CGRundertow SHREK'S FAIRYTALE KINGDOM for iPhone Video Game Review

I don’t know, maybe it’s because I don’t play many games like this. I’ve never been
to Farmville and don’t plan on visiting anytime soon, so it’s fair to say I could
be off-base here, but this seems pretty ridiculous to me. I mean, ten dollars to finish a quest?
Uh, how about no? You crazy freaking ogre.
Just released to the App Store, Shrek’s Fairytale Kingdom seems to me to exist in
a fairytale world. This is a world-building game based on the Shrek franchise, and to
be honest, it’s kind of a good one. The problem is its approach to micro-transactions.
Or I guess, more accurately, how it requires them.
The game loosely follows the Shrek story. From there, you customize worlds from Shrek’s
universe—adding to and organizing the environment—as well as pursue a bunch of little quests...the
extent of which are simple minigames and watching the character walk toward a treasure chest.
You know...quests.
Nonetheless, everything you do in this game is about unlocking new items for the environments.
So customization is the core of Shrek’s Fairytale Kingdom, but here’s what bothers
me...everything you do takes time. And I don’t mean time, like, oh...I’m going to have
to watch a little animation. I mean time...like, 45 minutes of time.
So in a literal sense, Shrek’s Fairytale Kingdom is a waiting game. Now, you can use
wishes to make these things happen instantly...but you have a limited amount. In fact, the only
way to get enough is to buy them with in-app purchases.
Otherwise, you do a lot of watching. At least the game is pretty.
I think the worst part is...you know, this could be one of those “make a move and do
something else until it’s ready” type of games. But if you do that and you don’t
come back to the game after a certain amount of time, the characters get all pissy and
you don’t get the rewards from the quest you were waiting for in the first place.
Now, to be fair, you can technically play this game without buying wishes...but in the
same way you can technically walk from California to New York. You’d much rather be on a bus,
but in Shrek’s Fairytale Kingdom, you have to buy multiple tickets to ride.
And they cost an arm and a freaking gingerbread leg.