Genre: Plant Growing Simulation
Developer/Publisher: Snappy Touch
Price: $2.99
Verdict: Buy It!
Pros: Impressive presentation, surprisingly addicting
Cons: Obsession over making sure your flowers don’t wilt may drive you crazy.

I’m a man. I love sports. I love explosions. I watched the new Crank movie and thought it was perhaps the greatest thing ever. I love games with guns and explosions. And yet somehow, a game about growing flowers has tugged at my heartstrings. Flower Garden, you have unlocked the key to my heart.

Intense flower watering action!!!

Flower Garden is a fairly open-ended game – the only ‘goal’ is to grow flowers. You have 12 pots within which to grow them, and a variety of seeds to pick from (and you unlock new ones as you successfully grow flowers). You water your flowers, making sure to keep them watered, and not over-watering them, as otherwise they’ll wilt. Watering them is easy, as you have a bar that shows you the current water level, and the watering range that you need to keep your flowers at. Different flowers require different watering techniques, but this game will make you constantly check in on your flowers to keep them healthy and growing like an obsession. That’s what this game quickly became – an obsession. I had to keep checking in and seeing just how my flowers were doing, and I often felt bad if I let one of my flowers get underwatered. This game really brings out the sentimentality and dare I say feminine side in me? It was surprisingly fun, far more fun than I could have anticipated a ‘game’ about growing flowers to ever be.

Yes it is. And good luck getting that awesome flower in the center if you don't keep reading.

What’s also impressive about the game is the presentation – your flowers are rendered in 3D, and will sway left and right if you tilt your device, and you get to watch them grow as you water them. There are over 20 types of flowers to unlock, plus some secret ones that you can get by putting in a code by tapping the lock on the bottom of the Seeds page (how do you get these codes? I’d suggest that you keep reading!), and the developer has promised that a future update will include cross-pollination to create your own hybrid breed of flowers. You can also send your flowers as part of a virtual bouquet that you can email to anyone. (I wouldn’t recommend them as a replacement for sending real flowers if it comes down to it. Just a thought.) I frequently emailed flowers to myself because I just felt bad about just ‘throwing away’ my virtual flowers I grew. I’m apparently just sentimental like that, and this game only helps to bring those feelings out. These lady feelings are confusing me!

Flower Garden was a surprisingly enjoyable experience, and is just an incredibly impressive package. Growing flowers may not sound like your cup of tea, but it’s hard to not recommend such an incredibly well-done game for the iPhone. If you have even the slightest tinge of interest in this, it’s well worth the $2.99 price, hands down. Buy it.

EXCLUSIVE: Remember how I mentioned that there are secret codes that you could put in to unlock new flower seeds? Well, you can unlock an exclusive Portable Gamer flower, the TuliP Gameora! Just tap the Lock icon on the bottom of the Seeds tab, and type in the password theportablegamer, and you get to unlock the truly awesome TuliP Gameora! Clearly, it’s the most awesome flower ever, and my state’s home flower is the awesome bluebonnet. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to awesome flowers.