Hay Day review

If you take Tiny Tower to the country, you will get the Hay Day iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad app. You fix up a farm, cultivate crops, and create products to sell, so you can earn coins, power ups, and friends in the country side. The Hay Day iPhone app has bright graphics, a bluegrass soundtrack, and simple tools.

The Hay Day iPhone app opens with the completely unnecessary, yet charming story that you have inherited a farm from your uncle. You get a chance to fix it up by painting the barn, house, and silo. Then, you move methodically through planting and cultivating your first crop and establishing a chicken coop. As you earn points, your coins accumulate in order to build and buy equipment to convert your crops into marketable items like a bakery and a feed mill. A certain period of time must pass for items to grow and be prepared, so you can turn on notifications to let you know when your assistance is needed.

The Hay Day iPhone app has simple interface and navigation, but the gesture controls take a bit of adjustment. The tools and features are presented in helpful pop-ups that lead you through your tasks. There is a tool bar at the top of the screen to help you stay on top of your level and how close you are to completing the appropriate number of achievements to move to the next level. The farm is bright, and you can slide and zoom to move around it. When you are able to purchase and establish a bakery or other addition to your farm, you slide it to the appropriate place on your screen and drop it. The gesture controls for gathering eggs, painting buildings, baking bread, and other tasks are not quite as intuitive as creating your farm’s layout. You tap the area to activate it, but then you must touch and drag from the graphic that appears near the area. It would be more intuitive to touch, then drag from your touch.

The achievements and tasks are fun and thoughtful. You develop relationships with neighbors who buy your bread, as well as relationships with local businesses to sell your products. There is a board of sales that you can constantly fill to earn coins and power-ups. There is also a store where you can buy products, crops, animals, trees, and plants. You must complete a certain number of levels to unlock certain items.

The Hay Day iPhone app is fun, engaging, and addictive. It’s the easiest farm job available, and the download from the iTunes App Store is free.