Giveaway of the Day - Bloom

Introduction:

Quote:

Roses are red, violets are blue, water the plants and make everything bloom! Miraculous flowers are a real beauty but they need your care. Connect the pipes to provide water to your flowers and plants and watch them grow! There are many tools and bonus items to assist you. Earn money to buy landscape upgrades to decorate your home, lawn and surroundings! Share your love with the flowers and Bloom will definitely grow on you!

Ref: http://www.reflexive.com/Bloom.html accessed 5th June 08

You can also read some player reviews via the link above.

The Game:

There are loads of these type of games around. I’ve listed those that I have in my games library below (apart from Candy Train); all of which have the same basic game play. Though personally I like this one partly because of its colorful levels as well as the editor that comes packaged with the game. Each level comprises of a series of pipes which can be turned and connected together in different patterns. The aim is to get as much of the piping connected to the water supply as possible so that more flowers can be watered and grown. The water is limited so look out for the water bonuses which can be used to fill the water barrel. There are loads of tools and power ups such as slow time, different types of tube to extend the network you already have in the level, more water, faster flower growth plus more. Whenever a new power up or tool is introduced you’ll get a small tutorial window popping up telling you what the power up or tool does. You also get descriptions of loads of flowers which pop up at the start of most levels. That includes unusual facts about the flower. At the end of each level if you’ve earned enough money (there’s also power ups that increase your earning power, you can purchase specific items or upgrades for your house. There are 60 levels in total with the potential to make loads more with the editor that’s provided.

The game is fully mouse controlled and is automatically saved when you close the game down. You can set up multiple accounts if you wish which means this is an ideal family game.

There are several music tracks, but they are all variants of the same tune. You can replace these with your own music, but as I’ve said before, you will need to convert them to the ogg format, and then rename the tracks to the same name as the music tracks found within the games data folder inside the ‘Mus’ folder. If you haven’t got an audio converter, you can get a reasonable one from the freeware library:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2008/04/28/daniusoft-mp3-wav-converter/

or

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2007/07/30/free-mp3-wma-wav-converter/

I’ve only recently changed my media player from windows media player to Win Amp and was surprised to discover that it played ogg files.. You can download Win Amp from the freeware library as well: (I’ve upgraded it to the pro edition and added the DFX enhancer, which really boosts the quality of the sound output from my speakers).

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/

The game comes with an Editor, which is only accessible (unless you create a shortcut) from the installed games folder. There are no instructions on how to use the editor, but with trial and error, if you’re persistent, you should be able to figure it out.

The options menu enables you to adjust the sound and music as well as to toggle on or off windowed mode and all the in game hints.

Images:

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Bloom/?start=all

As a slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Bloom/?albumview=slideshow

System Requirements:
Operating System……………Windows ME/2000/XP/VISTA
CPU…………………………600MHz or faster Processor
System Memory……………..128 MB RAM

Conclusion:

This is not the most exciting of games that I’ve played, but I did enjoy the 17 or so levels that I managed to play before the hour long trial ended. The first fifteen levels were relatively easy, but then they became more difficult and I found I was constantly running out of water frequently and therefore lost; so had to think of strategies to complete the level.

It’s well worth downloading and trying in my opinion. It’s a simple game to play, but has loads of permutations to complete each level. I think it’s worth 7 out of 10. Don’t be misguided into thinking that this game is too simple as some of the later levels become quite complex.

Thank you White Elephant Games and the game giveaway for a new game

Similar Games:

As you can see from the list below, there’s quite a few games available from this genre, though I doubt any are as colorful as today’s giveaway. There are a few others that are on the tip of my tongue such as one that involves lighting fireworks and another one on the theme of electric wires similar to Electric (see below), but I can’t remember their names

Rocket Mania:

http://www.reflexive.com/RocketManiaDeluxe.html

Twisty Tracks:

http://www.reflexive.com/TwistyTracks.html

Candy Train:

http://www.astraware.com/all/default/candytrain

Electric:

http://www.reflexive.com/Electric.html

Aha!

http://www.aha.com.ua/AhaDownloads/ahadwnld.html

Fiber Twig:

http://www.reflexive.com/FiberTwig.html

Fiber Twig II:

http://www.reflexive.com/FiberTwig2.html?related=1

I like the strategies involved in playing this game to make sure that your plants are being watered - it’s certainly not as easy as I originally thought it was! A definite thumbs up from me - thanks GAOTD!