ’s one of two Bold Games titles that uses characters and stories watch in Parachute Publishing ’s book of the same name — featuring licensing from the famous agrarian motorcar maker John Deere . We review the other , busybodied Days In Deer Valley ( ) , back in December .
There ’s always a lot of piece of work to do on Merriweather Farm , whether it ’s harvesting crops , plowing fields to get them quick for plant , pull in apple for the harvest , and more . To that end , Johnny Tractor ( J.T. to his Friend , Corey Combine and Allie Gator — identify after John Deere ’s line of all - purpose vehicle — assist the farmer with his job . There ’s also a pesky raccoon who hold back getting in the way .
Welcome to Merriweather Farm contain six individual interactive games : You come out out by exploring the farm — a page of instance scene complete with the three vehicle you ’ll get to know , the farmer , and lots of poppycock to do — stack tires near the garage , for example , or shoo away away the chickens in the drive . It ’s full of clickables that offer some nice surprises and animations for adventurous player .
Johnny Tractor has to harvest apples , and you have to help him . You place your pail underneath the branches of the Malus pumila tree diagram and see as apples loosen up and gently fall to solid ground . Be measured to snap up them before they strike the ground , or the ever - thirsty racoon will claim it as his own .
you may also help Corey Combine with the Zea mays harvest ; J.T. is ready to help by cart consignment of corn to a nearby metric grain lift . You operate JT as Corey busily hold out up and down the corking rows of corn .
We find Allie Gator in a corn maze , where she has to locate garden tools that she ’s circumstantially left in the field of battle . control are simple — kids just point and fall into place where they want Allie to go , and she ’ll test to find her way there .
you’re able to help Allie round down up the chickens , too — keep in disjoined pens , they keep getting tormented by that pesky raccoon , who seems determined to let them loose by opening up their pen and letting them escape . Using a Calluna vulgaris you shoo away the chickens back home , being careful not to countenance any get away .
My six yr old son James keep returning to one activity in which you help J.T. plow the field for planting . A rush biz of variety , this is an overhead scrolling secret plan in which you have to guide clear-cut of obstructor like big sway and garden equipment while keeping J.T. gassed up by collecting containers of fuel .
A precious soundtrack and gobs of cheery sound effects complement the secret plan ’s cartoonish look and feel . Some of the sound effects fetch a bit grating after a while , but you’re able to control their volume in the game ’s options .
I found myself wanting a Windowed modality ( many games these day offer that capableness ) so the LCD screen I play it on would n’t scale up so much . That ’s not a feature , however .
The game is rated EC for Early Childhood by the ESRB .
This game is not a Universal Binary , but I was capable to run it on an Intel Mac without any adverse effects .
The bottom line
Welcome to Merriweather Farm is a sport adventure for kids six and under . There ’s no acquisition here , just good fourth dimension down on the farm — but sometimes playfulness is enough .
