I’m loath to admit it, but Pet Town has sucked me in to its animal-filled world. This isn’t the first Booyah-developed game I’ve played, but it’s definitely my favorite of the lot thus far.
In the universal app for iDevices, players control the menagerie of critters that inhabit Pet Town. Each pet has hopes and dreams, such as owning or upgrading a home, running a business, seeing the world, and getting their soul mate to Pet Town, too (doesn’t that sound like your life?). To get their dreams moving, you’ll spend coins. You can drop carrots to speed up the work if you’re in a hurry to get moving, but carrots are harder to come by (unless you want to spend $1.99 to $99.99). For completing dreams, you’ll earn happiness points that can help you level up more quickly as well as unlock additional characters, decorations and buildings.
I like Pet Town because I didn’t feel chained to the app. When you send a pet on a trip, for instance, it can take several real-time hours. A clock will tick down in the background so you don’t need to constantly check in to see that, yes, Gums McGhee, the friendliest horse in the world, is still traveling to Scotland. Every so often, one of your businesses will pop up cash for collection, but this will still be there even if you’ve been away from Pet Town for several hours. At times, the pets will give you the opportunity to make them happier by sending them to visit one your animal homes or the nearby fire hydrant (yes, for real), and if you’re successful you’ll earn bonus coins.
Of course, I wish there was no monetary aspect to Pet Town, but unlike other virtual worlds, you’ll be able to get quite far in Pet Town without spending a cent of real money. Pet Town is silly, a bit stupid and suitable for all ages. It’s a good jumping-off point if you’ve never tried a community-based game, and it’s certainly cuter than FarmVille.
