The Jolly Gamesman and His Many Toys
We Rule for the iPhone & iPod Touch
The newest Farmville clone to hit the App Store, We Rule takes the idea of tending to a farm and expands it to an entire kingdom.
The wonderful thing We Rule does to separate itself from the flock of Farmville knockoffs is it limits the amount of land you can plow for farming, and as such, encourages the player to invest in other industries in your kingdom. Limiting the farming aspect encourages you to construct buildings, ranging from cottages for your inhabitants to live in and collect taxes from, tailor shops to create dresses for the ball, dragon lairs and griffin nests. As you develop your kingdom, you gain experience points that will increase your level and unlock different buildings and decorations.
Using ngmoco:-)‘s Plus+ network, players around the world can connect with friends or strangers and put their kingdoms services up for use. You are limited to using one service per neighboring kingdom, but your friends list can be very large so as to gain experience points and coins at an accelerated rate. No two kingdoms are the same, so aside from industrial buildings, there are many other structures at your disposal to make your kingdom one of a kind.
To speed up the time it takes for plants to grow or structures to produce, We Rule enlists something called Mojo. Mojo is earned by leveling up, or can be purchased with real world money via the in-game store. Being a free app, this is where ngmoco:-) makes their money, along with the unobtrusive banner ads.
For those looking for combat, don’t be fooled by the knight with sword and armor in the title screen, as We Rule does not currently feature any kingdom vs kingdom combat. Since it is a persistent connected world, ngmoco:-) could very well add this as an option in a future update.
Last week I tried my hand at Farmville, and I was unimpressed. I was not a fan of having to log into Facebook every time I wanted to do any activity on my farm, and the fact that I needed to be in front of a computer to do so. We Rule has liberated the user from the confines of a desk and monitor. With the addition of push notifications when a requested task is completed, it has transformed the experience into a much more relaxed and enjoyable distraction. While there is currently no combat or conquest in We Rule, the low maintenance entertainment will keep players coming back for more.
~The Fine Print~
This app is gloriously free
